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The Need of Capable Cooks

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 8, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 32.

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The Need of Capable Cooks

By P. S. Bourdeau-Sisco, M. D.

P. S. BOURDEAU-SISCO, M. D.
It would almost seem needless to speak or write upon this important subject, were it not for the fact that so many entrust this very essential and thoroughly scientific work to ignorant, illiterate persons who have no knowledge of the first elements of the subject. Their effort is so to arrange the food that it will cater to perverted appetites. They take no thought of securing pure unadulterated foods, and have no knowledge of the different food values and best food combinations.
Because of this prevailing custom, many young women feel that a work that is so often done by uneducated persons, is a work that is not to be performed by one who has spent years in high school and college. This certainly is a mistaken idea. Cooking is not only a science, but an art. It requires a good education to be able to understand the chemistry of the different foods. And art must be exercised in the preparation of these foods so that they will appeal to the smell, the sight, and the taste. The most wonderfully constructed machine in the world is the human body; and practise, skill, and the best judgment are required to give it just the nourishment that is suited to its needs, and necessary to keep it in good working order.
It is said that "as a man eateth, so is he." We are made up of the food we eat. How important, then, that this food be the purest, most free from disease, rightly balanced in food elements, and that it be prepared in such a manner that the digestive juices will be able properly to do their work upon it, without the so-often-seen results of fermentation, acidity, constipation, etc. A good cook must understand anatomy and physiology to be able to adapt the foods to the laws that govern the body. Is it any wonder that so many persons are sick, considering the food they have to eat?
One young woman, a high-school teacher, recently said, "Why, Doctor, I had to be under the physician's care all last year because of the stuff I had to eat at my boarding-house. There was so much fried food, grease in everything, and the food was so rich and highly seasoned." Now a cook should know why fried, greasy foods are not wholesome; why condiments hurt the digestive organs. If we do not know why these combinations work injury, we can not hope to remedy their ill results.
Many of our patients who are professional men and women, having to depend on others for their food, are perplexed to know what they will do to obtain proper food when they leave the sanitarium life. A few days ago I met a young woman who is a college graduate and a teacher in a young women's school. Every one who attends this school pays at least one thousand dollars tuition each year. The teacher told me that all these young women take a course in practical cooking, and learn how to manage a home.
Such a course is what every young woman should take before she ever considers herself capable of helping to make a home for herself. We know of one young woman who married without having received this training, and the next morning after her marriage, she sat down and wept, because she knew it was her place to get breakfast, and she did not know how.
Whatever may be our profession, we should feel it our duty to understand how to cook. The time we spend in learning this important science will be most profitable to us and to all who will partake of food prepared by our hands.
Cooks are in great demand. Every home needs one. Our schools need them. Restaurants can not be carried on without them. And our sanitariums need educated cooks who have had a wide practical experience. Such a cook in a sanitarium holds a position hardly second to any one in the institution. Let us, then, consider this question in the light of its importance, and see if more persons do not wish to fit themselves for the many important places that are opening to such qualified persons.
Washington (D. C.) Sanitarium.