Father Sez

You think this skill is not cool? Or do you think this has nothing to do with personal development? 

Hear me out. 

If there ever was a skill that is easy to learn, a skill that would save you tons of time, a skill that would save and / or earn you money and a skill that will make you as cool as anything else can, it is cooking. 

Cooking used to be a skill that almost everyone learnt as part of growing up. Now with so many parents working, time for cooking is less available, and is easily replaced with fast foods and take-aways.   

As a result, many children are growing up not having this useful skill. Just see the benefits: 

a)    Cooking at home, taking lunch to work, planning our meals a week in advance, etc., are all rated up there, not only in the world of personal finance, but also in the world of healthier living. 

This alone should rate cooking skills as a must have. 

b)    Flexibility in being posted overseas. In 1998, a bunch of us turned up in Ghana to work. Food was something that we did not put much thought on. (We were a small company, not a huge conglomerate that would have had checklists for these kinds of things.) 

Ghanaian local cuisine was not something that many of us could adapt to. Meals at hotels and restaurants were not affordable as an option for meals. Thank God, we managed to find house maids, who could cook   some basic food that we were used to. 

c)     As we all must know, restaurants that serve good food are a great way to make money. So knowing how to cook opens up yet another option for earning money. 

d)    In many of the movies that I have seen, the line that seems to impress the ladies the most is the hero coolly explaining to his date, (after serving her an excellent meal), that he cooked it. I strongly suspect this spills over into real life.

e)    Restaurants generally do not make food with our health in mind. They usually serve what is saleable, what makes money for them and what is easy to prepare and serve.  Knowing how to cook would assist us tremendously in selecting better ingredients and making far healthier food. 

f)      Just like we like frequenting restaurants that have a reputation for serving good food, we look forward to visiting relatives and friends who serve delicious stuff. The great cook has a great way to widen and strengthen his/her network! 

I have a young friend who likes food and his wife is an excellent cook. Together they are now planning to launch a small catering service, whilst he still holds on to his full time job.  

I have no doubt that with cooking skills getting to be less and less common and with my friend’s passion for food, his venture will grow from strength to strength.