Feature on Mark Bittman: In the name of better eating everywhere

My father first showed me a Mark Bittman video and accompanying article on his blog, “Bitten,” when I was 17. Sure, I was growing out of my picky eater phase by then, but I was certainly not a foodie. I loved the act of eating well before I started thinking about how whatever I was eating was created, and Mr. Bittman was certainly a force in changing how I thought about food forever. Mark Bittman’s wealth of culinary knowledge and no-nonsense writing style has made him more than just a food writer. Bittman is a teacher who comes from the same position as most Americans who cook, which gives him the hard attained ability to inspire people to care about food.
Though it might be my own increased interest in food that brings this to light, people across this nation and across generations appear to be thinking about food more. There is no definitive origin of this, but the heightened awareness about environmental degradation’s impact on food supplies and the attack on high fructose corn syrup might have something to do with it. There are more local food cooking classes, farmers markets, and home-cooked meals from scratch have returned to countless dinner tables after being neglected for so long. Bittman has been a home cook since the sixties, and is committed to making that experience creative and not a chore.
Bittman has been writing about food since 1980. In that decade, he worked his way up the ladder to become editor at Cook’s, the magazine that would transform into Cook’s Illustrated. In the year of my birth, 1990, Mark began writing for the New York Times. His weekly column, “The Minimalist,” showcases recipes from around the world, slightly modified for the home cook, all of which are simple in practice, but do not compromise quality or flavor in exchange. Even with recipes and accompanying videos on more exotic cuisine like Galician-style octopus, Mark makes food that may not be viewed as simple or even pleasant to most of his readership’s palettes, accessible and enjoyable.
Bittman writes on his website, “I am not a chef, and never have been. . .I’ve never had any formal training, and I’ve never worked in a restaurant. None of which has gotten in the way of my mission to get people cooking comfortably, simply and well.” What sets Bittman apart from so many other food celebrities (Jamie Oliver and Michael Pollan) is that he equips his readers with chef-like skills that get people back to eating real food that rivals the flavors of any five-star chef. For Bittman, it is not just about cooking easy, simple dishes. It is about breaking down some intense barriers that have been built up for many years about what can and can’t be cooked by any given person.
With his bounty of knowledge in the name of better eating everywhere, comes a need for a variety of media for teaching and sharing with the audience -- a weekly recipe column of 300 words or less (excluding the recipe) is not enough. Mark, then, turned to books.
Twenty years after coming to the New York Times, his bestselling, groundbreaking, franchise-starting, book How To Cook Everything has celebrated its tenth anniversary, and is in its second edition. The sheer girth of these books, How to Cook Everything has just shy of 1,000 pages of recipes, and about 40 pages more of index and tips and tricks, is representative of the time and effort Mark has spent just learning. This attention to detail and striving towards comprehensiveness makes How to Cook Everything appealing to go back to -- his pages forge a deep bond of trust between Bittman and his reader. It was the best 19th birthday present possible.
The supplemental books to How to Cook Everything, including How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and the 6 other books that have some word or phrase following How to Cook Everything show that Mark’s goal is to never stop learning and continue the discussion about food that is as nourishing, and as necessary, as eating.
Most recently, his appetite for knowledge has filled the pages of his latest book, Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating. This book not only presents Bittman’s findings about the links among eating habits, certain diseases, and environmental degradation, but also lays out strategies for how to improve our situations not only for our health, but also for the sake of the planet. In the shadow of acclaimed food writer and de facto authority on sustainable food, UC-Berkley professor Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food), Bittman’s Food Matters picks up on the theory that Pollan championed, and gives us recipes to make the next step. Rising to stardom during the largest boom in food celebrity since Juila Child, Mark Bittman is not just an activist for simple cooking and good food, he is an activist for a better world through food.
In all of his texts, Bittman gets right to the point. He uses specific cooking terminology, like the names of various cuts (julienne, chiffonade) but not to the point that he’s writing in another language. He does not merely teach his readers how to follow recipes, instead, he empowers them to make their own culinary decisions with confidence. Be it his nonchalant attitude towards cooking times and measurements (he eyeballs just about everything), or his frank calls to action in Food Matters, Mark Bittman bites off what could normally be a bit too much to chew and serves it up in accessible portions that make his readers want more. Mark Bittman is not a chef, he is a man who cares. It is only by caring that there can be a hope that others will care as well.