Next week, the Food Network will release its new video game, "Cook or Be Cooked." And I can't help but chuckle.
Moving a Wii remote to simulate flipping pancakes seems absurd. Why not just make real pancakes and bacon? The house would smell great -- and you get to eat at the end.
The game reminds me of Michael Pollan, who compared the decline of home cooking with the rise of food television in The New York Times Magazine. He wrote:
"Today the average American spends a mere 27 minutes a day on food preparation (another four minutes cleaning up); that's less than half the time ... it takes to watch a single episode of "Top Chef" or "Chopped" or "The Next Food Network Star." What this suggests is that a great many Americans are spending considerably more time watching images of cooking on television than they are cooking themselves -- an increasingly archaic activity they will tell you they no longer have the time for."
What do you think? Will "Cook or Be Cooked" be one more reason for us to stay on the couch? Or will it prompt us to get back in the kitchen?
My take: It'll be a shame if we don't end up in front of a real stove.
That's because the game offers good tips with its 30 recipes. To underscore this point, acclaimed chef Michael Symon cooked a recipe as someone else demoed it on the game. According to Wired magazine, the steps matched closely.
I'm curious enough to play it, but not to buy it. I'd rather make my mistakes and enjoy my triumphs in a real kitchen with real judges -- otherwise known as family.
[photo source: buzzfocus.com]
Unless this thing proves a fully valid recipe training device, I don't see the point. I would love a Wii version of Personal Trainer Cooking, but otherwise go to zippee, work out a deal for a set of tools, and pull a "Julie and Julia."
Man this says so much about pop culture.
Ridiculous that anyone would want to pretend to cook on a video game in 2009.
You can do ANYTHING in a videogame today but the Wii puts out a game about pretend cooking? ridiculous.
Lame, uninspired, gimmicky bullcrap.
Great post, Joan. We surely live in a world of simulation and not reality. Instead of interacting with real people in person, we text them. Wow, now that's advancement--all the way back to the telegraph. Sex? We go cybersex, explicit movies,and romance novels. Marriage and family? Who has time with all the sports the kids are involved in not to mention their volunteer work in the library on Saturday and the youth group Sunday night. Back yard picnic? Yes, I'm old enough to remember when there was only one fast food joint in my hometown and the soda fountain at Woolworth's. On Saturday, Pop would light up the charcoal and we'd have a backyard picnic on the old picnic table. Mom would throw on the checkered vinyl tablecloth and we'd enjoy cole slaw, baked-beans, hamburgers and Kool-aid or sweet tea. Then we'd play catch, or some of the kids might play cards, and Mom and Pop would dance in the living room while they listened to Lawrence Welk. I was Grandma's boy and she and I would sit on the porch under the fan, talking about her childhood as a hillbilly in Arkansas, of spells and potions and "yarbs" (herbs) that could cure you without a doctor. On special nights we'd end up hand-cranking some peach and vanilla ice cream or Grandma would serve up peach cobbler as the little kids chased fire flies. Then it was bath time and be sure to scrub behind your ears.
If there is any comfort in this emerging economic disaster, it may be that families will start spending time together and trips to the local park and zoo will replace Disneyland and Las Vegas. And families will be families, again. I miss you, Grandma. Won't be long before we meet again!