Fake Cook™ started as a small run “zine” in 2010. With less than 100 subscribers, the project soon fizzled out. Creator, Levi Gwaltney, still saw the need for information about food and the American experience. It was a “forest for the trees” scenario. Americans have developed some very specific eating habits, unlike anything else observed in the world. Much of what we eat, today, is purchased at the drive thru, and when the wallet is full, at a sit-down restaurant. When we do eat at home, it is still halfway (if not completely) ready-to-eat.
Fake Cook™, the “zine”, explored where these eating habits came from by comparing what was considered a “top notch” meal one hundred years ago, to what we eat, today. The difference is striking. It is also evident of an underlying truth. In the dinner wars, fast food won. In the 1950s, individuals prided themselves on preparing the most tasty meals at home. Today, it is a side note… a curiosity.
The Fake Cook™ website acknowledges the outright victory of fast food, and poses the question…
What if people cooked fast food and restaurant food at home?
It sounds a bit crazy, but maybe Americans are ready to get back into the breakfast, lunch and dinner battles. We have all been repeatedly disappointed (or worse) by a messed up order. It is almost as if we expect the drive-thru experience to include something horrifically wrong. Maybe… just maybe, Americans will refuse to accept this as normal. Maybe we can take back our meals and settle for nothing less than absolute excellence.
If you want a cheeseburger done right, you’ve got to make it yourself.
Fake Cook™ is devoted to helping you do it right. It is taking lessons from the restaurant industry and applying it to your very own kitchen. Taking what makes fast food so appealing and bringing it home.
We do not need to be slaves to the drive-thru monopolies. How many pink slime, broken ice cream machine, bone meal taco moments does it take for Americans to wake up and brew their own cup of coffee?