Mark Bittman (Photo: Evan Sung)

The Feed recently caught up with New York Times columnist Mark Bittman (a.k.a. The Minimalist) to discuss his latest cookbook, Kitchen Express—and find out what makes him tick.

The Feed: You’ve spent a good part of your life explaining why you don’t need a fancy kitchen to make good food, and it’s pretty clear by now that cooking at home is better for your wallet and your waistline. So why aren’t people cooking more?

Mark Bittman: First of all, people don’t get that message. Second of all, people don’t always do what’s best for them. You have two generations—maybe more—of people who grew up without thinking it was normal to have someone in their house cook dinner for them and for everybody to sit down together. You can make a peanut butter sandwich in the time it takes to brush your teeth.

What would you say is the most important skill to develop in the kitchen?
The ability to go in there and start. I am the least impressive cook you will ever see. I am completely without knife skills, I screw things up all the time. When I’m in the kitchen I’m not obsessively trying to create the perfect dish; I’m trying to put dinner on the table. Comparing yourself to the people who cook on television is like comparing yourself to Andre Agassi. If you can drive you can cook.

What would you say to someone who just hates washing dishes and would rather not deal with the lines at the supermarket?
I don’t know, but what really pisses me off is when people say they don’t have time to cook and then they watch other people cook on television.

How do we get more men to cook?
We do have more men in the kitchen. When I started cooking there were zero men in the kitchen. Dumb as it is sometimes, we have food television to thank for this: There’s not a stigma attached to cooking anymore. I don’t think men think it’s a feminine act or it’s emasculating. As people cook more, men will cook more. But it’s important that it not be seen as a woman’s job. It’s moving in the right direction.

Is Kitchen Express—and a slew of other recently published “fast” cookbooks—a response to the Slow Food movement or what has been called the “precious” organic or local food movement?
Well, I don’t have any friends who say, “I’m in the Slow Food movement.” But there’s nothing anti–Slow Food about this. I don’t care if something takes two hours, as long as I don’t have to stand there.—Lara Rabinovitch