How can a system designed to not lose children help you to find joy in cooking, and become a better cook?

The Buddy System

Anyone who has read even one or two of my blog posts will know that I am really driven by the idea of getting people to cook. That is my goal with the blog, the podcast, my facebook page, my twitter, even my instagram page. The only thing I am focused on is getting more people to cook more often. To this end, I have been doing my best to show that cooking doesn’t have to be difficult. It doesn’t have to take hours and hours and hours, and you don’t need fancy equipment. What you do need is a desire to do it. I don’t care what the reason behind your desire is, as long as you want to cook.

Unfortunately, desire is often not a great motivator on its own. We generally need a push to do anything but the easy thing. It is often true that people are more easily motivated by other people, and hold themselves more accountable when they are accountable to another individual. It is with all of this in mind that I propose the buddy system. Remember when you were a kid and would go on field trips or even just walk as a group down a hallway. You would be assigned a buddy. You would each be responsible for the other. This will work for cooking.

I think that you should find a buddy. It could be a friend, a family member, or a stranger on the internet. The idea being that you share recipes, you share ideas, you share experiences, and you motivate each other by holding each other accountable. You talk about food, about cooking, about successes and failures in the kitchen. You plan meals together, and talk about them afterwards. You talk about great new recipes you found, or a new way to use a favourite ingredient. This will absolutely work if you do it.

Having someone to talk to about your cooking experiences, someone who is going through a similar experience will create a bond between the two of you, but also a bond with cooking. Your positive memories of your friendship will be intertwined with your memories of cooking and your positive memories of cooking will be intertwined with your memories of friendship. The two will grow and feed off each other. It will be fun to cook because with it will come a sense of friendship, community, and connection and in all honesty, that’s what cooking has alway been about! Even if you are a self motivated person, I suggest using the buddy system to build that sense of community and friendship around your cooking.

For those of you out there that need a buddy, I have created a facebook page called “How To Not Burn Shit” There you will find like minded people, and if you can’t find one there I will help you find your buddy. I sincerely hope that you do this. I know that it will help to make cooking enjoyable for those that don’t find it very enjoyable, and it will make it more enjoyable for those that do. It is so unbelievably important for so many reason that we all cook more and eat better. Let this be your motivation.