The Real Cooking Mamas
A lot of people look at cooking games like “Cooking Mama” and wonder how such a thing could even get made. But living in Japan for the last few years a find myself asking the question, “Why aren’t there more of them?”
Food culture is huge in Japan. When I first came here I was astounded by how many cooking shows were on television. And not on small cable channels but on the main networks in prime time slots. Talk shows also have cooking segments and housewives are becoming superstars.
America has Martha Stewart who is most famous for her domestic talents. Well at least that is the legal thing she is best known for. In Japan there are an army of superstar housewives all competing for the mindshare of stay at home wives.
There is one such woman who the rest of the world might become familiar with soon. Her name is Harumi Kurihara and she is on the top of the ladder what it comes to idolized homemakers. The New York Times did a report on her and described her as a Domestic Goddess and one of Japan’s “Majime Shufu” or serious housewives. She is currently trying to break into the western market with her books translated into English.
Now in the West, being a housewife is seen in many circles, in an unfavorable light. Women are more often than not also in the workforce and the housewife (desperate or otherwise) is becoming a thing of the past. Japan is going thought these changes as well. Japanese women are entering the workforce in record numbers. But the jobs available to married women are still often fairly low status and low paying so many women are simply opting to work until marriage and then become full time homemakers.
The image of the housewives in Japan is of a noble, hard-working woman responsible for the upbringing and education of children and the running the home. A big part of this is the cooking. Recently, women and the rarer stay-at-home husband are moving beyond the simple family recipes passed down from their parents and are taking cooking classes, watching cooking television programs and buying cookbooks full of recipes from around the world. And women like Mrs. Kurihara have huge bases of worshiping fans.
They want to learn many things from her. For example, the best way to make a bento lunchbox. This is extremely important. A proper bento can make or break a mother’s self-confidence. You see, elementary and Jr. high school students in Japan have school lunch provided almost every day. But on a few special days during the year such as sports festival or class trips the students are allowed to bring a homemade lunch. These lunchboxes are called bentos and they are as intricate and fancy as any of the dishes you will see made on Iron Chef. The presentations are key. These boxes will maybe have the vegetables cut into little flower shapes or chopped egg and beef made to look like a landscape. There are usually little plastic strips that are supposed to represent grass, separating the different food items. They can also be made to look like a kids favorite things. This is represented in the 2 pictures I found.
These cooking Mama’s will work on these bentos for hours and hours, making them look just right. Cooking entire man courses so that they can put a tiny bit of it into the bento. There is a reason for this. You see all of these kids will show off their bentos to their schoolmates who will report on the overall quality of the bento to their own mothers. A bad bento brings shame. A fantastic bento brings the peoples ovation and fame forever. It is quite competitive. At the last school outing I saw a mother appear for no real reason around lunchtime. She said she was checking on her daughter but I saw her sneaking peeks at the other kids bentos. I think she was sizing up the competition.
While not as competitive these cooking Mama’s also have the responsibility to produce delicious and great looking food for their families. So much emphasis goes in to the presentation, and as the Japanese saying goes “The first bite is with the eye” They will pass these traditions down to their own daughters (and occasionally sons). As well as learning new recipes and techniques.
So I really see it as no surprise that a game like Cooking Mama on the DS (and Wii) was made. This allows children to, in a simple way, try to be like mom. In the same way that kids dress up as firefighters or doctors, some little girls and boys can experience what it is like to be a homemaker or a chef. True the games in cooking mama won’t actually teach you how to cook, but they are fast paced, fun and use an enjoyable cooking theme.
Now however there is a piece of DS software that can make you a better cook. Called Nintendo Talk! DS cooking Navi, this software will read recipes to you leaving your hands free to do the actual cooking. You can move to the next step of have things repeated by talking to the DS. This is awesome. At least I think so. I love to cook and the hands free control is a great and innovative use of the hardware. More than that it is just another excuse for people who do not consider themselves gamers to pick up a cute little DS lite. Soon the kids and mom might be fighting about who gets to use the DS. “OK Taro you can use the DS after dinner, but I need to use the DS now to make dinner”. I think that they should use this system for people who want to mix cocktails, they could combine it with a new action game called Drinkin’ Mama. Actually, on second thought that is a terrible idea.
Cooking games and cooing software are showing a new direction in game design. Some people don’t need to kill aliens or save the world. If you can make a fun game with the goal of making a perfect dinner, or software that will help you actually do that then people will buy it.
We might not all live in a world of real cooking Mamas but that doesn’t mean we can’t pretend for a while and maybe make the world a little more delicious. All I am saying is give peas a chance.
April 19th, 2009 at 12:27 am
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