My mom came to LargeUtown to stay with me during Thankgiving. This gave her an opportunity to tackle one of my biggest flaws (in her eyes): that I'm not a cook.
Sure, I may be a whiz in the lab, but when it comes to the kitchen, I literally don't know how to properly chop an onion.
As we prepped the turkey (ew! ew! Are you all aware that you have to pull the NECK out? SICK!), we talked about a recent techie conference she attended. One of the speakers discussed the differences between younger and older generations in terms of their digital technological savviness and how one must take different approaches to educating the younger generation. This latest generation of students are so-called "digital natives," while others are known as "digital immigrants." For example, current college students grew up with cell phones and the internet. I'm just on the bridge between the two, so while I might say "I'll call your cell phone," a digital native (like my youngest brother) would say "I'll call your phone"--he was too young to remember when we had a landline in my house!
In the midst of our discussions, my mom kept asking if I had various cooking items, such as a meat thermometer (um, no), timer (doesn't the microwave count?), or a knife sharpener (I thought only hunters used those!). She patiently made do without until she asked me to hand her some flour.
"Um, yeah, Mom? I don't have flour."
"You don't have flour?! Who doesn't have flour??!"
Embarrassed, all I could stammer out as an excuse was "Mom! I'm a kitchen immigrant!"
She found this amusing, and I was off the hook (okay, I still had to get my coat to go out for flour, but at least I didn't get any more grief from her!).
Are you a digital native or immigrant? And do you think scientists should be naturally good cooks? Many, many people tell me "oh, you just have to follow protocols, you should be good at it"..... but maybe cooking just feels too much like work, so I avoid it at home? c
