DECAY OF COOKERY

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 112, 8 November 1930, Page 25

DECAY OF COOKERY

ENGLISH WOMEN AND THE KITCHEN

Miss Victoria SackvilleAVest, in a Jwcent article on the defects and virJnes of. this Georgian age, mentioned the_view_of a friend of hers that the one outstanding defect, typical of all the rest, was the decay of cooking, yrites Thomas Burke in the "Sunday Jfews.' 1 It is an apt illustration, since it takes taa right into the home, which is still; ISespite ©ntward appearances, tho basis tef English life. A brief glance will ehow us that 'however many good things the home htm gained by progress it has lost a number of equally good things, and good cooking is on© of'them. Even in old-fashioned liomes the Unties that the serious housewife once took pride in are no longer observed; and ia. few homes now can one find a ;tvife who cooks-rand eookß well. Tew home's raako their own prefeerves," which'once every home made; pr their ,orvn pork pies and game pics, p,ndr'' teawns. Even "home-made takes'* dor not live up to their name. [They may be baked at home, but they .were ntade in a factory, and como to Jhe'home'as a ready-made cake mixture. Tho young married woman of to-day Who cannot'afford to keep, a cook will tfeli ,you that she cannot afford tho time ' for cooking. But she does not tell you what more useful things Sho does witli tho time she saves from cooking, nor' can you perceive how this time is better spent. Xou see her going to tennis, and to - the pictures, and to dances, and, to whatever social functions her circle offers; And perhaps serving on tho committee of some foolish society tor Something-or-Othor; but-even these strenuous and picturesquo duties do not seem so generally useful as the delightful duty of cooking. The young woman living m the Dacnelor flat also has no time for cooking. She will tell you that she has her career to think of, and anyhow she doesn t like'eboking. So if you go to supper at her place you are fed either with ready-cooked food she has brought homo with her—cooked goodness, knows how long ago—or through the tinopenor. • ■ -Even those who can afford to keep a cook are not in much happier position; for, unless you can pay a very high price indeed you can only get itopks who can't. A. friend of mine who was engaging fb eook-general received this bland reply

from an applicant ia ansivcr to a question about cooking: "Ko, mum, 1 can't cook, but I Trill.'.' , A quarter-century back you could find a good cook in every homo. Today you can visit a hundred homes before you will find one. They are so rare that when one does appear vre don't noti'co itj we have given up all hope of expecting it. Wo have got so into the habit of eating what is set before ub (or starving) that wo are no longer able to perceive the differences between the good and the abominable. Partly the restaurant habit' is responsible for this. It is so mueh less troublo to feed yourself or entertain your friends in a restaurant than to prepare a meal in your own home; and when Miss " Saekville-West's friend named-the decay of .cooking as typical of this ago'"he was putting his finger' of the main symptom of this a g e —the shirking of trouble. "Too much trouble" is a phraso that is too ten on our lips. Answering letters is' too much .trouble. Courtesy is too much trouble. Looking after children is too much tronble. Cooking is too mueh troub'le, . But tho.few women who still enjoy the delightful' craft of cooking kuow that the trouble of preparing a fine meal with their 'own' hands is amply rewarded with' the' pleasure oi their guests. Even tlic best restaurant cannot provide so satisfactory a. meal as a good cook can provide-in her own home —at one-tenth of the restaurant charges. It can provide a more elaborate meal, but never so good. First, there is the great distance between the kitehen and the table. Food is only at its best if served at the- moment wheii it is ready; and, even when you havfe ordered a dish to be specially cooked, it is often ready and lying in the kitchen lift for ton minutes while your waiter is busy; and then it has to bo carried the whole length of the restaurant: I As for the table d'hote and "dishes ready," those, you may be sure, were ready an hour and a half before you arrived; whatever flavour they may; have had has gone out of them, and cheap spicing deputises for the native j flavour. . . .„ ! Yet people continue to dine indifferently in restaurants, when they might dine splendidly at home, simply be-: cause it is "too much trouble" to! spend an hour in the kitchen.