You already know that a lot of our work takes place in the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen. But the truth is, a lot of our work also takes place on…Slack. (An instant messaging platform for grown-ups, in case you haven’t had the pleasure. Like AIM but less fun.) Today I’m giving you a guest pass and inviting you to crash one of our channels. On Friday, I chatted with executive director of video Dan Siegel, senior Test Kitchen editor Shilpa Uskokovic, Test Kitchen editor Rebecca Firkser, and social media manager Cristina Correa, all about cooking with their partners. Join us!
Chris: We are all married, right, and my question is, how do you survive cooking with your spouse and not split up by the time the food is ready? Genuinely asking since I don’t even try. It’s like Ikea- going there with a partner can ruin a perfectly good relationship- but maybe that is just me. Thoughts?
Rebecca: Chris, we’re in the same boat! while the ~idea~ of cooking with my husband sounds lovely I just can’t handle it. I immediately become such a jerk the moment I see him trying to chop an onion (but also he recently said the last time he made dinner was 2023—is this my fault?!)
Chris: Yeah that is so real- I mean- probably would be nice if he cooked- but with your attitude, why would he 🙂
Dan: With isn’t necessarily how I’d put it, Chris. My house is filled with actual monsters (human children 5 years old and under) and it’s pretty rare that someone is not entirely devoted to that situation. On weeknights it’s more about who is taking charge and protecting the chef from distraction to get dinner done as fast as possible..
Cristina: Someone’s gotta be “the Chef.” My husband does in fact responds with “Yes, Jef” (after I of course, made him watch The Bear) when things get very serious. We (mostly I) assign us tasks so that each person stays busy and on their own lane
Chris: Cristina, do you take turns being Chef though?
Shilpa: I’m admittedly in a slightly unusual situation because my spouse is a very good (famous even!) chef. That’s what you get when you marry the boy you met in culinary school. This is a gift I’m grateful for every day. However, we do have different cooking styles and many of our kitchen-specific tensions are more centered around what we want to eat when the other is cooking (he always wants to cook something stewy and one-pot; i always want to make something with lots of texture that’s relatively dry).
Dan: Sometimes you just recognize who has what strengths in the relationship. 90% of the time it’s just more efficient for me to cook (my wife is better than me at just about everything else, including being a person in general).
Chris: So are we saying that nobody here actually cooks WITH their partner? Cristina, I feel like you guys were making that roast chicken together the other week- or did you just take credit for it- or pretend it was a group effort?
Cristina: We do switch! and I’m SO proud of him when he takes the lead. I just resist doing things my way and follow his instructions, unless something is criminally wrong like not seasoning the salad
Shilpa: We actually do work pretty well together in the kitchen BUT we don’t typically work side-by-side. On weeknights, while one of us cooks, the other does another house task like laundry or pitching in with the dishes.
