So you’re concerned that some poor sap who can’t afford it is going to read this and start getting more takeout? Would you have the same concern if the article were instead about people with private chefs?
I don’t think I mentioned that this article would be inspiring others-- I think it revels in elitism. When communities are adding food banks regularly for people who can’t afford to feed their families, it offends me to publish a humble brag. Yes.
There are myriad reasons for ordering take-out. And there are myriad reasons why take-out via delivery service is problematic-- not least of which is the inconvenience of e-bikes all over. The one I didn’t mention was imitation.
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Private chef is about $1400 per week generally. I actually wondered if that would be the next iteration of this article.
The original article is reasonably well balanced. I’m not on X, so I’m not aware of how the guy with the copper pans and fancy chopping board ended up being the whipping boy for the whole concept of spending money on home delivery. It’s his money, he can spend it how he likes even if I (or the rest of the world, it seems) don’t agree with that. The sad thing is, he is aware he is burnt out and he is terrified that his 4 year old who can’t read can make a Chik Fil A order on the app - this speaks volumes about the vicious circle of modern life, capitalism or whatever.
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^ This. 
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I think the article is mostly clickbait and RageBait. and it works! What a conversation starter. And, a diversion from other current events that are even more upsetting in other ways.
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The NYT photographer included the copper pans in the background of photo to make the point. The only reason that photo looks the way it does to say the 1000 words, give context. The presence of the pots and pans, and the relative extravagance of the kitchen, adds context to whatever this couple had to say. Others take it from there.
While I posted screenshots and comments from X (no need to log in to the evil site), the same types of comments are being made by us here, by others on Reddit, Blue Sky, Substack, or in NYT comments.
The NYT has been doing this for years . People like reading about the lifestyles of the Pampered. Have you read the Vows section on Sunday? It gives people something to think about and judge a little.
TorontoLife magazine also loves publishing these articles about take-out expenses and the younger generations, and they also get picked apart in the comments, on Reddit and on Twitter.
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It’s effective as clickbait because I see the impact that delivery apps have on my friends who are still trying to run restaurants in exceptional heavy headwinds and there are lives in the balance. For some people it is more than a flippant theoretical discussion. But on the other hand, it is definitely a commentary on culture, capitalism, the vicious circle of modern life, the gulf between the working impoverished, the struggling family and whatever we are calling the people that are just above the struggle that used to be called middle class.
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Absolutely agree.
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Nothing really unusual or “magic” but a lot of coordination. We both always had two full time jobs with commute. Both jobs tend to be quite demanding with often additional work at home (e.g. presentation making, TC with Asia etc.). One child which started this year high school - all schools tended not to be close-by. We cook six times a week and go to a restaurant once a week (Saturday). We don’t do any batch cooking but cook one dish for everybody and cook everyday just the amount for dinner (if there are leftovers it can be lunch for one of us next day). For us the important thing is that both partners do everything and that we plan ahead daily who is doing what, e.g. cooking, shopping for food (twice a week), pick up kid from school etc. etc. Since we have tons of cookbooks, magazines etc we plan dinners ahead a few weeks out. General rule is that a dinner during week shouldn’t take longer than 60 minutes to prepare. One other “rule” we have (related how we both grew up) is that we always have dinner together as family and so that also requires some flexibility when we eat dinner - pretty much anytime between 7-8:30pm depending on all our schedules. Overall it is sometimes about what you would call in German “den inneren Schweinehund besiegen” - “pushing through even if you are tired or exhausted.”
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Huh. I see that behavior with tourists in Berlin on rented e-scooters more so than delivery folks — who are usually immigrants on e-bikes ON THE ROAD, where they belong. And then they just leave the damn scooters anywhere when they got to their pub tour.
Damn kids get off my lawn, why won’t ya.
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This happened last year.
https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comments/1d5lwgk/shawn_micallef_delivery_riders_on_ebikes_are/
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I can never.figure this out either, unless they imagine themselves as tv chefs with a worshipful audience gathered around their kitchen island. I wonder if they install stage lighting?
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an acquaintance built ‘high end’ custom homes . . . on a visit, went along as he check progress on one. owner bought the entire mountain, ‘for the view’ - had a country house built on top.
elevator, four floors, top wrap around deck, basement “cave” with six car garage.
the kitchen - all top end stuff, meg-double fridge, wine fridge, six burner cook top on island - with hood. two stacks of double ovens - and a psuedo “beehive” wood burning oven for pizza/etc - with it’s own dumb waiter to haul wood from the basement…
my builder friend said the kitchen alone cost ~$400k (and that was mid-'80s…)
customer was a man and his wife, no kids. the place was quite remote . . .
so . . . I guess one has to accept that people with lots of money , , , also spend it.
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We had a friend who was a partner in a top London law firm, had a really swish apartment in a trendy part of London. When we visited him once, he ordered food in. His kitchen was amazing - top end appliances and great lighting and storage but all his cupboards were mostly empty and the plastic film on the oven door hadn’t been removed. When we asked why he didn’t use his kitchen (apart from plating up delivered food) he said he didn’t have time. He also remarked having a nice one gave guests a good impression and would help with the value of the property if he chose to sell it. I guess for some people kitchens have uses other than cooking!
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Also, when a person or a couple does not have kids, grandkids, or maybe even nieces or nephews, there’s sometimes going to be more money available for kitchens, pizza ovens, take-out, cats, and dogs, etc.
That said, the people I know who own wood burning pizza ovens (some inside, some outside) are married Italian Canadians, with kids! They use their pizza ovens.
But don’t we all have some things we purchased and never used? We barely used the ping pong table. I gave away my food dehydrator and 2 gas BBQs.
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Their writers do seem to go quite tone-deaf every so often. Or maybe bosses/editors are lazy and don’t pay enough attention. I recall a brief series of maybe 3-5 articles from sometime before the pandemic when they did sympathetic profiles of people who were losing their homes to foreclosure. In the middle of that was a single mom from Atlanta who was being foreclosed upon. Because she quit her $120K job she didn’t hate but didn’t love, without having even explored new employment - then found out the hard way that the employment market was in the ditch. The comment section was predictable and got shut down very quickly.
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I don’t think the staff are tone deaf. The know exactly what they are doing, adjusting the details and tone to up the clicks. Most readers eat this stuff up. Of course, this approach will turn off some longtime readers and subscribers, but that is part of the cost/benefit analysis for the paper.
This article in the current issue of Toronto Life, when most young people are struggling financially.
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I’m super OCD about that kind of plastic film, plus I find it extremely satisfying to rip off, so even just reading this has me wondering how someone can just leave it like that 
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Thanks for sharing. What I will say briefly is that there is still a lot of flattening of difference of life and access to forms of support. For instance, you say you have a commute but do not say what kind or how long. Whether one is in a car, train, bus, bike or on foot matters as does length: Is a 20 minute drive the same as a 90-120 minute multi leg trip? Both are commutes.
And thankfully it sounds like you and your partner have only one job each. And that both of you are around and no one travels for a significant period.
Little things add up and challenge organisation which by your own admission isn’t easy even when you have a partner who is sharing or potentially managing the bulk of the cooking admin.
It can be very illuminating to break down the practices of day-to-day life with people. It shows where a lot of barriers remain because they don’t affect larger groups or imagined ways of being. This isn’t to diminish your accomplishment, but to recognise that managing food can be labour intensive and can include many more steps for some people than others.
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