On Rice, Onions, Pasta, and Gate-Keeping in Cooking.

The Art of Cooking

Cooking is a personal art, and a requirement for life.

If you explore recipes, which I have to at times, you'll run into people insisting that their way of doing something is correct. It may be confirmation bias, but I've noticed this much more often amongst us nerds. I'm not sure why.

I'm here to tell you one thing: These people are wrong.

If you snap macaroni in half, do you know what you do to the quality of the dish? Absolutely nothing. Despite what 60 million Italians might have to say about the matter. There is no wrong type of pasta.

If you have a rice cooker, great! If you cook rice in exact quantities, good for you! If you want to boil rice in an approximate volume of water and drain the rest (for example, if you have ADHD and exact measurements lead to burned rice and ruined pans), do exactly that.

The best onion to use is the onion you like. The second best onion to use is the onion you have. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you a cookbook.

If you're one of these Gate-Keepers.

Consider your actions.

Are you really declaring yourself the sole arbiter of something as personal as cooking? Are you so advanced in the field that you can definitively state that the way you're doing something is "correct"?

Most likely you're an amateur who considers themselves professional due to a few successes. You're unlikely to be in a position to be shitting on others from a standpoint of actual authority, and if you were, you'd likely have better things to do with your time.

You're not Gordon Ramsey. Even Gordon Ramsey isn't Gordon Ramsey when he's not acting for a camera.

Don't be that guy.