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I see a future where a much smaller percentage of people cook. Roughly equivalent in percentage and frequency as adults that would play a musical instrument or

I see a future where a much smaller percentage of people cook. Roughly equivalent in percentage and frequency as adults that would play a musical instrument or tend to a garden. Right now a lot of people cook meals not just because they enjoy to do so, but because having someone else cook healthy meals for you all the time is too expensive. A "Full Sprig" society can hopefully leverage specialization and economies of scale the same way that people no longer keep hens for eggs. Yes, the feel-good-local-farm(kitchen)-to-table aspect is lost, but most people don't care about that.

debaserab2 11y ago
I very much doubt that. Cooking is a part of every culture. It's more than just being about a healthy meal. For many people it defines who you are. The on-demand technophiles are not representative of the majority.
- cooper12 11y ago
  Seriously. This is coming from a forum that believes that Soylent is the way of the future.
  - hellbanner 11y ago
    A programmer told me that after 2 months on Soylent, he "Missed the feeling of eating" and returned to eating regularly. Evolution took a long time to evolve our DNA. It doesn't change easily.
    - TeMPOraL 11y ago
      I tried Joylent (a version of Soylent made in EU) for few weeks and I too "missed the feeling of eating" a little, but I recognized it as just a habit. The same kind of habit browsing HN is, with similar procrastination values.
      - hellbanner 11y ago
        One of those habits developed over millenia to ensure the survival of the species. Eating is the opposite of procrastination.
        TeMPOraL 11y ago
        Tell that to me when I'm eating to reduce stress caused by work I have to do that I can't make myself to. Like all habits developed over millenia, just because something worked back then, doesn't mean it makes sense now. We had our cost/benefit evaluation slowly tuned to the environment that rapidly (i.e. over last few thousand of years) ceased to exist. A lot of problems we have with each other can be explained in terms of executing adaptations we had from the time where survival involved hunting, and not filling out forms. Not saying that normal eating is obsolete - just that arguments from nature tend not to be too strong in general case.
        hellbanner 11y ago
        Good point. I meant eating as in consumption (soylent or not) when comparing to HN but I see what you mean.
- rquantz 11y ago
  Ah, but music is so a part of every culture. Everyone used to sing or play intruments. And the first chance they got to give that up, they bought that gramophone and stopped making music themselves. I wouldn't expect cooking (as opposed to eating) to be any more resilient than that.
- verg 11y ago
  Food can be a part of the culture without everyone being a cook. See Thailand. Street food is very cheap and owning a kitchen is expensive, so most people eat out. Obviously low labor cost is a factor in Thailand, but the opportunity cost of cooking at home in the west is high.
  - himlion 11y ago
    In Bangkok, yes. In other parts not so much.
- noir_lord 11y ago
  I can cook moderately well (it's a skill like any other and comes with practice) but I absolutely loathe doing it (with one exception: I like to cook for partners and family). The daily hassle of sourcing ingredients, cooking them, cleaning up the mess from cooking etc is an absolute chore. 95% of the time I'd be happy to be able to order a nutrious well made meal and have it delivered, here in the UK where I am your options for delivery are largely "pizza/kebabs" and "chinese/indian" and neither is particulary healthy (the salt and fat levels in a lot of the chinese takeaway dishes are insane, like 80% your RDA).
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    Hey, pizza ain't bad for you. Having said that, I agree that sourcing ingredients, cleaning up, and all the other upkeep costs turns into a big hassle. Some time ago I voiced the concern on HN and from the answers I learned that generally, like every other task, you can learn to optimize away lots of that startup/teardown costs - but it requires planning and adjusting you daily routine. Not something I have time to do now, though - changing routines takes a lot of time and effort too.
    - noir_lord 11y ago
      I just dropped 50lbs in 4 months by eating porridge, salad and cottage cheese and salad and baked fish, no sugar and few carbs. Pizza was my kryptonite, after a few weeks I stopped craving everything else but Pizza :).
jakejake 11y ago
Certainly people cook less these days but if you get out of the young, hip, affluent areas of town to where the majority of people actually live - it doesn't seem very likely that home cooking is going anywhere.
tetheno 11y ago
I cook all my meals. I spend an average of 3.4 hours per week in both cooking and washing the dishes. I order all my groceries to an online supermarket. I could save 3.4 hours by spending 300-400$ more and losing control over what I eat and how it was done. No thanks. Cooking is not going anywhere. I simply cannot understand why common people with a kitchen would not cook. It just takes some planning and cooking enough food that it last 2-3 days.

debaserab2 11y ago

I very much doubt that. Cooking is a part of every culture. It's more than just being about a healthy meal. For many people it defines who you are. The on-demand technophiles are not representative of the majority.

cooper12 11y ago
Seriously. This is coming from a forum that believes that Soylent is the way of the future.
- hellbanner 11y ago
  A programmer told me that after 2 months on Soylent, he "Missed the feeling of eating" and returned to eating regularly. Evolution took a long time to evolve our DNA. It doesn't change easily.
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    I tried Joylent (a version of Soylent made in EU) for few weeks and I too "missed the feeling of eating" a little, but I recognized it as just a habit. The same kind of habit browsing HN is, with similar procrastination values.
    - hellbanner 11y ago
      One of those habits developed over millenia to ensure the survival of the species. Eating is the opposite of procrastination.
      - TeMPOraL 11y ago
        Tell that to me when I'm eating to reduce stress caused by work I have to do that I can't make myself to. Like all habits developed over millenia, just because something worked back then, doesn't mean it makes sense now. We had our cost/benefit evaluation slowly tuned to the environment that rapidly (i.e. over last few thousand of years) ceased to exist. A lot of problems we have with each other can be explained in terms of executing adaptations we had from the time where survival involved hunting, and not filling out forms. Not saying that normal eating is obsolete - just that arguments from nature tend not to be too strong in general case.
        hellbanner 11y ago
        Good point. I meant eating as in consumption (soylent or not) when comparing to HN but I see what you mean.
rquantz 11y ago
Ah, but music is so a part of every culture. Everyone used to sing or play intruments. And the first chance they got to give that up, they bought that gramophone and stopped making music themselves. I wouldn't expect cooking (as opposed to eating) to be any more resilient than that.
verg 11y ago
Food can be a part of the culture without everyone being a cook. See Thailand. Street food is very cheap and owning a kitchen is expensive, so most people eat out. Obviously low labor cost is a factor in Thailand, but the opportunity cost of cooking at home in the west is high.
- himlion 11y ago
  In Bangkok, yes. In other parts not so much.
noir_lord 11y ago
I can cook moderately well (it's a skill like any other and comes with practice) but I absolutely loathe doing it (with one exception: I like to cook for partners and family). The daily hassle of sourcing ingredients, cooking them, cleaning up the mess from cooking etc is an absolute chore. 95% of the time I'd be happy to be able to order a nutrious well made meal and have it delivered, here in the UK where I am your options for delivery are largely "pizza/kebabs" and "chinese/indian" and neither is particulary healthy (the salt and fat levels in a lot of the chinese takeaway dishes are insane, like 80% your RDA).
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  Hey, pizza ain't bad for you. Having said that, I agree that sourcing ingredients, cleaning up, and all the other upkeep costs turns into a big hassle. Some time ago I voiced the concern on HN and from the answers I learned that generally, like every other task, you can learn to optimize away lots of that startup/teardown costs - but it requires planning and adjusting you daily routine. Not something I have time to do now, though - changing routines takes a lot of time and effort too.
  - noir_lord 11y ago
    I just dropped 50lbs in 4 months by eating porridge, salad and cottage cheese and salad and baked fish, no sugar and few carbs. Pizza was my kryptonite, after a few weeks I stopped craving everything else but Pizza :).

jakejake 11y ago

Certainly people cook less these days but if you get out of the young, hip, affluent areas of town to where the majority of people actually live - it doesn't seem very likely that home cooking is going anywhere.

tetheno 11y ago

I cook all my meals. I spend an average of 3.4 hours per week in both cooking and washing the dishes. I order all my groceries to an online supermarket. I could save 3.4 hours by spending 300-400$ more and losing control over what I eat and how it was done. No thanks. Cooking is not going anywhere. I simply cannot understand why common people with a kitchen would not cook. It just takes some planning and cooking enough food that it last 2-3 days.