Tonight at my friend’s birthday event, I met a young married couple who cooks meals from scratch almost every single night except when they go out to eat. In New York, this is a complete rarity. Even I don’t cook every night — Sunday is my night to cook for the week. Occasionally I will cook things on other days, but for the most part, it’s once or twice a week, and that’s it. Their main concerns are over sanitation, and just the fact that so many things that people find so daunting and complex, like a whole roasted chicken, are actually really simple if you are just willing to give it a little time to perfect your method and just do it and stop just talking about it. I couldn’t have agreed with them more, and as they were hating on companies like Blue Apron and Plated, which are like the lazy man’s way to cook, someone came by to defend it by saying that he actually didn’t have time to measure out simple things like salt.

I hate it when people say they don’t have time. We all have time. Most of us are busy with one thing or another. But we all make time for what’s important to us. Perhaps cooking and health are not important to him, but I personally think that everyone should know how to cook basic foods just as a method to survive and not get ripped off by restaurants… and to not always eat food that you don’t even know the ingredients of.