The upshot was that we agreed that we would teach each other to cook. I had the advantage, in that I had learnt to cook a bit in the bachelor flats where I had lived before our marriage.
We greatly enjoyed our journey through the cookery and recipe books we began to accumulate.
Our expertise developed rapidly – not only in terms of the higher reaches of the culinary arts but, even more rewardingly, in our ability to produce tasty and nourishing everyday food. And inviting friends for dinner became one of our most enjoyable leisure pastimes.
We still enjoy producing food for ourselves and for friends and family.
"Grandad's chocolate cake" is a perennial favourite with grandchildren and has to be produced whenever they visit.
There is a huge satisfaction in cooking with ingredients whose provenance we know and that we are sure are fresh, health-giving and free from harmful additives. We like to know what we are putting into our mouths.
My wife and I still cook together, and – while she tends to do much of the day-to-day cooking – she will sometimes let me take over. The time we spend together in the kitchen, producing food for each other and for others, has been one of the foundations of our happy marriage and has, we like to think, helped our children and grandchildren to understand what families are about.
For many families, however, good home-cooking is not so easy or commonplace.
The problem is often not just a lack of interest or expertise or money, but a question of time – not just to prepare the food but to buy the required provisions. A young mum with small children will simply have too much to do, without going out to shop and then spending hours in the kitchen – and working mums find it even tougher.
Little wonder, then, that recourse is had to the local fast food outlet.
It produces a hot meal with little effort and at a moment's notice, and the children will eat it because it is familiar; it becomes something to look forward to, a treat because it is associated with times when the family is together, and it brings with it a certain glamour because it is constantly seen in enticing contexts on television.
Sadly, however, a reliance on fast food exacts a price, and not just a monetary one (the cash price for a family meal of fast food will typically far exceed what it would cost to cook a meal at home).
The price that is paid importantly includes the loss of that common experience of preparing food that binds families together – there is no greater expression of love for one's nearest and dearest than to prepare food for them; going out to buy food made in a commercial kitchen, paying a price calculated on the cost of the ingredients and the time spent in preparation, and including an allowance for profit, is a commercial transaction, not one expressing love.
But the price also includes the all-too common drawback that the excessive fats, sugar and salt found in fast food constitute a real health hazard and are at the heart of the obesity epidemic we currently suffer (in turn often leading to diabetes and heart disease).
If we are to encourage better health for our young people, and support them with all that a loving family can offer, we need changes in our public policy – an effective education programme and perhaps changes in the incidence of tax, so that fresh food is more easily available and the demand for fast food is diminished.
