What percentage of personal Instagram accounts have been used to post photos of meals being made? Were I to venture a guess, I’d wager that the percentage here is quite high. And that’s understandable — if you’ve cooked a meal you’re proud of, you probably want to share that with the world.
There’s sharing the news of your delicious meal and there’s turning your delicious meal into a half-baked philosophy, and it’s when the latter comes into play that things get a little weird. Cue podcast host Joe Rogan, who closed out 2021 by sharing a photo of some steaks he was grilling.
The steaks themselves looked quite tasty. Rogan’s commentary, however, is when things got weird. “I have become obsessed with cooking meat over fire,” Rogan wrote. “I get prepared for it. I make sure I’m hungry before I cook it.”
“The smell of the smoke and the aroma of the crackling meat ignites some ancient genetic memories,” he continued. “It makes cooking and eating significantly better.”
As countless people on social media pointed out, Rogan’s commentary made it sound as though he was the first person to discover the pleasures of both grilling and eating when you’re hungry. His allusion to “ancient genetic memories” ratcheted things up a notch. Sometimes, grilled meat can be delicious on its own, without any ancient genetic memories involved.
As The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle pointed out in a seemingly unrelated thread, thoughts that come to mind while cooking can lead to profound reflections on life and one’s place in it.
Maybe it’s just time to let grilling be grilling. One does not need “ancient genetic memories” to appreciate a well-cooked meal, after all — and while Rogan’s commentary is bizarre, it’s far from the most bizarre thing he said in 2021, or the most dangerous.
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