Roberta A. Muir Master of Arts (Gastronomy)
Food - Wine - Travel Writer
WHAT’S COOKING?
ABSTRACT
In English there is a broad and general definition
of ‘cooking’ as ‘the application of heat to food’. Yet there are many
forms of food preparation, generally performed by a ‘cook’, that do not require
heat. ‘Cooking’ can have a number of meanings. It might be argued
that ‘cooking’ is ‘that which a cook does’, whether heat has been applied
or not, from sourcing quality produce to arranging the finished dish on a
plate. In other languages the verb used for the preparation of food
(which would be translated in English as ‘to cook’) does not always have
the same connotation of the application of heat as the English word has.
When someone says that a very rudimentary meal preparation is ‘not cooking’,
most people understand the meaning, even though heat may have been applied.
This dissertation argues that ‘cooking’ should be more broadly interpreted.
Further, it demonstrates that there are many food preparation techniques,
which do not involve the application of heat, but nonetheless represent ‘cooking’.
In order to help gain an understanding of contemporary interpretations of
‘cooking’, a set of three questionnaires was sent, by email, to 120 people,
asking them to indicate which of a list of processes they would consider
to be ‘cooking’. The questionnaires were sent to chefs, food and wine
writers, gastronomy students and amateur cooks who expressed an interest
in being included. A review of literature and interviews with a number
of leading chefs elaborated on the various definitions of ‘cooking’.
This paper first establishes the desired outcomes of cooking through a review
of literature and then shows that those outcomes can be achieved without
the application of heat. Non-heat forms of food preparation are then
separated into four categories: those performed before, during and after
heat is applied to food and, finally, those performed as an end in themselves.
The paper finishes with an analysis of food preparation techniques that don’t
involve heat and can be an end in themselves, as well as several processes
involving varying degrees of heat, arguing that all forms of irreversibly
transforming food are indeed ‘cooking’.
(Roberta Muir)
Download PDF of Thesis (complete text)
