“Today the average American spends a mere 27 minutes a day on food preparation (another four minutes cleaning up); that’s less than half the time that we spent cooking and cleaning up when Julia [Child] arrived on our television screens. It’s also less than half the time it takes to watch a single episode of “Top Chef” or “Chopped” or “The Next Food Network Star.” What this suggests is that a great many Americans are spending considerably more time watching images of cooking on television than they are cooking themselves — an increasingly archaic activity they will tell you they no longer have the time for.

“What is wrong with this picture?”

Why has the United States become a nation more inclined to watch people other people do things on television — in this instance, cook — than actually do something themselves? Michael Pollan ponders the possibilities, at length. (NYT)