JONTILLMAN.COM | Part of the problem since 1976

As an avid reader of “foodie” blogs, I run across articles like this one all the time, and I’m really not sure why they even exist. How hard is it to not waste food, particularly if you like food enough to read a food blog?

Everyone occasionally has a few leftovers or some fresh herbs that it was impossible to buy in an appropriate quantity go bad, but for food waste to be a big enough issue to have to write about it seems to me to bely a deeper problem; these people don’t have any idea how to cook.

Let me say this as plainly as I can: good cooks do not waste food. Ever. If you waste food, you are a bad cook, end of story. If your leftovers molder in the refrigerator, you are not planning portion sizes correctly, you are buying too much, and you have no concept of food cost. Therefore, you are a bad cook.

Following recipes in glossy food-porn magazines and shopping at Trader Joe’s does not make you a good cook. Practicing economy and the mathematics of recipe sizing makes you a good cook.

Posting inane tips about food waste reduction on your food blog that don’t address portion control and food cost does not make you a good cook. Knowing how much the people you are cooking for will eat of a particular dish and preparing only that amount makes you a good cook.

Not planning for what to do with everything you buy before you buy it and buying more than you need of ingredients makes you a bad cook. Having no leftovers and nothing that can spoil in your kitchen on the morning of grocery day makes you a good cook.

Food waste, for anyone who considers themselves a cook, must be zero, or as near to it as possible given the occasional cheese that turns into a hairy mold pile the day after you buy it or a rancid meat mistake from “counter thawing” it in too warm a climate. Honestly, from where I sit, if your food waste (including vegetable trimmings, separated fat and pan scrapings) is more than 5%, you are a horrible cook and should have your kitchen utensils taken away until you go work in a commercial kitchen as a prep cook until you understand food cost.