# Signs of cooking obscession



## peachcreek (Sep 21, 2001)

Hi Foodies. We all know why we are here. We love food or work with food or wish we could work with food or wish we could love food more and all that. But do you think about it too much? Do you wile away with thoughts of you next great meal or anxiously await the sequel to your favorite cookbook? I was cleaning up at the restaurant today and pondered some of the symptoms of the truly cooking obscessed.
1. You remember significant events by what you ate or prepared on that on that occasion. By the same token you meet someone for the second time and don't remember their name, but can remember that they don't like mushrooms and are allergic to tomatoes.
2. You keep cooking utensils in your car "just in case". Or if you are like me, you can't understand why everyone doesn't go camping with an espresso maker, wire whip with copper bowl and a nutmeg grater.
3. You come in to work and tell your co-worker something like " I went home last night and did'nt really feel like cooking. So I whipped up a little Rissoto Milanese and Clafloutis, a bottle of Chianti Reserva and called it good".


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## kimmie (Mar 13, 2001)

I'm a combination of numbers 1 and 3!

I would also adhere to your camping style if I could...at hubby's dismay :lol:


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## svadhisthana (May 6, 2001)

You're thinking about lunch while still eating breakfast.

Trips to the grocery store excite you.

Cookbooks have replaced novels on top of your nightstand.

You plan your vacations around food not locations.

You check the posts on Cheftalk more often that you check your e-mail.

You spend more money on groceries, kitchen appliances, cookbooks, and kitchen utensils than you do on rent each month.


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## nancya (Apr 30, 2001)

How about if you aren't satisfied with one perfectly nice cooking forum and so go start one of your own? Now spending hours trying to balance your life with your need to find interesting new recipes?

Very cute guys. Peachcreek...I thought I was the only person who takes my espresso pot camping. At least I'm sure I was told that I was.


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## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

Wow! Our very own "Cooks Anynomous". Hi. my name is Pete. And I am a cooking addict. It started innocently enough at age 3 when my mom first let me help make cookies. My addiction blossomed by age 10, when I started preparing whole meals for the family. By the time I was in my late teens, my addiction was running my life. Cooking at home was no longer enough, so I went and found a job doing it. Even that wasn't enough. I eventually went on to spend thousands of dollars to satisfy my cravings, and go to culinary school. To this day my addiction controls me. I take vacations to "food destinations". I plan meals and party menus weeks in advance. I lie awake at night contemplating new dishes. I drive miles out of my way because so-and-so has the best German salamis or this person has the best produce. I spend more time surfing the web looking for food related websites than I spend with my wife (sometimes, until she threatens to hurt me). Cooking has taken control of my life!


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## kimmie (Mar 13, 2001)

Pete,

Lets hook your wife with my hubby!!


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## marmalady (Apr 19, 2001)

I have trained my hubbie so that whenever he goes to some grand poo-bah event that I can't attend for whatever reason, he memorizes the dishes, what they tasted like,and brings me a menu if he can!


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## w.debord (Mar 6, 2001)

Hi, my name is Wendy and I have a baking addiction.


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## suzanne (May 26, 2001)

ALL OF THE ABOVE, plus:

Planning DINNER before I can get out of bed in the morning.

Giving hubby a list of places to eat at when he travels, so that he can bring back menus. (such a dear!)

Computerizing the list of what's in the freezer, fridge, and closets, so that I can rotate better.

Markets count the same as museums when traveling.

The previously-mentioned 500 cookbooks.


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

Someone went on a trip, ate out. All you want to know is how was the food.


Of all the addiction one can have, food and cookbooks is my favourite. 


Please don't try to cure me.


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## chiffonade (Nov 29, 2001)

10. You can't pass a cooking catalogue without picking it up and immediately thinking, "Where is my credit card?"

9. Every conversation to which you are a contributor, one way or the other, sooner or later, turns to food.

8. You find yourself regaling someone about a meal or dessert you prepared in the past, then realize you're talking to your probation officer.

7. You flip through the channels (and with satellite, this can take awhile) in search of an overhead shot of a saucepan with something in it simmering away.

6. You watch a show broadcast in a language you don't understand because it's a cooking show.

5. Television Food Network is in your tv remote's "favorites" menu; along with PBS, Discovery and HGTV (they occasionally run a cooking show).

4. Your computer bookmarks all involve either cooking, where to buy cookware, or where to buy ingredients.

3. Your pulse quickens when you anticipate cooking for a special someone or a party.

2. "Field trip" to you means visiting a gourmet store or a kitchen supply store.

1. You watch Martha Stewart and think, "Enough of this gardening ****, get in the kitchen, woman!"


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## svadhisthana (May 6, 2001)

When watching a cooking show you talk back to the screen when the T.V. chef does something incorrect.


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

my tribe!!! 
except for not having a personalized parole officer I fit everything so far....oh yeah I don't computer catalog my shtuff, but I know what I got....welll the majority of it.
When my boys were in scouts we had garlic bread, sirloin, sauteed onions/shrooms, green salad and crisp of some sort...lot of drooling from Dads who brought cans of bleck. Shoot I made shiitake risotto for 200 on camp stove....or porcini tagelltel....etc....
It amazes me when people won't go to a much better grocery store because it's a few more minutes away. 
I set up a market just to insure that gorgeous produce remains available.....that is obsession.


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## monpetitchoux (Apr 24, 2001)

And the ultimate proof that you are truly addicted to food...

Folks recruit you to be on their trivia contest team as soon as they find out that food is a category. Out of ten questions, the only one I couldn't answer was how's an In and Out burger cooked if you order it animal style? Hey, but now I know.


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## marmalady (Apr 19, 2001)

Svadisthana - Yes, yes, yes! especially when it's Martha Stewart!!!!!


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## foodie jeff (Nov 10, 2001)

I have to admit that I exhibit many of symptoms listed in this thread. Just this weekend, I was surfing the "favorites" list on the satellite television, which includes chiffonade's food channels plus DIY Channel which also has some cooking programs. Found myself moaning and "rebuking" Tracy Griffith as she par-boiled baby back ribs in order to prep them for grilling. My wife came in the room and inquired as to whether I was ill. I said "no, I'm just talking to the TV Chef." In retrospect, I was and am sick. 

For the rest of the addicts, E! Entertainment and the Style channel carries the "Nigella Bites" cooking show (channels not otherwise on my favorite list because of the lack of food related content).


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## svadhisthana (May 6, 2001)

I LOVE Nigella Bites! The only reason IMHO to watch E!.


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

For lent, you pledge to give up 71% chocolate and eat only the 65% variety.


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## chrose (Nov 20, 2000)

You cruise slowly through the grocery aisles listening closely just waiting to hear someone utter the phrase "what can I do with this"? or "what's that thing" and waiting to pounce with an answer.


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

Your best friend comes to ask what she is going to wear to a dinner with a person she was after for months and you start lecture her on what to order in the restaurant.

The next day, the same friend comes to tell you about her date and you start ask her what she had , if the steak was as juicy it suppose to be and if their baklava was better than yours  

The above are true stories


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## jill reichow (Mar 12, 2001)

when traveling, you always stop early enough that you can cruise through the local grocery stores before they close. Hey, think of it as sociology trip... seeing what other parts of the country consider normal.

making shopping lists of what you need from grocery stores that are in other states...hey, it's a long way to Minn. from VA.


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## lynne (Oct 6, 2001)

Yep! Fit most of these especially knowing someone by their food habits, "you remember that guest, he's the one that eats cayenne on his melon and his wife loves eggs benny with lime hollandaise" -- and am probably one of the few B&B owners that concludes their directions to the "X tourist attraction" with, "...and on the way home, there's a really cool market...." -- 

recipe, presentation ideas are on the back of every single paper on your desk, purse, business card, every page of the calendar.

even your pets have food names....

...you go on a buying spree at the mall and the CC company calls to check and make sure that it's really you making the purchases because there wasn't a charge at Williams Sonoma...


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## one in the oven (Mar 11, 2002)

These are so true... In my case, I try to get my kids invited to neighborhood kids birthday parties just so they can tell me about the cake! " But, Mom I don't want to go! That kid hates me!" Poor kid she'll mention that in therapy someday!lol! 

Beth


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## peachcreek (Sep 21, 2001)

Heres' another sign. How many condiments in your fridge and cupboards? 100? Maybe more? I know I get nervous when I get down to ONLY 6 different mustards......And no, I don't think it is trivial to need 2 different truffle oils....


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## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

Man! We are a pretty sad group!!! LOL:bounce:   :bounce:


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## svadhisthana (May 6, 2001)

:bounce: I'm not the only one!!!!!!!!!:bounce:


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## peachcreek (Sep 21, 2001)

I look at other peoples' groceries and try to figure out what I would do with them .....


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## kimmie (Mar 13, 2001)

Me too! :lol:


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

LOL I guess that this is typical. Just don't forget to mention this to the doctor LOL

Well I want to tell you something. I have just checked and the world "Obsession" if it is used against you may cause legal actions 
So, in case someone calls you "obsessed with food" when you stare at his groceries in the super market , when you give advices to the cook that cooks something on TV, if you have 100 different mustards in your fridge and common and normal things like that ,just whistle 

We will sue him/her


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

When the cashier, fish monger, cheese and produce guys know you by your first name and ask how the .....was? or when they suggest that your groceries are a test for the new checker cus nobody else buys that varied amount of produce.


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## pollyg (Mar 12, 2001)

This thread is so funny and fabulous.
I am laughing in recognition at so many of the ideas.
I seriously believe that you can make a meal out of next-to-nothing if you have enough condiments and spices and pastes in the cupboard.
I have pieces of paper littered around my office, bags, and house that have recipe ideas on them.
I went to Paris when I was 13 and I remember what I ate, but not much else.
I keep a book of all the big family dinners and functions that I have done.
6 of the 8 books near my bed are cookbooks.
On my limited days off i take trips to special butchers and markets, and am quite happy to spend most of my disposable income on food and related things.
Last night I had about 4 different dreams about food.
Basically everyhing that has been posted so far is scarily familliar.
Bring it on...


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## brreynolds (Apr 26, 2001)

Athaneus:

It looks as if you are saying that calling a person "obsessed" is treated as slander. The problem with slander suits in this country is that truth is a defense. This thread has three pages of people admitting they are obsessed.

BR


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

I must be getting worse, last night I thought of starting such a book.


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## suzanne (May 26, 2001)

Wait -- you mean not everybody keeps track on the calendar of what they served for dinner each night? Uh oh, then I really AM crazy!


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## chiffonade (Nov 29, 2001)

DIY is a premium channel and I'm paying for enough!  Re: Nigella - I love her because while she's not the head of a restaurant, her food is basic, hearty and prepared with love. As for yelling at the screen, I do that all the time. Ever watch that southern lady who squints at the screen? Her most repeated line in a show is "I didn't do this but you will," or "you won't do that like I did." Hey lady, ever hear of editing?

Also, thank GOD Debi Fields is no longer on TV. I have waist length hair, probably thicker than hers, but when I cook *it's restrained.* No one in the kitchen should know how long my hair is. It's only afterward at table I let it down. Also, she once held an ingredient in her hand, palm up, to let the camera get a close up. *You could clearly see her fake nails because of the spot where her real nails ended!!* Ack!


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## chiffonade (Nov 29, 2001)

Dude...Guilty as charged  It's only slander if it's not true - or if everyone around you doesn't like to eat.


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## brreynolds (Apr 26, 2001)

Chiffonade:

Sorry to get off topic, but how do you set up those quotes so they come out with the top and bottom borders, indents and reference to the person posting the original quote? I've tried about every button on the reply screen and can't figure out how that's done. Or do the people who do that just go through the low-tech process of cutting, pasting and playing with the fonts?

BR


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## chiffonade (Nov 29, 2001)

At the bottom of the box where the post is held, there is an icon for "reply with quote." The original post will show up in your reply box. Most of the time, I like to use parts of a quote because to quote the person's whole message is a huge waste of space if I'm only addressing a small part of it. To do that, I go to the quote and delete the passages that don't pertain to my reply. If you're ever wondering what icons mean, hover your mouse point over one and there should be a definition of what the icon does.


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## kimmie (Mar 13, 2001)

I had two cats named:

- Espresso
- Capuccino


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## coolj (Dec 12, 2000)

You take your parents fine china when you go camping.

you wind up giving food and cooking lessons to people in the grocery store, who are twice your age.

I don't know if this means I've got a culinary obcession, or anything, but I was told by one newbie at work that she learned more about cooking, working one shift with me, than she did in three with the other guy who had at least two years experience on me.

you constantly get crazy ideas for cook books or newspaper columns or opening a restaurant that serves completly different stuff compared to what everyone else serves, ie, a place that only serves chicken wings or baked potatos.


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## jbuder (Jan 29, 2002)

how about loving to entertain for the cooking opportunities, but finding it annoying when your guests interrupt you to talk?


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