I think the word “kitchen” should be used like the word “farm” with an adjective attached.

I have wonderful memories of cooking in a country French kitchen in the Beaujolais. But it’s all French food all the time (with some North African thrown in), the local agriculture combines small farms with larger industrialized farming, lots of family members around, friends to share with. I think this is the “slow life” that Americans dream about. I remember the first time I drove into a tiny bourgeois village where the Rhone and Burgundy meet, it took my breath away.

But I also remember in 1975 before South Korea was an industrialized country just how hard it was to cook. Many households didn’t have running water, some just had a pump in front or there was a neighborhood well, lighting a kitchen fire meant stoking a large piece of charcoal. There were few modern supermarkets. Families had to purchase enough rice to last them until the next harvest. This meant storage issues, as well the opportunity for lots of little bugs to grow, and so on. You could have a maid if you could spare a bowl of rice and meager portions of side dishes.

Now, South Korea is an industrialized country. And lots of women have been liberated from having servants, being a servant or living like one. Food production has been mechanized and most women buy at least several side dishes and staple sauces. Cooking now is a hobby for the middle class, who look at recipes in glossy magazines, shows have food celebrities to incorporate the latest ingredient or food fad.

Back to France, even rural France is quite varied. Some parts just aren’t as glorious as where the Rhone and Burgundy meet. I remember an old French friend from Normandy talking about his family farm and all the work it took for food to get from field to table. They didn’t just buy a pork chop, the killed the whole beast and chopped it up.

Lots of different kinds of kitchens supported or not supported by lifestyle, local economy, relative affluence of the family, etc…

A lot of this is contextual. I’ve taught cooking to poor, urban Americans who mostly ate out of boxes and cans. And had issues with obesity and misnourishment. If they learned how to compose dishes by combining fresh ingredients with processed ones, I can’t help but think they would have a healthier diet.

There’s a lot of really, really bad, cheap, processed crap. And there’s good processed stuff. I think that quite a bit of American writing about food is framed for an audience that got really tired of really bad processed stuff. The problem is that eventhough the audience is a niche one, often these things are written about in a meta sort of way.

We’re all provincial to one extent or another, I suppose.

Typical day with the kids at home (times include prep, plating, serving and clean-up, but does not factor in shopping time) :

Breakfast: 30-60 minutes.
Lunch: 45-60 minutes
Dinner: at least 60 minutes, sometimes 2-3 hours if I’m making everything from scratch or making extra for freezing.
Then, there are the snacks…

That’s a minimum of 3 hours a day, 21 hours per week. And that’s with lots of modern conveniences, in terms of technology, access to ingredients, storage, etc…

I simply cannot reproduce this kind of cooking in my home kitchen for my household. It’s too much work and my children are too small to eat enough to make it worthwhile and they also crave variety.

I’ve cooked professionally and have taught cooking classes (Asian and Mediterranean cuisines). In my experience generally, people find it relaxing and fun when they have the option of doing of cooking.

I don’t have servants at home. Every morning I wake up, prepare breakfast for the kids, pack school lunches including what’s a called a “warm up” dish for reheating at school, when they come home from school it’s snack time (prepare and clean up), then dinner time (I did various parts of the shopping throughout the week or day), then clean up, etc.. After that homework and nightly bath, laundry for cleans clothes for school, and so on. The domestic grind continues.

I live in a big, technological advanced city in a decent part of town with a range of affordable goods and services. I have access to a huge range of ingredients from lots of stores all within a 10 minute drive, some within walking distance.

I work fast, have professional experience, etc…

But it’s still work. It’s fun when I have the time to spend the day doing it, otherwise, it’s another part of life for sustenance.

I also work full time. Even if I wanted to spend a lot of time in the kitchen I just don’t have the time.

Besides working and cooking, I also like to exercise, play sports, go swimming, ride my bike…

But supposing you count in list making, shopping, stowing the shopping, making breakfast for the kids, making a packed lunch or home lunch for one or more of the family, cup cakes to send to school, sorting that potential slough the fridge, washing up, and doing ancillary things like contributing to neighborhood pot lucks or office parties, or making basics to have on hand. I like to make my own bread because bolillos don’t do for all my needs, yogurt, agua fresca, proper salsas not pico de gallo, various preserves, and my husband would die without a pie, cake, cookies or homemade ice cream constantly on hand. I’m nuts, I know, but I’m picky and I enjoy kitchen work. And others freeze garden produce or stock large freezers and so on.

Leaving aside the last set, these tasks are I would have thought were common in American or European or Australian homes. And I’ve never managed to get them down to 3-1/2 hours a week.

I’m also not sure how many raw ingredients except for veg one comes in contact with if the kitchen is primarily an assembly line for processed ingredients, but I’ve gone on long enough already.

If you have time, I’d love to hear your reply.