El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-05-02
Cooking As A Fine Art
Woman Is Fast Demanding Modern
Tools With Which to Work,
Just as Man Has Done.
BY Dorothy Di1 --

MONG the many things that Kan

A MONG the many things that Kan
n sas does well is to teach aspir-
4 = ing girls how to become blue
ribbon cooks. Recently a Kansas
woman engaged one of the graduates
Of the domestic science course to do
culinary stunts in her kitchen. and
thereby congratulated herself too soon.
For said the new cook:
Il can't make pastry without a
marble slab.
I must have a Spatule-
"Also an oven thermometer, some
good scales, a bread mixer, rotary
cream whip. a glass rolling pin and an
The graduate is now looking for an
other situation
But why? Where does the joke come
in? Why is it to laugh?
The expert cook was simply de-
handing the tools of her trade, the
tools she must nave II she did good
work Nobody would see anything
amusing in a carpenter demanding
hammer. and a saw, and plane and
rule If he were starting TO build a
house. Nobody would laugh II pluInber
asked for a soldering iron, and a
wrench when ne went to fix pipe
Nobody smiles If a painter calls for
various sizes and kinds Of brushes
when he fares forth to paint a barn.
Cooking Is "A Fine Art.
why then is it so ridiculous for a
cook to demand the proper instruments
with which to execute her art? Ger
tainly no one will deny that cooking
is fine art. and an exact science to
boot, and the reason we have so much
bad cooking is because the average
cook is forced to Work without the
proper tools.
The cooking school graduates de-
rnands seem laughably absurd to the
average reader. yet a dispassionate
consideration OF them viii snow they
are absolute necessities to turning out
That we should find anything to
laugh about in the cook wanting her
proper tools merely shows. that We are
ignorant, laundering fools, still SUNK
fathOms deep in the slough OF ancient
superstitiOns that make US think that
anything is good enough for woman
to work with. and that it doesn't make
any difference about saving time or
labor.
The man has the latest model nf
self binders and reapers and plOws
on his place If he's a farmer; or II he IS
a banker he has patent adding ma
chimes; or If he is merchant ne has
installed the swiftest and most per
feet automatic bundle carriers on the
market. or if he is a manufacturer he
has the finest high geared machinery
/ tnar money viii DuE- he OOesh 4e I
his employees bungle along with out 81
date tools.
II Men Had ia DO Cooking.
The criticism is frequently made that
women show their lack of intelligence
and executive ability by the fact that
there has been less Improvement in
the domestic art than any other. and
that while men have progressed from
blowing with a crooked stick OF
/ wood TO the automobile plOw, women
are practically keeping house Just Ike
grandmothers did a century ago.
Tt is true that the woman
kitchen hasn't kept pace with the
mans factcry. and that women still
use archaic methods. and tools in
their work. but IL is to be remembered
that If is man who carries the purse
and than when 9ny labor saving de-
vice was to be bought he bought u
for himself and not for his wife
The advent Of the college bred COOK
with her demand for the proper tool
of her trade mcI3zs the beginning o.
a new era in doTcstic life IT takes
houseWOrk out Of the despised class
of mental labor and makes of Il =
fine art. and it shows how pitiful his
been the waste Of woman's toit
through all the year because she lacked
the conveuiences that would have
ughtened her LABOR