"Can't Cook, Won't Cook"

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Practising my cooking felt a bit like practising my French with a native speaker who is also fluent in English: insisting on imposing my incompetence on others, at the expense of everyone’s enjoyment.

I will flick to another browser tab and forget to stir, or put a pan on a high heat then wander off. A smaller survey in 2018 found that 25% of respondents could only make three dishes (including boiled egg and soldiers, and porridge).They then said which one they preferred (tactics dictated every person said a different plate so it was a draw) and if they both went for the same one than that chef won. The joke however was on the friends of the cooks who then had to eat the food that had been lovingly prepared for them. Iyer, who describes herself as “not really a leftovers gal”, looks for ways to make them into a different meal – for instance, by turning odds and ends into a rissole. Then once the winner has been decided the walls of the studio open up to reveal a prize (usually a food blender or set of saucepans).

Even the simplest meals can be elevated above a survival mindset: in Solo, Johansen dedicates a chapter to things on toast.Seeing my staples, when I look in the fridge or cupboard, means I feel more capable and inspired – and I would not have known what they were had I not been forced to find out.