Non-Cook of the month
August, 2011
An Interview With Non-Cook of the Month
Rebekkah Linton Gillett
Rebekkah Linton Gillett
Rebekkah took the time to answer Picky Grouchy Non-Cook questions via email.
PICKY GROUCHY NON-COOK: You are an American non-cook currently living in Scotland. Can you describe your perspective as an International Non-Cook?
Rebekkah Linton Gillett: My perspective as a non-cook, living in the land of deep-fried everything (no, I haven’t tried a battered Mars Bar yet, but I have had black pudding and haggis) is that of someone who has been forced to learn to make certain things from relative scratch so as to soothe my homesickness. Missing New York Chinese takeout, for example, made me buy a wok, and I have gotten kind of OK at stir-frying things with fresh ginger. Food is comfort. Making it is not, but that is part of the territory of being an expat. You adapt.
PGN-C: Could you name three feelings, characteristics, or behaviors that mark you as a non-cook?
Rebekkah Linton Gillett: Insecure, hypercritical, and controlling. I characterize myself as “can cook but dislikes to” because I am very insecure about my cooking. I hate cooking for other people, I get tied up in knots worrying about it. Timing is everything with cooking, there are no guarantees, and when people are waiting on my food, I get resentful. I don’t understand this fascination with dinner parties. I mean, I do, of course, they’re for sharing with and nurturing the people you care about. I wish I was able to relax and enjoy being the host, but I just don’t, I’m too self-critical. Strangely, or maybe not, I usually enjoy baking. Perhaps it feels as though there is less pressure to it, because I tend to attempt it only when I’m in the mood, as a treat. It’s not the drag that assembling dinner is, a total thankless task—not in the sense that my partner doesn’t appreciate it, but in that Sisyphean aspect of never-ending, daily, dirty-dish-creating drudgery. However, baking here comes with its own set of stresses—for instance butter is not sold as pre-measured sticks, but in oddly shaped bricks weighted in grams! Extra math when you just really don’t need that.
PGN-C: Are your friends and family aware of your status as a non-cook?
Rebekkah Linton Gillett: My husband Robin is actually really nice about my cooking and is quite happy to eat whatever is put in front of him, though he hates my food freakouts. And I think I’ve fooled a lot of people with my ability to present them with blueberry muffins. Otherwise, I think people assume that since you technically can cook there isn’t an issue. But if they only knew my anxiety!
PGN-C: Would you say you feel more proud or more embarrassed about being a non-cook?
Rebekkah Linton Gillett: Embarrassed, unfortunately. I feel like I shouldn’t be so self-conscious at this point in my life. But, I’m proud to be in great company!
Rebekkah Linton Gillett: My perspective as a non-cook, living in the land of deep-fried everything (no, I haven’t tried a battered Mars Bar yet, but I have had black pudding and haggis) is that of someone who has been forced to learn to make certain things from relative scratch so as to soothe my homesickness. Missing New York Chinese takeout, for example, made me buy a wok, and I have gotten kind of OK at stir-frying things with fresh ginger. Food is comfort. Making it is not, but that is part of the territory of being an expat. You adapt.
PGN-C: Could you name three feelings, characteristics, or behaviors that mark you as a non-cook?
Rebekkah Linton Gillett: Insecure, hypercritical, and controlling. I characterize myself as “can cook but dislikes to” because I am very insecure about my cooking. I hate cooking for other people, I get tied up in knots worrying about it. Timing is everything with cooking, there are no guarantees, and when people are waiting on my food, I get resentful. I don’t understand this fascination with dinner parties. I mean, I do, of course, they’re for sharing with and nurturing the people you care about. I wish I was able to relax and enjoy being the host, but I just don’t, I’m too self-critical. Strangely, or maybe not, I usually enjoy baking. Perhaps it feels as though there is less pressure to it, because I tend to attempt it only when I’m in the mood, as a treat. It’s not the drag that assembling dinner is, a total thankless task—not in the sense that my partner doesn’t appreciate it, but in that Sisyphean aspect of never-ending, daily, dirty-dish-creating drudgery. However, baking here comes with its own set of stresses—for instance butter is not sold as pre-measured sticks, but in oddly shaped bricks weighted in grams! Extra math when you just really don’t need that.
PGN-C: Are your friends and family aware of your status as a non-cook?
Rebekkah Linton Gillett: My husband Robin is actually really nice about my cooking and is quite happy to eat whatever is put in front of him, though he hates my food freakouts. And I think I’ve fooled a lot of people with my ability to present them with blueberry muffins. Otherwise, I think people assume that since you technically can cook there isn’t an issue. But if they only knew my anxiety!
PGN-C: Would you say you feel more proud or more embarrassed about being a non-cook?
Rebekkah Linton Gillett: Embarrassed, unfortunately. I feel like I shouldn’t be so self-conscious at this point in my life. But, I’m proud to be in great company!
"Here in the UK, foodie-ism is a relatively new fad, but it's really hard to take British foodies
seriously, coming as I do from the land of Dean&Deluca and Barefoot Contessa-ization;
here, it's like they just discovered that all foods don't have to be boiled for an hour till
everything's a gray mush, and they think they discovered the wheel.
The snobbishness, the reverence, the class warfare of it all; oh please.
It's a fucking piece of cheddar."
(Rebekkah Linton Gillett, from an email exchange with PGN-C)
seriously, coming as I do from the land of Dean&Deluca and Barefoot Contessa-ization;
here, it's like they just discovered that all foods don't have to be boiled for an hour till
everything's a gray mush, and they think they discovered the wheel.
The snobbishness, the reverence, the class warfare of it all; oh please.
It's a fucking piece of cheddar."
(Rebekkah Linton Gillett, from an email exchange with PGN-C)