Someplace at some point along the timeline of human history someone moved beyond simply picking fruit and popping it into their mouth and decided to take things to the next level. Thus, cooking and, I propose, hacking began.
The Evolution of “Hack”
The word “hack” can have a lot of different meanings. Before the days of personal computers, hack meant to cut roughly with heavy, chopping blows. Think: Lizzy Borden. It was also used to label ineptitude as in, “He’s not good at writing. He’s a hack!”.
Then it’s meaning seemed to reverse to describe having a high enough level of skill to be able to bypass security systems and break into computers and networks. We had malicious hackers and ethical hackers. My guess is that this is currently the most popular use.
The definition continued to broaden and now the urban dictionary entry for “hack” reads, “A clever or elegant technical accomplishment, especially one with a playful or prankish bent.”. From there it was just a short leap to “life hack” which is a strategy to handle daily activities in a more efficient way.
Chef Hacking
Those last two are closest to what I mean when I write that cooking is hacking. Always has been. Meat’s too tough? Early human applies fire. Wheat is as hard as gravel? We grind it to a powder. Greens not tasty? Mix in garlic. All clever and elegant and arguably efficient solutions. All hacks.
Over generations, these hacks have been modified and combined by one person after another resulting in sometimes new and wonderful creations and, on occasion, inedible culinary disasters. By the way, it is not always easy to tell wonderful from inedible initially. Consider sauerkraut. How hungry would you need to be to want to be the first person to ever try sauerkraut? “Well, the cabbage may have spoiled. It has been sitting in a pot for 4 or 5 weeks. It’s all bubbly, covered with brown foam and smells overwhelming pungent. I think I’ll eat it!” I’m grateful to this unnamed bold individual as well as the people who have shared this hack through the generations because I love sauerkraut! It’s one of my ‘fridge staples and a favorite hack ingredient.
Proud To Be Part Of This History
We all eat and many of us cook and thus we are all part of this long history of food hacks. Chef Hacker, my alter ego, embraces the idea that we can mindfully approach food-making as a clever and playful series of hacks. Each of those hacks can be combined based on what we already may know, what we can learn from each other and what we can imagine. Those combinations create items of practical and essential artistic expression – Meals for ourselves, our family, our friends.
So please join me in working through this. Together we can make great meals and enjoy ourselves both before and after we plate up the dishes! You can get started by replying to this post or by writing in our forum or just by reading through the site until you find what interests you. Either way, we’d love to hear your view.