In Search Of Kitchen Perfection -Or- Save Your Soul And Settle For Just Plain Good

     Page Sixty.
     There's a movement going on right now that I have a little problem with. There are certain cookbooks and cooking magazines which teach how to make "perfect" versions of things. I really disagree with that concept. This morning, I was leafing through one of those magazines which teach how to make the "best version possible" of a variety of foods. I found myself feeling sorry for inexperienced people who might try making some of those items. The pressure they must put on themselves while searching for kitchen perfection is unfortunate and sorrowful.
     As someone who's quite at home in the kitchen, I can look at certain cookbooks and say to myself something like, "I don't need to stress out trying to get a perfect burger". A decent burger with an order of ease, comfort and relaxation on the side is just fine by me. But a lot of novices can't do that. They see these recipes and assume that the perfect burger is the only one worth eating. And, if the process causes a three day migraine, well, so be it. If moderate or advanced cooks want to improve their skills, that's one thing, but for beginners, these cookbooks are simply misguided.
     I have a friend who's in his sixties and a man of the cloth. He's a wonderful person who doesn't cook. I mean, he really doesn't cook. I believe he probably owns a spatula and perhaps uses it to flip eggs in the morning. But I think it's equally possible that he goes out to eat every morning, noon and night and indeed hasn't ever flipped an egg in his life. While at his home for a party a while back, I noticed a set of cookbooks on a kitchen shelf. I'd never noticed a cookbook in his place before, so I went over to investigate. I found an unwrapped set of Julia Child's French cookbooks. I was shocked. I didn't ask him about them. I just immediately figured that some well-meaning friend or congregant assumed he would like to learn to cook, so what better place to start than Julia. Like I said, they were still in plastic, up on that shelf. Perhaps he even told somebody that he'd like to learn to cook and received those in response. I recognize that I'm jumping to conclusions here, but if you knew this fellow, you wouldn't question, for a second, the incongruity of him owning a Julia Child set. Nobody but nobody is more intimidating than Julia. Fantastic as she is, she's hardly for beginners. (And somebody spent a lot of money for those books, too.) 
     Therein lies the problem, beginners don't know what a beginner cookbook is and what and advanced cookbook is. Giving my minister friend Julia is akin to giving her to an 8 year old. The same goes for cookbooks which teach "perfection". Who are they really for? They're certainly not for the average skill cook who has to feed his or her spouse and three kids and then rush the kids off to soccer. But the magazines sure don't say that.
     Effective beginner cookbooks are Joy of Cooking or the Fannie Farmer Cookbook. (I consult Fannie more than Joy.) Concerning my minister friend, if he ever told me he wanted a cookbook, you know what I'd do? I'd consider a children's cookbook. I'd probably talk with him about it first though and make sure that he wouldn't be offended. You have to accept and meet people where they are. And perfection is almost always over-rated anyhow, even in the kitchen.