Choosing Beggars

Lol, it's not a skill issue, and this is an incredibly short-sighted take. My wife and I are not only capable, but quite enjoy cooking, and we still go out to eat frequently. There are a number of reasons to.

For one, restaurants are social. At least once a week we are getting out of the house to meet up with friends for happy hour. No one wants to host that at their house. The whole purpose is to go out. And no one on a first date is going to go to someone's house for a dinner date.

For another, if we don't want to put in the effort for a good dinner, the pre-made stuff from the supermarket is rarely a good substitute, especially as a regular meal. So much is just processed ingredients or allergens my wife can't have. If we want a good, fresh meal, a local restaurant is gonna be better, and for something like an anniversary or even just a date night it's definitely gonna be better than what we can make at home.

And that's not because we're not skilled. It's because good food takes effort. I can and have made beef wellington, or sushi, or duck confit, but I'm not cooking at that level regularly so I'm just simply not going to be doing as good of a job as a professional cook. It's fucking work and sometimes I don't feel like spending 2 hours making an incredible meal after getting home from 8 hours at work.

Restaurants just have more resources and capabilities to make foods we simply cannot make at home. I do not have the time or tools to do 16 hour smoked pork. I can't source fresh squid. I don't have the equipment for Korean BBQ. Should people just be deprived of other cuisines simply because they can't make it at home?

Restaurants also fill a critical need for people travelling, whether for pleasure or for work (but especially for work). Most hotels don't have kitchenettes, let alone kitchens, so forcing the millions of people who travel for work annually in the US alone to either eat fast food, eat only cold food that doesn't need to be cooked, or go hungry is unreasonable. And food is such a fundamental aspect of culture that denying the culinary experience to foreign tourists is depriving people of a valuable cultural experience.

From the other side, bars and restaurants serve a valuable role in providing (potentially) livable-wage jobs that require little formal schooling or training and are resistant to automation. For many people they can be a lifelong career.

There are more to restaurants than just shitty chains like Applebee's, and more reasons to go out to eat than an inability to cook. The industry certainly has problems and could be improved in many ways, but the idea of abolishing it in its entirety is both short-sighted and problematic for a multitude of reasons.