Surveys confirm what our readers have been telling us for some time – more men are discovering cooking than ever before. Not before time, many of you may think. To salute this trend, we meet some men who are in the throes of a culinary love affair, beginning with delicious. sub editor Will Dunn.
In a dimly lit doorway on a south London industrial estate, a man hands me a package. “It’s good stuff,” he says. He is not a drug dealer but a fellow food obsessive who runs The Freedown Food Company, importing such delicacies as wagyu beef. I’m cooking dinner for friends, and I’m one of those men for whom cooking satisfies not just hunger, but the male need to show off.
Watch a man cooking and you’ll glimpse what he wanted to be when he grew up. Big, beardy chaps who flambé everything are frustrated blacksmiths; analytical types who weigh ingredients with precision might have been rocket scientists. When I was little, I wanted to be an engine driver, a job which involves shovelling fuel into a hole from which hot air constantly emerges – but enough about how I eat. What matters is that cooking has become an important part of my life.
Sometimes, it can be a bit too important. I’m a confident cook, but when things go wrong I can get shirty. Just ask my baking tray, which hasn’t been the same since it was flung across the kitchen, an unruly pizza clinging to it. This is the problem with allowing a man’s ego into the kitchen: what begins as an attempt to produce something merely edible (or, in my case, a better bacon sarnie than my flatmate) can mutate into an obsessive quest for perfection.
In the last decade, men have started taking over the kitchen, and the signs of this shift are all around. Neff recently ran an advertising campaign targeting men, reflecting that our days of mooching around B&Q while our partners checked out the cookware shop are over. “Many of our most enthusiastic customers are men,” says Ben Phillips of Steamer Trading Cookshop. “That’s why we always place the knife cabinet near the door – it’s a man-magnet.” He’s not wrong – my own knife block is a testament to the pricey allure of names such as Wüsthof.
So, will the kitchen become the new garden shed? Not if I’m anything to go by. Men are too lazy and badly organised to cook nightly. Most of us just want to show off occasionally before retiring, convinced that they’re the best at everything. Which takes me back to the package I picked up in that doorway. What was in it? Crocodile meat. And yes, the Thai green curry I made with it was a triumph, if I do say so myself.
The last word… goes to Will’s girlfriend Christina Quaine, who says:
Will is a real showman in the kitchen, whileI lurk in the background – I’m the Joe Biden to his Obama, you might say. I am lucky if I’m allowed to chop an onion: anything more complicated and I’m met with a stern look. But the end result is always great – I can heartily recommend his lasagne, and he makes great meatballs.
What Will fails to mention is that despite his culinary prowess, he is also the messiest cook I know. He’ll happily use six tea towels to mop up spilled flour, while every pot, pan and utensil gets hauled out of the cupboard. And guess who has to clean it all up?
John Gregory-Smith... is 27 and lives in West London
I come from a foodie family – Mum is a great cook and I picked up a lot from her. By the age of eight I was taking over the cooking from my baby-sitter as I thought I could do better! In my gap year I travelled in India and the Far East and fell in love with the flavours I discovered. And at university, I spent my free time in the kitchen; I’d spend all day making Chinese dumplings from scratch – friends thought it was weird, but enjoyed my food.
After uni I worked in recruitment, but it didn’t float my boat. I realised I wanted to be involved in the one thing I’m really good at – food. I just needed the right idea. Then, a friend asked for my curry recipe and I gave him a pot of my home-made fresh spice mix instead. He raved about it – and the idea of The Mighty Spice Company was born. That was three years and a lot of hard work ago. Now the company’s doing well and I’m very busy, but I still love cooking for friends and family.
My favourite food at the moment is sausages and pasta in a creamy, tomatoey sauce. I’m really into Italian food and recently cooked a menu of rich pork ragù followed by seared tuna with salsa verde, thenmascarpone with dark chocolate, pistachio and biscotti.
For two years running I’ve made Christmas dinner for 25. There’s no place I’d rather be than in the kitchen with Kings of Leon on the stereo and a big meal to make. I’m also obsessed with gadgets – my pasta machine is my favourite, along with my bright red KitchenAid. I can browse in cookware shops endlessly, and talk about food for hours – I’m so passionate about it.
The Mighty Spice fresh spice mixes are available at selected branches of Sainsbury's.
Domestic gods…
“I love to cook and my favourite dish is a slow-roast shoulder of lamb recipe by Jamie Oliver. I’ve made it loads of times.”
David Cameron, Conservative party leader
“Cooking is just as much of a passion as acting. Performing has always been a big thing for me and I think cooking is another type of performance.”
Jake Gyllenhaal, Hollywood actor
“I love cooking. I learned from my mother, who’s an excellent cook. My wife is a Cordon Bleu chef, but if there is a choice she leaves the cooking to me.”
Frankie Dettori, jockey
“Evenings in, spent with a frying pan cooking dinner, are precious.”
Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate
“I love cooking. One of the most satisfying meals I made was when I pulled up the vegetables that I planted while we were recording our album, and made a dish with lemon balm and mince running through it.”
Alex Kapranos, singer with Franz Ferdinand
…And a domestic disaster
“I am a dreadful cook – like my mother. If I’m paying for the food I don’t expect to have to cook it as well.”
Terry Wogan, broadcasting legend