According to an article this week, despite the growing popularity of TV cooking shows, gourmet restaurants and recipe magazines, Americans basically are clueless when it comes to actually cooking in their own kitchens. Some of the simplest cooking terms, like sear, simmer and cream, are banned from some recipes because no one knows what it means.

The article makes it sound like that for a new generation of cooks, the wedding gifts of All-Clad skillets and Kitchen-Aid mixers are sitting on the counter collecting dust while we all heat up a frozen dinner.

But I don't think that is the case. Don't believe the doom and gloom of lost American values. By making cooking a hobby, instead of a chore, good food has been elevated.

There has always been bad cooks. At the turn of the last century, if a woman couldn't cook, the family ate bad food. I have a 1940s edition of "Joy of Cooking." There are lots of bad recipes in there that I'm guessing none of us would eat today. Aspic salad is just a precursor to today's frozen bagel dog.

To prepare women for a life of cooking, many girls learned the now forgotten cooking terminology in home economics classes. Today, girls are focusing on other things. Lessons in parboiling are replaced by chemistry experiments. I'd argue that women, and the country as a whole, are better off for this. Even if we don't know what it means to dredge chicken.

But defenders of homemade pie crust still can take solace. A new generation of American cooks is elevating home cooking to levels never seen before. Young, professional "foodies" are learning how to pair wines with food, and taking classes in knife skills.

Today's cooks can enjoy fresh ingredients as well as a variety of exotic tastes that weren't available in America not long ago. With the prevalence of two-income families, more men are venturing into the kitchen than ever before.

Americans today might not know many basic cooking terms, but women today are better educated and are eating better than we ever have before. And unlike my grandmother, when I burn my arm on the waffle iron, I know not to rub butter on it.

– Jennifer Martikean is the south bureau editor for the Northwest Herald. She can be reached at (847) 854-2876 or via e-mail at jmartikean@nwherald.com.

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