What are some of the psychological barriers people have toward cooking?
AS: Gender-role complex is one. People think it’s not cerebral enough; it’s not important enough to be tied to the kitchen; we don’t need to be cooking and should be focusing on career-minded ventures. ML: What’s the quirkiest barrier you’ve ever heard of? AS: There’s a client I dealt with whose mother-in-law literally had her own Tupperware, cooking utensils and food in her house. The mother-in-law would cook with her own ingredients and freeze it so that her son — my client’s husband — could have all these nurturing foods from his mother. ML: How did you solve that one? AS: We took back [my client’s] kitchen. We brought all the mother-in-law’s things down to the basement [so she could] take back her space and make it her kitchen. [My client] said, “I want my husband to come every day and smell food cooking.” And she has [succeeded]. ML: For me, the hardest thing about cooking dinner is motivation. Sometimes the kitchen is a mess and the thought of washing the dishes before I can ev
