Panda, Not Pander

Despite chefs and other facts to the contrary, the perception that "dad can't cook" continues as a constant and annoying theme in public discourse. Now it would be different if we admitted that few people take the time or trouble to cook well, but why should any father's attempts anywhere but at the bar-b seem more ludicrous than most moms and remind people of a panda in the kitchen?




Certainly that doesn't have to be the case. It often is, but it doesn't have to be. To that goal here's a shoutout to the folks at DadLabs [Earlier: Qs&As with DoDads - DadLabs] for PopSizzle (and Chef Hall), their attempt to give new dads (all dads) a tiny bit more knowledge and status, in this case by learning to make sweet potatoes for their sweet potatoes.

More Cooking with Dads

Kudos to The New York Times Pete Wells who is serving as guide to two sons under four who are learning to navigate their way around sharp knives and hot handles as the learn to prepare their own food. Praise as well for the late producer Bruce Paltrow, who inspired daughter Gwyneth in the ways of food enough that she is dedicating to him her new cookbook, My Father's Daughter. And while the recipe doesn't end up producing food, kitchen honors need to be bestowed on Chuck Peartree, the Santa Claus-bearded machine shop owner who along with son Ken is cooking up the diesel that powers his trucks from Chinese egg roll oil. [Earlier: Beware! Dad Near Stove and Someone's in the Kitchen with Daddy...]

Ask Him. Really.

Like most kids, Maryland running back Davin Meggett believes he knows all he needs about his dad, Dave, who was not much of his son's childhood and had a series of troubles after his NFL career. Still, it is interesting to consider how far he may go along the path his father ran ... and he might want to learn a bit more to try and figure out where the road's ruts lie.

Like Autumn Brown he might just learn something heroic about dad by just asking. Ms. Brown, a seventh-grader, interviewed her father as part of the local Kiwanis Club's "Interview a Veteran" contest. Not only did she win, she says she was "shocked to learn of all that her father had accomplished."

It's hard to know what a dad has done. Still, you have to start by asking. According to his youtube site, "Cooking for Dad" papa Rob Barrett doesn't ever seem to disappoint his two daughters with his easy-as-pie to make dining delights. His media persona exclaims that pretty much anyone (any dad, anyway) can do what he does as he travels on his way to celebrity chefdom. However, (since one of the secrets seems to be that he is not necessarily master of his own kitchen) his girls could well tell a different story if you ask them or if they try their hand at interviewing him.

Beware! Dad Near Stove

It is part of the injustice of the universe that the nicest ideas, don't always turn out the best art. And so, there is "Nina's Heavenly Delights," a move released in November and well on its way to DVD remainderville.

A father's death sets Nina in motion. He was a chef and she decides to win a cooking contest in his honor. Apparently, "hijinks ensue" is too complimentary a critique for the events that follow. Hopefully, the idea of a man cooking was not the drawback in creating or shooting the script. It still seems odd that a whole article can be devoted to the exotic idea that a man could be inspired to learn how to cook by his dad, a National Guard cook. And, apparently, some publisher still believes there is a market for a cookbook specific to men — as if men only understand how to boil water for pasta when it has been communicated in some sort of cootiefied tongue.

** Perhaps in the 22nd century we'll get beyond the man in the kitchen – fish on a bicycle analogy. **

Kitchen Experiments

So let us say that we get to the day when women are able to grow their own sperm and no longer need to find an actual father for a child. Will the world have gotten to a better place when there is no dad to experiment in making ad libbed and ad hoc pancake extravaganzas? If a father doesn't pass on to his son the prize winning apple pie recipe can civilization be considered to still be progressing?

The march of science creates an almost zen-like question: if a child is raised without a father how will s/he know the best things in life?

** Without a father progress may not be. **

Genius, Not Genius and Cooking

It doesn't take a genius to be a good dad. Not that a genius couldn't do the job, just that great smarts are no guarantee. Being stupid doesn't help or guarantee anything either. Such are genius Galileo Galilei and not-genius Jamie Spears.

The former — who first observed Jupiter satellites Io, Europa and Callisto a few years ago (1610) today — had three kids out of wedlock in a Roman Catholic country and shipped the two girls off to a monastery since he couldn't marry them off. Escaping the fate was son Vincenzo, named after Galileo's musician father, who was left free if not smothered in love.

The latter reveres as "a god" the idiot pop-psycher Phil McGraw — who nevertheless seems to be a reasonable father — andis going so far as to have him try to clean up the mess he and wife Lynn have made for daughters Britney and Jamie-Lynn.

** Fathering is like cooking while always being search for the secret ingredient. **

Someone's in the Kitchen with Daddy ...

Is there a law that dads can carve, but cannot cook the turkey?

Dads and sons can cook up diesel fuel from used cooking oil. Pop can pass on culinary lessons and a love of a hot stove learned from his mother and service as an army chef. But the phrase, "Oh, dad is doing the turkey..." is only offered when the skin is crisped and the king picks up the knife:

** Of course, even though he didn't kill or cook it, the turkey does becomes dad's stage as soon as he starts to cut. **

Now We're Cooking

Why do so many people still believe that it should be moms who burn the food, unless a barbecue is involved?

Dads are chefs and learn from their chef dads. Dads are cooking into their 100s. And one father, a Pasadena, Md., man, has enough time on his hands to pen a treatise on parenting in his spare time, having finished cooking for his two boys after cooking and cleaning the house and taking them to church and camping and Disneyland and who knows what else.

Gentlemen ... start your spatulas.

** Daddy's in the kitchen with Dinah, Daddy's in the kitchen, I knowowowow... **