We started our Dude Food series this spring in order to mix up the usual BGSK offerings with interviews and submissions for and by dudes. As you can image, having “big girls” in our name has been a bit of a deterrent for the male population. We like to think of this section as the man cave below the BGSK kitchen. If you have ideas, become a dude food contributor!
Food Republic is not too old but already it’s become the go-to food site for guys on the net. Its daily articles, recipes, and news pieces explore the new culture of food through stories, interviews, global conversations, and experiences. It is the site for men who want to eat and drink well, and to live smart. We’re lucky today to have Richard of Food Republic give us his take on how men plus food is a totally different equation than women plus food. How so? Read on!
-Cara and Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOKS
**Tips and Tricks**
As editorial director of Food Republic, the food and drink lifestyle site for men, I spend a lot of time finding recipes and cooking techniques that apply specifically to guys. Are guys much different than women when it comes to food, drink and especially cooking? Um, yeah. Are the following 11 ways men interact with food differently than women gross generalizations? Yes, ma’am.
1. More beer. Men think about beer. A lot. So when we’re cooking and we need a liquid, the first thing that comes to mind is not chicken stock or vegetable stock or even white wine. It’s beer. Beer to baste turkeys, beer to steam mussels, even a beer can in a chicken.
2. We really do care that much about our sandwiches. There’s a famous episode of The Simpsons where Homer refuses to give up a beloved hoagie, even after if it gives him food poisoning. We often develop psychological and emotional bonds with certain sandwiches that, sadly, aren’t that different from the ones we develop with sexual partners.
3. Did somebody say burgers? Look, I know that a lot of women like burgers, and that women who say they eat like men can get just as opinionated about a city’s best burger spot as a man can. But men are obsessed with burgers. If you say the word burger within earshot of your average male, then follow him for an hour, chances are you will see him go into a restaurant and order a burger. Or go to a market and buy ground beef (probably agonizing about the fat ratio), then make a burger.
4. We’re messy cooks. Adam Perry Lang told me recently that we should embrace the outdoor grill area because it’s the one place that our women can’t complain about us making a mess —
“because you can take a hose to it after you’re done,” he said. I get in trouble for making a mess in the kitchen all the time, but it doesn’t stop me. A garlic clove drops on the floor, a sauce splatters, some wine spills. I just keep on cookin’.
5. We cook to win. I’m sure that there is a similar competitive spirit in suburban and semi-rural communities across the US — I have heard about Midwestern cheesy potato recipe pride that can lead to bloody disputes between women at neighborhood potlucks. But with guys, we’re usually just trying to prove that we’re the best at making stupidly simple things like potato chips or ketchup or meatballs. Lots of people make these things and make them well, but men want bragging rights.
6. We like to follow recipes as much as we like to ask for directions. I remember my mom browsing recipes in her cookbooks, and I even learned to cook myself by using cookbooks like Jamie Oliver’s The Iron Chef and Jean Georges’ From Simple To Spectacular. But now that I’m a man, like other men, I like to wing it. Is what I make better when I follow a recipe, using a few ad libs to hue to my personality? Yup. Does this mean that I do this instead of winging it? Nope.
7. If there’s something that can be made on the grill, it will be made on the grill. This goes for things that up until recently weren’t usually made on the grill, like pizza. Guys have become obsessed with making their pizzas outdoors. Why? Because we can make a mess. Why else? Because there are all sorts of gadgets on the market now for guys who like to make their pizzas on the grill. Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet even has a super-expensive outdoor pizza grill (starting at around $6,500). Which reminds me….
8. Guys like gadgets, which is part of the reason we like cooking. A big part, actually. This is also a generational thing. My dad likes to cook but doesn’t have a garlic press. That’s like the most basic gadget to have if you ask me. Ice cream makers, food processors, electric thermometers — guys need these in their kitchens. Espresso makers, coffee makers, sous vide machines — guys need these in their kitchens. Even if there’s no more counter space, guys will stack machines and gadgets if it means that they will be able to make the best veal parmigiano or moules-frites or martini.
9. Men collect. We collected baseball cards and comic books as kids. We collect wines, liquors and cookbooks (which we don’t use) as adults. We like to know intricacies about things that most women don’t care that much about. We will often have eight different kinds of hot sauce in our fridge. Why? Is there much difference between the eight? No. Would a woman own eight types of hot sauce? I don’t think so.
10. Bacon. I know women like bacon too (what’s up, April Bloomfield?), but they spend far less time than men working bacon into whatever dish they think bacon will work with — like a BLT pizza. What’s that, you say, you are what you eat? Well then that’s that: When it comes to eating and cooking, men are pigs. And proud of it.
11. Men will cook for sex. “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” thing may have served women well for a century or so. Now it’s men’s turn. And let’s be honest, men cook for a date with one thing in mind: Sex. Do we want to impress our date with the best pasta primavera they’ve ever tasted? Hell yes. Will it matter one bit if said date is not naked in bed in the morning waiting for an “impromptu” French toast (we just happened to have all the ingredients) breakfast? Nope. For men who cook, the way to a woman’s body is through her stomach. Pass the syrup!
-Richard, Editorial Director of Food Republic
