Picky Grouchy Non-Cook
Personalities Related & Relevant to the Non-Cook
Personalities Related & Relevant to the Non-Cook
The Non-cook
sympathizer
Also known as the Non-Cook Supporter, the Non-Cook Sympathizer is the ally of the non-cook in a sometimes difficult to navigate or hostile world. The Non-Cook Sympathizer gets it. She is not judgmental. She doesn’t make a big deal out of it if you don’t know what to do with cauliflower or when to put the tin foil on the turkey, or who The Iron Chef is. On that last one and others like it, she doesn't care that you don't care. The Non- Cook Sympathizer is a paragon of understanding. Even though she does not consider her self a non, she sometimes gets sick of all that food stuff in the NYTs, too. The Non- Cook Sympathizer does not have an agenda. He does not have an easy – no, really easy – recipe you’ve just got to try. The Non-Cook Sympathizer doesn't mind that you don't have a single interesting thing to add to the conversation about food.
An important sub-category of the Non-Cook Sympathizer is the Non-Cook Enabler. This is the Non-Cook Sympathizer who takes it a step deeper by actively making it possible for the non-cook to practice her not cooking but still thrive. This person is typically a spouse, but can also be a close friend. Often, the Non-Cook Enabler is a parent, though this does bring up the question of when – age wise – a regular child becomes a non-cook. Are there indicators that a child is a future non-cook? Or are all children non-cooks until they choose a path for themselves, non-cook or cook? Guilty until proven cook? Or maybe kids are just totally off the hook on the cooking identity front until a certain age. This would be the age of majority for the non-cook. What is it? Is it 18? Is it different in different countries? Different families? Should we, as the non-cook community, be performing some kind of ritual or confirmation ceremony for young non-cooks? Probably not. After all, there is a large incidence of younger non-cooks reforming, so any kind of boxing in early on would definitely be premature. As a spouse, close friend, parent, or other, the Non-Cook Enabler makes it possible -- consistently, periodically, or even occasionally -- for the non-cook to eat. Clearly, this is done by cooking. It is my thought that the Non-Cook Enabler must be a person. It cannot, for example, be a restaurant or a food store. That is a different thing. That is non-cook purchasing power, also important, but different. Above all, the Non-Cook Sympathizer is on the non-cook’s side. Not to imply that the rest of the cooking population isn’t. There is no cook/non-cook enmity! Especially not from the non-cook point of view. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you! You know which side your bread is buttered on! Anger the cook and your goose is cooked! When we get lazy and start to categorize in broad strokes, start dividing the world into two kinds of people, cooks and non-cooks, the Non-Cook Sympathizer reminds us that there is a bridge between. Long live that bridge. Walk across it frequently for a snack. |