[Basic] Skill of the week: Cooking

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by RGTraynor

No "used to be" about it; still is. These days, in America, it's often code for "And now we can't have sex five times a week any more since your negligence caused my husband to become a quadriplegic," but the broader meaning still applies.
...

Loss of sexual function can be life/psyche/relationship destroying.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I believe the technical legal term for that last item used to be "loss of consortium." It was considered a perfectly legitimate standing to sue.

Bill Stoddard

I'm sure it was. It just sounds funny to put an exact price tag on it. Really the guy was probably just looking for a substitute for vendetta and that was the best he could come up with.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

Sorry this is absolutely wrong. Housekeeping is the Everyman skill that can make a nutritious meal from good food from basic ingredients. they sterotricaple "good housewife" skill.

Simpler food preparation - pre-packed food, or rat-on-a-stick is pure IQ default.

Cooking skill on the other hand is the Chef, to make cooking an art and do so to feed a lot of people.

I had got that impression too, but I don't think the rules are entirely clear. Housekeeping talks of "cooking (but not haute cuisine, which requires the Cooking skill)", while Cooking says "This is the skill of being a chef – you do not need it to heat water and open boxes, or to cook rat-on-a-stick over your campfire. A successful skill roll allows you to prepare a pleasing meal."

For the sort of cooking that I do, which involves plenty of raw ingredients and preparation, is distinctly more than "heating water and opening boxes", but has no attention paid to appearance or presentation which are key elements in e.g. pleasing customers at a restaurant, it's not entirely clear where the dividing line lies. I've tended to assume "housekeeping", but I suspect that either skill could be applicable to that situation.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

I'm sure it was. It just sounds funny to put an exact price tag on it. Really the guy was probably just looking for a substitute for vendetta and that was the best he could come up with.

No funnier than putting a price tag on human lives, but that does and must happen in a world with limited resources and non-perfect safety features.

Everything of value has a price legally, even if we call some of them priceless.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

...
For the sort of cooking that I do, which involves plenty of raw ingredients and preparation, is distinctly more than "heating water and opening boxes", but has no attention paid to appearance or presentation which are key elements in e.g. pleasing customers at a restaurant, it's not entirely clear where the dividing line lies. I've tended to assume "housekeeping", but I suspect that either skill could be applicable to that situation.

I've been watching many competitive cooking shows as of late. How much artistic appearance and conceptual parameters matter seems like Cooking, while pure taste and "does it look unappetizing?" seems like Housekeeping.

Making things from scratch only seems like highly skilled Cooking to pre-packaged loving Americans, of the sort I used to be.
Now my GF has failed at boiling water and making boxed pancakes, so defaults all around. She put the scrambled dough "thing" picture on her Facebook.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

I'm sure it was. It just sounds funny to put an exact price tag on it. Really the guy was probably just looking for a substitute for vendetta and that was the best he could come up with.

Well, as Nietszsche says, "one forthwith arrived at the great generalization, 'everything has its price; all things can be paid for'—the oldest and haivest moral canon of justice." Cash damages and lawsuits are precisely a substitute for vendetta, and the fact that someone is willing to accept them is a big step toward a more peaceful society.

Bill Stoddard

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Everything of value has a price legally, even if we call some of them priceless.

And the conflict between those two beliefs is why, on one hand, we have demands for government provided health care, and on the other, we have talk of "death panels" when the delivery of health care is prioritized, as it must be.

Bill Stoddard

[Not]

So... cooking. I'm a'gin it. You?

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Not

So... cooking. I'm a'gin it. You?

Raw meat contains vitamin C that's destroyed by cooking and grilling creates carcinogens. Down with unnatural carbonized food! - Some inadequately educated naturopath.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Well, as Nietszsche says, "one forthwith arrived at the great generalization, 'everything has its price; all things can be paid for'—the oldest and haivest moral canon of justice." Cash damages and lawsuits are precisely a substitute for vendetta, and the fact that someone is willing to accept them is a big step toward a more peaceful society.

Bill Stoddard

[/I]

Indeed. But somethings which you are academically accustomed to can sound strange when you see a specific example of them.