America's Culinary Literacy Earns a Failing Grade

The reign of white-cloth dining is over. Today's most applauded culinary trends begin with a new, younger generation of chefs who ditch stuffy formality and conventional dishes in favor of stunning ingredients sourced locally and seasonally. Chefs like David Chang and Christina Tosi of New York City's Momofuku empire, Tim Hollingsworth of San Francisco's French Laundry, Sue Zemanick of New Orlean's Gautreau's, and others "revere ingredients but aren’t afraid to alchemize them through refined technique," writes San Francisco magazine this month. "Instead of chasing trends, they follow their own interests, leaving us to wonder where they’ll take us next.

But while chefs are embracing sustainability in food preparation, the same scenario isn't playing out amongst the general public. An enormous chasm continues to widen between chefs and a growing population of Americans who have no idea how to turn on a stove, let alone prepare pork belly with fennel. Once green-minded nonprofits and farmers have thrust fresh, sustainable produce into our hands, then what? Most people have no idea what to do with tomato, kale, and quinoa. America's culinary literacy is reading at a kindergarten level.

For a variety of reasons, Americans avoid cooking. We spend less than an hour a day preparing food and we eat 31 percent more packaged food than fresh foods. The average household spent $2,700 for food away from home in 2008, or about half its food budget, according to the National Restaurant Association. About 40 percent of adults say eating out makes their lives more productive. For the first time in 25 years, Americans have eaten at restaurants less this year than the same time last year, thanks to the tanked economy— but only three percent less, according to the NPD research group.

We avoid cooking in favor of restaurants and packaged foods; we spend more on packaging, convenience, and service than the food itself; and now cooking overwhelms and intimidates us. With some basic skills and practice, however, anyone could cook tasty, quick, relatively cheap meals (really). We'd be healthier and happier to boot. Home-cooked food — especially those prepared with fresh vegetables, whole grains, and sustainably raised meats — contain far less salt, sugar, fat, and chemicals than their restaurant- and packaged-food brethren. Our reliance on the latter, nutritionists and researchers agree, partially explains high obesity, diabetes, and heart disease rates, especially among children. Those who eat at home are more likely to avoid those diseases, to consume a wider variety of nutrients, and maintain a healthy body weight.

Some doctors have connected the dots. Alice H. Lichtenstein and David S. Ludwig, writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association this May, proposed that schools begin offering K-12 home economics cooking classes. "Many children raised on take-out food and frozen dinners have never seen their parents produce a meal from scratch; a school-based class would demystify the process," according to the Los Angeles Times.

Meanwhile, farmers' markets like NYC's Greenmarket, public school programs, community groups, and local colleges have also stepped up to teach Americans how to cook. YouTube offers hundreds of cooking videos, and most television networks include cooking demonstrations and online recipes. First Lady Michelle Obama, local food champion, recently introduced her own Web-based cooking series called Let's Cook!

It's all well and good that a new crop of innovative chefs aim to develop a taste revolution. But sustainable food means little to most people if, once it's in their hands, they lack the skills to chop, peel, bake, saute, and plate it. Cooking is the final step from farm to mouth.

Photo credit: erix! via Flickr