Simple Is Good

One of the greatest appeals to me about barbecue is its simplicity. I have, for as long as I can remember, been a fan of simple. I still am. When it comes to cooking, it is harder to get simpler than barbecue. You need a hunk of meat, some spices, a heat source, a cooking vessel and some time. If you want the opposite of this, find the steps for properly doing a long, brown braise. Don't get me wrong, I would willingly sit down and eat a large plate of braised meat. I'll even from time to time go through the time and effort to cook like this. I like to cook. A lot. But it's this sort of thing that intimidates people that say "I don't know how to cook". So let's talk for a few minutes about the things that simple buys you, in addition to some delicious food.

• Simple is easy to learn. Most people like to feel a sense of accomplishment when they undertake something. This feeling provides positive reinforcement and will often spur further learning.
• Simple is easy to teach. I like to share what I learn if I think other people can make use of it. I like doing things with my kids. I like seeing others succeed. I've always found the best measure of whether I really know something is if I can teach it to others.
• Simple is repeatable. How many times have you sat down to a fancy meal at a restaurant, enjoyed it thoroughly and then tried to recreate it at home, only to be sorely disappointed? Or maybe you made something once that came out fantastic, but have been unable to repeat the experience? My own personal experience with this is an orange sauce I made years and years ago for a homemade orange beef. The sauce was great. I don't know what the hell I did, though, because I've been unable to recreate that particular sauce since.
• Simple is usually economical. The ingredients for simple things tend to be cheap. The materials used are often few and easily available. And there is usually little waste. On the surface simple and complex dishes may appear similar in cost, but if you total up all the effort required from purchase to prep to cooking to cleanup, simple will almost always be a win here, as well.

So to sum it up, simple is cheap, easy and you can get consistently good results. To me it doesn't get much better than that.