I just had another thought whilst watching Masterchef. I just had this sudden revelation that everything is better when it’s made from scratch!

Cooking

In an earlier episode the contestants were heavily criticized for using store-bought mayonnaise and not making their own from scratch. Cooking is definitely not my forte so I would have no idea where to start with this! The best I can do is squeeze my own orange juice with an electric juicer. I don’t think there’s anyone who would disagree that eating or drinking something that’s been made fresh and from scratch is the best. It’s better for your health, it tastes a lot better, and it can even save you money! My sister bakes her own bread with a bread making machine and the smell is just divine and the bread tastes just amazing. Nothing can compare to supermarket-bought food when you make your own from scratch.

Web Design

I think a lot of people don’t realize just how long it takes to create a website and why it takes so long. It looks so simple anyone can do it, right? Or why not just buy a template and save yourself a whole lot of money. To me, using a template is like using store-bought mayonnaise and using someone else’s recipe. At best it will taste store-bought. A real chef would create their own recipes. A real web designer will create a site from scratch and write all the code from scratch and every site will be custom-designed. On the issue of graphics… anyone can use clipart and create something but a real artist/designer will draw/design things from scratch and I’m pretty sure the difference between the two is obvious to everyone.

Photography

I’d like to think that I’m semi-decent at photography and Photoshop and I think part of the reason for that is because I learnt how to do it from scratch. I learnt on an old manual SLR camera (that’s right… no auto focus function!), I developed negatives in a darkroom and spent many many hours developing photos in a darkroom. I came home stinking of chemicals but I absolutely loved it. I even knew how to ‘dodge’ and ‘burn’ before I used Photoshop’s version of it. Even when I use my little Canon G9 I never use the auto setting. Once you know how things work you’ll never want to use auto.

Fashion Design

I’m not a great sewer but I have been sewing from a young age, and made my own high school formal/prom dress. The concept of creating your own cutting pattern totally baffled me though. When I was studying visual communication design we were in the same faculty as the fashion design students and I remember seeing some of them working and creating all their own patterns from scratch. I was in awe. I’m pretty sure that for a fashioner designer (or wannabe) there is nothing more satisfying than creating patterns and designing your own fabrics from scratch.

Conclusion

• Things are better when they are made from scratch
• Most people are satisfied with not making things from scratch due to time constraints (or they just have no interest)
• The people who know how to do something from scratch are likely to be passionate about the subject, maybe an expert on the topic and do it for a living, and want to do it from scratch even when there are alternatives
• Sometimes you want the from scratch quality but lack the skill to do it yourself, in which case you pay someone else to do it for you (such as eating out at a nice restaurant, buying clothes instead of making your own, paying someone to design something for you…). In this case you would spend a lot more than doing it yourself but it pays to use someone else’s expertise. You make them happy, and you make yourself happy too!
• Tools are just tools. Kitchen Aids, Photoshop, sewing machines, top-of-the-range SLR cameras… they are all just tools. Simply owning a tool does not automatically make you a chef, designer, or photographer, etc. You still need the relevant skills to back it up and a good (insert-job-here) could use any cheap, basic tool and still do a good job with it. But also, I think you can only truly excel at something if you have the passion for it.

Do you agree or disagree with me?

Go on.. this weekend go and make something from scratch. I dare you to give it a try! You’ll feel so accomplished. I also found a similar discussion here on Metafilter.