“Why does the occasional takeaway mean that anyone is losing the will to cook?”
It doesn’t. But many people are virtually living on the stuff. The majority of food does not travel very well. This is particularly so of Indian and Chinese dishes, and especially so if you are last on the list of the eight or ten the delivery bloke has to take round. Half the pleasure of eating out is exactly that – eating out! Somebody else cooks it, brings it to your table whilst you have a drink and clears all the mess up afterwards. I’ve never seen the attraction of takeaways especially when you take it away yourself. If you’re in the restaurant why not just sit down and eat the stuff as soon as it is cooked?
I (very unfortunately)have, not too far, from me a well-known “restaurant” chain whose main sponsor is a clown with a red nose called Ronald. I’ve seen people take their food from there, get on a bus for four or five stops and get off (with the food still uneaten). How daft is that? I’ve also followed them down the road when they’ve taken out four cups of coffee on a plastic tray. They walk for at least five minutes (when I turn off) still with their drinks. How difficult is it to buy a jar of coffee and boil a kettle? I despair. Mind you, I took a sip of a McDonald’s coffee about thirty years ago and I would delay drinking any more of it for as long as I possibly could so perhaps it’s not such a bad strategy.