Yay Cooking!

In the mid nineteen-eighties I was doing commercial copywriting for a company that hired a designer with whom I was to work to convert the company from a media buyer to a publisher—the owner had decided to advertise exclusively through in-house publications.

One day the designer inadvertently revealed an incredible pay disparity between us and I became offended that my skill (the conceptualizing of our policies and practices plus the writing of all copy) was so undervalued compared to hers (designing our newsletter, its ads and all our flyers), so I complained.

It got me nowhere; we both had signed contracts. So I set out to learn the skills she was using to charge so much more per hour. That meant I had to learn a desktop publishing program called Quark Express, the industry leader at the time.

The point of this story is that learning Quark, was my first experience with highly-desired learning. All previous learning had been abstract, either learning for learning’s sake, or for marks, scholarship, bursary or award, but I wanted to learn Quark because I really wanted the skills and to earn more money.

I was excited because I could offer clients two services, thereby earning more while, at the same time, undercutting my single-skilled competitors.

When it came to learning Quark, I discovered something profound: I love learning from people (and detest learning from books). I really wanted to learn Quark,  and I wanted to learn it quickly so I hired the woman who sold me the program to teach me.

I accomplished my goal.

The Great British Baking Show has radically changed my life for the better. It ignited an ember of passion that has grown into an inferno. It learned a lot from the people in that show; they were inspirational for me. Now, I am so charged by the recipes in Plenty; I foresee an endless future of homemade gourmet eating. I am eating like royalty and couldn’t be happier.

Costin got me on o Plenty and Plenty has super-charged the passion ignited by the Baking Show, so…