The Non-Cook Manifesto
Second Installment
WORKING DEFINITION OF THE TERM NON-COOK
A non-cook is a person who does not think of herself or himself as a cook.
BRIEF NOTES ON NON
It has been pointed out that being a non-something is problematic. What is the substance of the non? What is the organizing principle? Why be so negative – why not say what you are, not what you are not? If you can be a non one thing why can’t we all be non a hundred things? Or can we? Are we? Being a non is not totally clear, not totally defined.
And so it follows that it is hard to define the non-cook. Clearly we are all non-ing about something, and that thing is being a cook, but what does that mean? What does it mean to be a cook? Is it the person who prepares food with ease? With love? Without a recipe? Is it the person who follows the recipe without messing it up? Is it the person who might mess it up but figures no problem -- she’ll get it right next time? Is it the person who slaves all day – or all her life – over a hot stove? The person who nails dinner in 20 minutes? Is it the person who brings creativity and imagination to food? The one who learned to cook? The one who has a connection, more felt than learned, to cooking? Is it the person who concocts outstanding dishes? Delicious meals? Nutritious meals? Passable meals? Is it simply the person who gets the food on the table? The person who does it because someone has to?
And so another question: What is missing in the non-cook? What is it the non cook feels he or she is not?
The answer varies.
Being nons, we must walk into the negative space – the non-ness -- and see what is there – walk in and see what is present in the absence. Because although we are nons, we are not nothing. And I am willing to bet a biscuit that the interior decoration of your negative space as a non-cook has a least one small something in common with mine. There is some kernel of non-cookness in residence there, different for each of us but somehow recognizable. And it is not edible. Do not soak it overnight, then forget about it while the thing gets icky and logged in the bowl of water! Do not then try to cook the heck out of it! It is not destined to be soup, or whatever you were thinking you could make. Just let the kernel be. Put it in the odds & ends drawer, or drop it into a small dish on the counter, or let it sit on the windowsill over the sink in the kitchen with the other little things there, a reminder or a thought, or a talisman.
The Non-Cook Manifesto seeks to uncover, expound upon, and legitimize non-cook identity. Ok? So let us seriously see who we are.