Taking the slow (gravy) train

If you do any cooking at home then you will know that the time spent preparing a meal is much, much greater than the time spent by your family or friends in consuming that meal. I don't know the proportion but I think Mr14 can knock off an afternoon of cooking in a few minutes.

In fact the ratio of production time to consumption time is very large and its not only true for cooking. Think about the years that went into writing a book that you read over a weekend or the year and a half that went into the film that you watched in two hours.

It is also true of natural resources, that we consume at a faster rate than they are produced, much faster.

Scary thought.

I think that cooking makes you appreciate your food more, especially when you go out and a professional chef produces a meal for you that might have been a day's work in your own kitchen. Appreciating the thing you consume is a kind of slow consumption, like taking the slow train or the slow food movement. However it is the taking time to savour the product and not mindlessly consuming it.

If you have tried your hand at writing or making a film or growing your own vegetables or anything really then you suddenly have an appreciation of the effort that has gone into the final product which you are about to consume.

Bon appétit.