Women need not be offended by what you are about to read. After all, my own dear sweet mother is a woman as is my lovely wife and they are both great cooks. One look at me, and you will see that I am not now, nor have I ever been undernourished. You might say that I am living proof that women are good cooks. It’s apparent to me that like having babies and worrying about their fingernails, cooking comes naturally to women. So then why are most great chefs men? What is it about men and the way they go about cooking that raises them to a level rarely achieved by women? It may not surprise you that I have a theory on that.

Throughout history all the great explorers have been men; Columbus, Cook (no pun intended), Magellan and LaSalle were all risk takers, adventurers and probably pretty decent cooks. As boys the pint-sized men don’t have to worry about cooking but as we grow and become independent, sometimes only to prevent starvation from setting in, we will put on the safari hat and head into the kitchen. We aren’t concerned with feeding a family and serving up something that everyone is going to find at the very least acceptable—we just want something to eat.

When us men first find ourselves in the kitchen surrounded by all the cooking gadgets and equipment; stove, refrigerator, pots, pans, etc., we usually start with something simple like scrambled eggs. Back in the day, guys didn’t take Home Economics less we wanted to be branded a sissy, so we were never taught the fine art of cooking. However, our superior sense of logic tells us that there has to be a lot more to making scrambled eggs than just mixing a couple eggs in a skillet. So we start adding stuff to the eggs, usually whatever happens to be lying around. Might be an onion, or some paprika, maybe cinnamon, hell we’ll put a chopped up carrot in there if that’s all we can find. Through the process of elimination we learn that scrambled eggs with onions and a little paprika isn’t so bad; at least compared to the cinnamon, carrot, scrambled egg concoction.
Once we have mastered the scrambled eggs and instant pancake mix, the bolder amongst us will move on to bigger game, like maybe spaghetti sauce. We eventually learn that things like celery and peas have no place in a good pasta sauce. We also learn that oregano and olive oil work out pretty good.

I doubt seriously that it was a woman who came up with the idea of mixing cream cheese, eggs and almond extract together, or snails, butter and garlic. Women don’t have time to think of these things, they are too busy cooking, cleaning and taking care of the kids. That’s why all the great chefs are men.