Cooked (2016–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Water - full transcript

[Michael] Cooking has always been
a part of my life...

but I seldom made time for cooking
or gave it much consideration.

I counted myself lucky to have a parent,
my mother, who loved to cook.

One image I can easily summon
is of the turquoise casserole

from which she ladled out beef stews
and chicken soups.

The pot symbolized
the home and the family.

Its lid, a kind of roof
over a domestic space.

For me, that's what cooking
with water represents...

to gather together and to harmonize.

But nowadays cooking is optional.

It's not just given that we're gonna cook.



And it was, for most people,
for most of history,

just given you have to cook
if you wanna eat.

Cultures that once held tight
to their way of eating

are finding it difficult
to spend time in the kitchen.

How did we get to this point...

and what have we lost in the process?

This is more important
than people realize.

[theme music playing]

[Michael] In India, pot cooking
is the dominant kind of cooking.

It's characterized by combining

this remarkable array of herbs
and aromatic spices.

And that way of eating
is part of a daily ritual.

[Lynett Dias] What would you
like to have today?

[Charles Dias] Uh...



-Same what I made.
-Couple of dosas.

-Dosas. How many you want?
-And, uh... Two of them.

[Lynett] You want to have chutney as well?

[Charles] Sure. Sure, why not?

[sizzling]

[Lynett] I'm making lunch for my husband.

Chicken curry, called kori rotti.

Kori means chicken
and the pancake is called rotti.

It is traditional.
It takes long time to cook.

A lot of effort goes into it.

You prepare it with the coconut milk.

This is coconut.

Coconut items are to be ground.

[grinder whirring]

Add a little water.

Now I will extract milk out of it.

My mother did this.
That is how I learned.

When we were growing up,
it was required for girls

to go into the kitchen
and help the mother,

so that when they get married
and when they have their own family,

it is not very difficult for them
to feed their husbands.

Then I had three girls,
one after the other.

So, naturally, we have the concept
of having a proper meal in the house.

[Sunita Narain] India is a country
which grows well, eats well.

Every part of India
has a different ecosystem.

We eat what we grow locally

and we built a whole culture
of food around it.

[Lynett] This is the coconut milk gravy

where you can dip those pancakes and eat.

In North India, they make gravy
out of grind tomatoes and onions.

Here, we don't grind tomatoes, onions.
We grind coconut.

This culture of food is also very high
in nutrition and medicinal value.

[Lynett] This is star anise.
It is a good antiseptic.

This is mustard seed.
This controls your gas.

[chuckles]

The link between food and nature,
nutrition and nature...

and to be able to use all the skills

to bring the right ingredients together,
the flavors together...

so that the tapestry of taste
together is critical.

-Thank you, dear.
-Okay.

-Have a nice day.
-Thank you.

So are we doing a fine mirepoix

-or a chunky?
-I don't think it needs to be too fine.

-Maybe, like, about that big.
-Oh, that's easy.

[Michael] I'm so accustomed
to you, like...

-[Samin Nosrat] Forcing you to go smaller.
-Dissing my chunky mirepoix.

[Michael] I wanted to master pot cooking,

so I sought out a teacher...

somebody who could teach me
how to make a beautiful braise,

make stews, make soups.

I chose to work with a woman
named Samin Nosrat.

She's cooked in many restaurants.
She cooked at Chez Panisse.

I was teaching a class on food writing,
and she audit my class.

So we turned the tables.

I had been her teacher on writing
and she became my teacher on cooking.

[Samin] One of the first things
I taught Michael

and I teach anyone who cooks...

we're taking the things
that aren't immediately delicious

and working flavor into them
to make them delicious and nutritious

and transform them
into something really great.

We're just gonna make a simple braise.

The most traditional way
to do that is to start with onions.

-Such a good source of sweetness.
-Sweetness.

In France, it's called mirepoix.

You add celery and carrots.

In Italy, you chop it really, really fine,
and it's called soffritto.

[Michael] So this is the beginning
of combining flavors

in geographically distinct ways.

Meat cooked over fire,
you can't tell where you are in the world.

It's one food, right?
It's a pig and some salt.

So this is more complicated,
this is more advanced.

[Samin] Oh, look,
yours is smaller than mine.

Oh, those are--

-Those are crude. Ew!
-Oh. [laughing]

[Samin] Mine are too big.

[both laughing]

[sizzling]

[Samin] And it already smells good.
That's what's so crazy about onions.

You cook an onion and your house
smells like you're cooking.

-I know, that's really true.
-[laughs]

You're cooking now.

[Michael] Cooking with water represented
a very big technological advance

'cause you can't cook with liquids

until you have pots
that can survive over fires.

So fired clay pottery
that has that kind of strength,

it doesn't come along
till about 10,000 years ago.

[sizzling]

Now you can do these amazing new things.

You can mix flavors.

You can mix the flavors
of plants with meat.

[Samin] By browning the meat
and adding the brown meat to the stew,

you're adding sweetness.
There's acidity.

[Michael] You can use spices and herbs.

What about the garlic cloves? Wait?

-[Samin] I think the garlic, we can...
-They can go?

[Samin] ...leave in whole.
Yeah, let it soften a little bit.

[Michael] There's so many foods
that we couldn't eat

unless we had water to soften them
and kind of bring them to life.

[Michael] Oh, that smells great.

And the stems are good, right?
Most people throw out the stems.

[Samin] Yeah, for this,
it's perfect. Yeah.

[Michael] This is a big deal.

It opens up a whole new palate
of possible flavors.

And suddenly,
you have the birth of cuisine.

[Samin] So the formula's liquid,

meat and vegetables
is really what makes it delicious.

And then we'll just
put it in the oven on low.

It's all about giving it
the gentle heat it needs.

And the lower and slower you cook it,
the better it will taste.

The more tender and luscious

and, like, melt-in-your-mouth
rich, velvety yumminess.

-[laughing]
-Yeah. Right?

-Yeah, exactly.
-[laughing]

-So, shall we put this in? Okay.
-Yeah, let's do it.

[Michael] Pot dishes
depend for their flavor

on the reactions that occur

when ingredients are combined
with one another

in a hot liquid medium,

building the flavor of a simple dish

by extracting the deepest,
furthest, richest flavors

from the humblest of ingredients.

Time is everything in these dishes.

In a slowly simmering liquid,

vegetables and meat
exchange molecules and flavors,

in the process creating new end products

that are often much more
than the sum of their humble parts.

Water is the medium of flavor
as well as heat,

allowing spices and other seasonings
to make their presence felt.

Given enough time,
water will break down the toughest fibers

in both plants and animals
into a tasty, nutritious liquid.

The aroma instantly tells us
where in the world we are,

culinarily speaking.

[Samin] Transforming a piece of meat
like this into something delicious,

it's all about time.

And that's where I think this kind
of cooking really came from was...

You know, the grandma cooking,
the cucina povera,

the idea of, like, taking the humble
ingredients and really using skill

-to turn it. And time.
-Yeah.

And that's a really important
lesson of cooking, is time.

And that's the thing that...
most of us have lost the ability to do.

I mean, we want everything
to be instant.

And we feel in a complete panic
about time,

that we don't have enough time,
we're too busy.

[Michael] Time is the missing ingredient
in our recipes...

and our lives.

Most of us are moving
too fast for slow cooking.

For years now, Americans have been
putting in longer hours at work

and enjoying less time at home.

In households where both partners
work outside the home,

it is difficult,
if not impossible,

to weave this sort of cooking
into the rhythms of weekday life.

Shortcuts suddenly seem more attractive.

Nowadays, there are so many cheap
and easy ways to outsource the work.

Today, the typical American

spends a mere 27 minutes a day
on food preparation.

That's less than half the time
spent in 1965, when I was a boy.

Americans spend less time cooking
than people in any other nation.

I learned this from a veteran
food industry market researcher

named Harry Balzer.

[news reporter] Harry Balzer,

what are the trends
you're seeing these days?

Well, we hear a lot of people say

that Americans are cooking
more in their homes again.

They're not.
They're not cooking at all in their homes.

They're looking for the easiest way
to have that meal.

You're absolutely right.
I go to the supermarket,

they got a nice little chicken
all roasted for me.

I take it home,
in the microwave for five minutes,

my kids are eating.

You'd be hard-pressed
to find anything that says,

"In the bigger trend,

we are spending more time,
more effort in the kitchen."

The future of eating,
throughout humankind, is,

"Who will do the cooking?"

It always follows that question.

"Who will do the cooking?"
And the answer,

since the days back
in the fire pits of Mesopotamia,

has always been the same.

And you know what that answer is?

"Not me."

We still want good foods.
We still want new experiences.

But eating and preparing foods
are not one and the same.

The preparation part is a job.

Somebody's gotta buy that food,
somebody's got to store that food,

somebody's got to prepare that food.

So it's that task that has changed
the most, 'cause it's work.

And right now,
I think we're saying we're happy

that it's a restaurant
that will do the cooking.

We're happy the supermarket's
doing the cooking.

C-stores, convenience stores,
gas stations,

places that used to fix my car
today aren't fixing cars,

they're giving me pizza and hot dogs.

They're feeding me.
Everywhere I go, I can get food.

There's only one group here
who's going to cook more...

and that's food service.

Because they're being paid to cook more.

They're gonna find a way to feed you
as easy, as cheaply as possible.

[Michael] Tim and Nina Zagat
wrote this editorial

a couple years ago in the op-ed page
of The Wall Street Journal,

and I realized,
"There it is in a nutshell."

They said it makes much more sense
for you to work a little longer,

stay at your office a little longer,

and let someone else,
who's a professional, cook for you.

It's much more efficient,
much more economical.

But how can you continue to eat wholesome,
home-cooked food in such a world?

[horns honking]

[Michael] In India,
people are also working more.

They feel the same time crunch.

And Indians are the least likely
to succumb to Western food.

So they have figured out
a very clever system

of getting home-cooked food
to people at work.

[sizzling]

[Maushi in Hindi]
A lady once called to ask me

if I could cook for 10-15 people.

I said yes.

I cooked rice, lentils
and some vegetables.

They complimented me on my cooking.

The next time, I got an order to cook
for 20-25 people.

[sizzling]

Since then, we get orders for ten,
sometimes eight,

sometimes six or even seven.

[conversing in Marathi]

[Maushi in Hindi] In Mumbai,
a 500 rupee note doesn't get you far.

If circumstances require me to work,

then so be it.

[Maushi's daughter in Hindi]
Nowadays, ladies can also work like gents.

In Mumbai, it's not possible
for an entire family to survive

on only one member's earnings.

[Maushi] My daughter also works
as a housemaid.

She earns $32-$47 a month

and I earn $79 a month.

It took me five years to learn
to cook such large quantities.

[Maushi speaking Marathi]

[Maushi speaking Hindi] Some people like
the taste more than others.

Some order it for two weeks,
some for a month, some for two months.

We will keep going with the flow.

[Maushi speaking Marathi]

[Maushi's daughter speaking Marathi]

[chuckles]

[in Marathi] Keep these tiffins
at one side now.

Start filling them now,
I'll give you everything.

[Maushi's daughter]
What else needs to be added? Chapatis?

[Maushi] Yes. Fill them with chapatis.

[Maushi's daughter] These?
[Maushi] Yes, put four chapatis in each.

Open the tiffin. Fill it properly.

Where is the dabbawala?

[in Marathi] How many tiffins
are there today?

-Only four.
-Which ones? Yari Road?

Yes. The tiffin for Yari Road is there.

Rice, salad, lentils.

This one is done.

[bicycle bell ringing]

-You know, Dad, it's funny.
-What's funny?

Well, whenever we cook inside,
Mom always does the cooking.

But whenever we cook outside,
you always do it. How come?

Well, it's sort of traditional, I guess.

Uh, you know, they say
a woman's place is in the home,

and, uh... I suppose
as long as she's in the home,

she might as well be in the kitchen.

[Michael] For far too long,
cooking was women's responsibility.

There was a very clear division of labor.

And even in many
traditional societies, where...

men are out there hunting,
women are doing the cooking.

By '50s America, in particular,

and this is true
elsewhere in the world, too,

you no longer had these extended families,
and it was a nuclear family

and women were marooned
in the kitchen alone

for a lot of the time
and a lot of the day.

The typical way the story is told,
which I think is too simple,

is that, uh,
the feminist revolution came,

women went to work
and they stopped cooking.

And that was the end
of cooking in America.

But it's a somewhat
more complicated story.

The food industry's
been trying very hard

to get into the American kitchen
for a very long time.

Beginning after World War II,

the industry put a lot of effort
into selling Americans

on the processed food wonders

that it had invented
to feed the troops.

Canned meals...
freeze-dried foods,

dehydrated potatoes,

powdered orange juice and coffee,

instant and super convenient everything.

Processing food is extremely profitable,

much more so than
growing it or selling it whole.

Writer Laura Shapiro recounts

the shift toward industrial cookery
was mainly a supply-driven phenomenon.

[Laura] So the food companies
come out of World War II,

they had to get their product
into people's kitchens

and then they had to get them
used in a lot of different ways.

So you could sell someone
a can of soup, fine.

But how much better
to sell them a can of soup

that was not only soup for lunch,

but soup for a casserole,
soup for breakfast,

soup for a salad dressing.

So the idea was to use these products
in all kinds of ways

that would just get you
buying them more and more.

There was fruit cocktail.

You could either
just dump it into a bowl,

or you could put it in the coleslaw,

or you could pour it over the roast.

One of the great treats
was called the frozen fruit salad.

It was gelled with mayonnaise
and/or whipped cream.

And then you'd cut it in slices
and served it on a lettuce leaf.

That was the difference between
frozen fruit salad as dessert

and frozen fruit salad
as an accompaniment to dinner.

Spam. Very, very popular.

You would adorn this little loaf
of canned meat with canned peaches.

This was called a harvest luncheon.

There's nothing that says luncheon

and there's nothing that says harvest,

but that was the title
of this little recipe.

[Michael] The food industry got us used
to lots of processed food ingredients.

And the more you process food,
the more money you make.

So then you move
to this next layer of processing,

which is hyper-processed
or ultra-processed food.

This is food that's just ready to eat,
completely cooked.

[male announcer]
Science, finally, has cooked up

a new idea that everyone can appreciate.

This innovation may well
end all kitchen drudgery.

Over-worked housewives
can relax until dinnertime.

Equally long-suffering husbands
can be saved

from the horrors
of much home cooking.

Now, even Mother can learn
what's going on in the outside world.

She doesn't even have to don an apron.

[Laura] The food industry
targeted busy housewives...

building up this idea

that life at home
was this constant state of panic.

[man] Having fun?

Better watch the time,
dinner's going to be late.

[Laura] It was just a drumbeat
in the advertising.

[male announcer] Smart mother.
Swanson does the work.

[Laura] It was time,
convenience, and,

"This is better
than you could make at home."

I make beef soup,

I cut the beef and vegetables
into nice, big chunks.

When Campbell's makes
chunky beef soup,

we cut the beef and vegetables
into nice, big chunks.

A moment comes
in the '60s and '70s.

[phones ringing]

[Michael] Women are working
in greater numbers,

and this launches a very awkward
conversation between men and women.

There needed to be, it was clear, uh,
a new division of labor in the household.

There were a lot of fights about this
and a lot of readjustments happened.

But before we could kind of
complete that renegotiation,

the food industry
very aggressively steps forward

and says, "Stop arguing,
we've got you covered.

We'll do the cooking."

And you see this most vividly
in an advertising campaign

that Kentucky Fried Chicken
launches in the '70s.

It really is this brilliant strategy
on the part of the food industry

to align their interests
with the aspirations of women

and the pressure on men
to solve this great problem.

So everybody sees this
as the solution

and gravitates toward more and more
processed food and fast food.

♪ Look at this, this is cooking
It's a meal ♪

♪ Oh, real goodness from the Colonel
Here's a meal ♪

And that ushers in
the situation we're in now,

where you have an industry that is
deliberately trying to undermine cooking

as an everyday practice

and does a lot to convince us
it's really hard,

really time-consuming,
really messy,

and you'd be so much better off
letting us cook for you.

[Michael] When you let a corporation
cook your food...

they cook differently than people do.

You can tell just by reading
the ingredient label.

You don't have mono
and diglycerides in your pantry.

You don't have high fructose
corn syrup in your pantry.

Their business model depends on getting
the cheapest possible raw ingredient

and making it as attractive as they can
without spending a lot of money.

And the way you do that is by deploying
lots of salt, fat, and sugar.

When you layer salt, fat and sugar,
foods become incredibly attractive.

And it kicks off the dopamine
network and cravings.

In the case of carbohydrates, too,

you get these spikes of energy,
of blood sugar,

uh, and then the crash, and you need
more carbohydrates to keep it up.

You see this with people
who drink a lot of soda.

Um, they get into
an addictive pattern with it.

So this is the job of food companies.

They're actually trying
to engineer your cravings

and get you to eat
as much as you possibly can.

Western countries are straining

with the public health problems
caused by this kind of food.

Diabetes in America
is up to 8% of the population

and Type 2 diabetes, which used
to be called adult-onset diabetes,

now is afflicting children.

In 1980, you could not find
a child with Type 2 diabetes.

And just like cigarettes,
just like pesticides,

when people wake up...
to the problems of these products,

the industry turns away
and sells them to the developing world.

[Sunil Kochnar] Welcome to Nestlé
Research Center in India.

We are an international company
with a very local flavor.

Nestlé spends almost $2 billion
creating innovative products,

meeting the changing landscape
of our consumers.

We focus a lot
on noodle manufacturing.

Give and take five billion
noodle cakes are made per year

in India alone.

[researcher] Good morning.
[all] Good morning.

[Sunil] Consumer is always
the focus of our research.

Understanding them,
creating the product for them,

and then providing
the right solutions to them.

In next 20 years...

people will have
less and less time to cook food.

We are looking into the next generation,

and how we could
scientifically address it...

understanding the local cuisine...

the ingredients and how
it benefits the Indian consumer.

-What's two-six-three?
-[all] Ginger.

[researcher] Eight-six-zero?
[all] Cheese.

[Sunil] So there's a lot of work
and research and science

behind each product
which is out there in the market.

[Nestlé chef 1]
This is a gold standard kitchen.

We start our products from this place
to create a gold standard recipe.

It can be chef's recipe.

He can create anything
with the fresh, raw material.

[Nestlé chef 2]
We have a chicken tikka Maggi.

So, first we capture the flavor from here.

We take the kabob,
we skewer it,

and then we just put it inside.

We cook it proper,
original, chicken tikka.

And after we do that,
we have the flavor of the chicken tikka,

so we know how to make this.

We'll do the tasting of the chicken tikka,

then we'll taste our product,
and we'll see what is the gap.

Definitely, there is a little bit gap,
and we have to fill that gap.

Traditional is still existing,

but now the cooking is getting more
into the modern Indian cuisine.

All the presentations are modern,

but the stuff that we eat inside
is traditional.

It's very, very traditional.

So that's how we re-create our stuff.

[Michael] For the food industry,

people cooking traditional foods
at home,

uh, is an obstacle...

[chuckles] to selling more
of their product.

They have a vested interest in destroying
food culture and food traditions

and getting people to eat the stuff
they've gotten good at making.

And they're doing a lot
of food science to make this food

as acceptable as they possibly can.

[sizzling]

[tapping utensil]

[Sunil] We not only focus
on how the local ingredients

enhance texture and flavor,

we are working on how
to continuously lower sodium,

lowering the fat intake,

and also bringing fortification
through our products.

[beeping]

[Sunil] All set.

Okay.

[Sunil] So here we are tasting
three different variants.

This is our standard one
without fortification

and then these are the same versions
but different fortifications.

But at the same time,
in addition to fortification,

it has to taste the same

because consumer doesn't want
to compromise on the... on the taste.

You cannot just add iron
and bring metallic taste,

so it has to match
to the reference also.

We try to bring in ingredients
which consumer easily identifies.

So, in addition to salt and sugar,
it has garam masala,

which is enriched
with lot of flavor enhancers.

[chef] Most of the chefs in Nestlé
have been head chefs

or been in Michelin star restaurants,

so they're quite highly qualified.

My job here is to translate
from fresh to industrial

by bringing the culinary element into it.

It's missing a little onion,
you put a little onion in there.

You have to know
your ingredients very well

and the interaction
between the ingredients to...

to bring that product
to, uh, the customer.

I think we are producing
the best of today.

Tomorrow, if the technology evolves,
the knowledge evolves,

maybe we can make a noodle
which is only good for you.

A very personalized noodle,
you know? [chuckles]

In my country, that variety of food
is growing enormously.

Processed food consumption
in urban India, it's up to about 10%,

and in rural India,
it's up to 5% of the daily diet.

That's not small for a country like India.

The food trend is changing in India

as we are getting in
more and more food companies,

more and more companies
selling processed food coming in,

aspirations of people growing
and a general sexiness.

A sense of, "This is modern"

because modern means
that you go out and eat,

you eat processed food
and you eat junk food.

And that's the way it is sold to us.

-Pepsi!
-[men] Oh, yes, abhi!

[indistinct chatter]

[indistinct talking on TV]

[doorbell rings]

Hello.

Hi, baby.
How are you?

[woman in Hindi] Have you eaten something?

[man] No, I did not.

Tell me what you want to eat.

Did you cook something or should we order?

Order something.

Should we eat KFC?

KFC? Why not?

[exhales]

[man] We order food from outside
three to four times in a week.

[woman] We don't get home
from work until 9:00 or 10:00 p.m.

Obviously, they are hungry.
They want to eat something.

I don't have time to cook.

That's why we order.

Chicken burger?

Okay, sure. I'll eat a burger.

Okay.

[man] Right now, kids are
mostly interested in burgers, pizzas.

If it were up to them,
they would order food every day.

Even if we've made food at home,

my son asks if we can order delivery.

It's only when we insist,
that they will eat home-cooked food.

Otherwise, they would eat
take-out every day.

We used to eat, uh...
mostly home food,

what my mother used to cook.

If you always eat take-out,
then it becomes a habit.

We worry about health issues,
but it seems to be the growing trend.

That's the thing.

The young in India, they will
tell you what pasta is all about.

They can tell you
what a burger is all about.

But they will have no idea
about mustard oil.

They will have no idea
about coconut oil.

Once you have changed
people's taste buds,

you've changed the way they eat.

It's difficult to turn it around.

[man on TV] With beef
and fresh veggies,

and drizzled with
Pizza Hut's special sauce,

the new cheeseburger...

[Michael] One of the problems
with industrial cookery

is that they take these really wonderful
but labor-intense foods,

like French fries, and they cook them
so well and so cheaply

that you can have them every day.

There is an economist at Harvard,
uh, David Cutler,

who analyzed, um,
rates of obesity and rates of cooking

and found that as amount of time
we spent cooking went down,

obesity went up.

[man] You want?

[Michael] So food has a monetary cost,
but it has a time cost.

And as the time cost of food
goes down...

In other words, as you can eat food
without putting time into getting it,

you eat more of it.

So we eat unhealthy,
high-labor foods

much more often than people ever did.

And lo and behold,
we're a lot heavier.

That's why I love Harry Balzer's,
uh, piece of advice. He says...

Eat anything you want.
Enjoy all of your food.

Anything you want.
You want apple pie?

Have a whole apple pie tonight.

You wanna have cookies
with that apple pie?

And ice cream with that apple pie?

I'll allow you to eat all the cookies,
all the ice cream,

and all the pie
you can have tonight.

I'm just gonna ask you
to do one thing.

Make all of them.

Make the apple pie,
make the ice cream, make the cookies.

And you know what I know is gonna happen?

You're not having apple pie,
ice cream or cookies tonight.

That little rule will keep you
from eating a lot of junk,

because you're gonna do
what most people do,

which is buy the best-quality
raw ingredients you can afford

and cook it
as simply as possible.

[Isaac] Do you want it diced,
or can I just mince it?

It doesn't have to be really tiny.
Yeah, that's fine.

What you got there is fine.

These are really sharp onions.
It's gonna hurt your eyes.

-[grunts]
-[chuckles]

[Michael] You're gonna be good.

They've got to manufacture,
like, onion goggles.

[Michael chuckles]
That's a very good idea, actually.

[Michael] If we're ever gonna rebuild
a culture of cooking,

we need to bring our kids
back into the kitchen.

Check out this carrot from the garden.
It's really good.

[Isaac] Not amazing.
[Michael] Not amazing?

[Isaac] I do enjoy
cooking in the kitchen, though.

When you eat it, you just feel, like,
proud of what you've made.

Like a piece of art, except it's
in your stomach in a little bit.

-[chuckles]
-Most art doesn't end up in your stomach.

[Laura] We learn a lot about cooking
from growing up in the kitchen.

We see that cooking is going on

and that it's an important,
ordinary part of daily life.

-Will you give it a stir?
-Mmm-hmm.

[Michael] Did you put in
the sage and a little thyme?

[Isaac] Yeah, I did.

[Sunita] I come from Delhi.

I come from old Delhi.

And I have a tradition of cooking
which has come down from my grandmother

to my mother and now to me.

[Michael] I have one of your
favorite things to put in there.

Oh, nice.

[Sunita] And if I lose
that tradition of cooking,

I've actually lost knowledge.

And how much more
unfortunate can a society get

when it loses
its most basic knowledge,

knowledge to be able to cook for itself?

That's a good smell.

[Michael] One of the problems
with cooking,

if you have a limited amount of money
and you're going into the supermarket,

you will find yourself gravitating

to the middle aisles
where all the processed food is

and staying away from the produce section.

Um, and the reason is that
over the last several decades,

produce has gotten a lot more expensive
and processed food has not.

Average price of soda since 1980,
down 7%.

Average price of produce since 1980,
up 40%.

That coincides with the obesity epidemic.

So, if you've got a dollar to spend,

you're gonna gravitate
to those middle aisles,

and you're going to buy chips or cookies,

you're going to get as many calories
as you can for a dollar.

And that's the system we've designed.

And the problem with this is,
the world's poor cannot afford

to deal with the health problems
that will come with that food.

They can't afford the stomach stapling,
and they can't afford the dialysis centers

or the insulin shots, um,
but that's where we're going.

Why does organic
have to be more expensive?

Why does food which is grown
with healthier options

have to be only the food
of the very, uh, rich?

It has to be the right of everybody.

[chef] This is chicken nihari.

It's for 1,200 people.

Mint.

This is turmeric.

This is cumin.

[Michael] At the Bohra community
kitchen in Mumbai,

richer members of the Muslim community

subsidize meals for poorer members
by paying into a collective.

[chef] We are serving food
to our whole community.

It's from our religious leader,
his holiness,

Syedna Aali Qadr Mufaddal Saifuddin.

[woman 1 in Hindi] This concept
started because

there were many people
in the community

who weren't getting a proper
home-cooked meal.

[woman 2] It was Syedna Sir's
belief that a balanced meal

should be within everybody's reach.

[woman 3] There are people
who cannot afford food,

they get food from here.

There is no class system.
We are all equal.

[man 1] Nobody should feel pride
in being rich,

and nobody should feel shame
in being poor.

[in English] Everyone eats the same food.

[man 2 in Hindi] That menu
is for eight days.

[in English] We are using fresh only.

This mutton is being prepared
for tomorrow.

[man 3] We are doing this
for religion's sake.

Just to follow the principle correctly.

Once the blood is out,
the mutton is purified.

[woman 2 in Hindi] All the ladies
prepare food according to the menu

of that particular day.

Normally, we concentrate on chapatis.

[woman 4] We earn three rupees
per roti.

[man 1 in Hindi] Sometimes
people think

that women shouldn't work
outside the home.

But if she is free
from her household chores,

she might have time to go out
and earn a living.

[woman 2] By working,
all ladies become independent.

[woman 1] Since this concept of
the community kitchen was introduced,

[in English] I have done my Home Science
B.Sc. in Meal Management.

Now, those skills,
I am using in this kitchen.

[chef in Hindi] We start the cutting
and chopping at 5:00 p.m.,

and continue until 9:00, 9:30, 10:00.

The next morning,
we start cooking at 5:00 a.m.

Distribution begins at 1:00 p.m.

[indistinct chatter]

[man 1 in English] Every person
gets this card.

[in Hindi] Every day they bring this card
along with them.

This is our record
of all the tiffins we issued today.

[in English] Everyone should get food,

every day.

[in Hindi] This is the concept
and the most important thing.

[Samin] This is some of my favorite...
kind of things to do

is just these little...

I mean, you almost could
call them mindless tasks,

but I actually like to think of them
as mindful tasks.

It's about getting to that point
in your own mind

where this becomes pleasure
instead of drudgery.

[water running]

As a culture, we have just gotten
so far away from these little tasks.

It seems like it's getting
in the way of life...

but actually, this is life.

What better thing than to be
doing the thing where your hand is

in the pot, in the beans.

Anything where people are actually

working and doing something,
and making something...

I think that's, like, among the most
valuable things we can do as humans.

Once you, sort of,
have done it enough times,

it becomes natural,

and I think you become
more comfortable doing it.

And once you're more comfortable,

it doesn't seem like the world will end
if you have to cut that onion.

Smells good.

[Michael] The cook stands in a very
interesting relationship to the world.

On the one side,
he looks toward, or she looks toward

people and community and family.

You're giving
that incredible gift of love,

which is the meal.

But on the other side,
you're looking to nature.

You are working with plants and animals,

and you reconnect to the fact that

industry doesn't feed us,
nature feeds us.

And it's something
that's available to all of us.

We still have kitchens,
thank God.

We still have a pantry and we still know
where they sell the raw ingredients.

It really isn't that hard
to learn how to do it.

And that was one of the great secrets.

[Samin] Let's see here.

Wow.

[Samin] Ooh, hot!

Mmm.

-So tender.
-Good.

[Samin] So good.

-And it only took like...
-This was fast, too. [chuckles]

...three and a half hours.

-Three and a half hours.
-Yeah. [chuckles]

I don't wanna lecture people
into the kitchen.

-Hi! How are you?
-[indistinct chatter]

[Michael] I wanna lure them
into the kitchen... with pleasure.

That's what brought me into the kitchen.

It's okay. You go first.

[indistinct chatter]

-Okay.
-Thank you.

[Michael] I'm hopeful
there will be a renaissance of cooking

and that it will be different
than cooking used to be.

[woman] What kind of beans are these?

[Michael] They're cranberry beans,
fresh beans.

They're not dried.
They're really good.

It will be cooking as an option,
as a choice,

and cooking because it's satisfying,
not because you have to.

[Laura] If you just believe that
the basis of what you eat

and what your family eats
should be real food.

It doesn't mean it will always
be a perfect organic meal,

it just means it's gonna be real food.

Everybody, dessert is served.

[Michael] If we're gonna cook,

it's going to be because
we decide we want to.

That it is important enough to us,
pleasurable enough to us,

necessary enough to our health
and to our happiness.

[Michael] Mmm.

[theme music playing]