David Arrick owns Butch Bakery, a bake shop with a masculine twist. (
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When Gerald Ellis is trying to woo a woman, he brings out the big guns — homemade pesto pizza, broccoli-and-cheddar soup, and enchiladas. Ellis isn’t trying to entrance his dates into a carb coma. He’s merely hoping that his at-home cooking skills will score him some brownie points with NYC women. “I think for guys who do cook, it sort of sets them apart on some level from other guys,” says the 27-year-old attorney who lives in Astoria.
Ellis, who started cooking three years ago, now makes dinner about three times a week. He even bakes his own bread. “Most girls don’t have the highest expectations for guys, and so when they learn you can cook . . . [it’s] a big deal.”
Looks like the kitchen tables have turned, as New York ladies throw down their spatulas. After all, who needs to cook when you have an entire contingent of “Top Chef”-watching Romeos to woo you with their own culinary delights?
Kelly Ann Hargrove, recreational program director for the Institute of Culinary Education, has noticed a “pretty big leap” in the number of men signing up for the NYC school’s recreational cooking classes. She says 32 percent of the school’s students are now male, as opposed to 20 percent just two years ago (in the past nine months, the school’s seen a prominent increase in 20-something guys).
Look at any Manhattan restaurant and you’ll see enough dudes working the stoves to round up an amateur baseball team. But it’s only recently that men have started to take over the home kitchen, too.
Who do women have to thank? For one, the Food Network, for making the act of filleting a fish a masculine affair. And also the recent recession, for kicking a decent number of gainfully employed men out of the office and into aprons.
“I think the roles have sort of reversed in a way. You have a lot more stay-at-home dads,” says David Arrick, 43, who owns Butch Bakery, a New York-based cupcake company with a masculine twist (think camouflage icing). Of course, it goes beyond the stay-at-home dad phenomenon. The bulk of these new home-based dicers and fryers are single men looking to use their cooking prowess to score points with the ladies. Hargrove estimates that more than half the men taking classes at ICE are single.
“[Cooking] is now seen as a real talent . . . something that requires intelligence,” says Hargrove.
“It’s become equated with being well-traveled.”
Arrick, who is single and lives in the West Village, says it gives him great pleasure to steam dumplings or whip up chili for his lady friends. “I think there is something endearing about coming home and seeing a man roasting a chicken,” he says.
In the olden days of courtship, a woman who cooked for her suitors was illustrating what a great wife and caretaker she would make. But now, it’s men who are using cooking to boost their desirability.
And women? Well, they’ve become more comfortable with just making reservations.
“As for having a boyfriend that cooks, and does so as a hobby, it is just really awesome,” says 31-year-old Aryanna Corniel.
“Having homemade dinners lovingly prepared is . . . one of the most delicious ways to stay connected.”
You don’t need to convince Spencer Walker of that fact. “I kind of drop hints when I meet some girl that I’m interested in. I talk about food and the fact that I used to be a chef,” says Walker, 32, who penned “Cook To Bang,” a guide to what men ought to cook to bed a woman (such as “miso horny cod”). “I rarely ever date a woman who’s as interested in cooking as I am,” he admits.
Not that he lets the discrepancy in skills get him down. In fact, Walker basks in his kitchen dominance — and advises single men to do the same. Cooking for dates “is effective,” Walker explains. “It’s cheaper than a restaurant, and then you become the dessert.”
Elvis Hanis, 31, who has been taking cooking classes at ICE about twice a month, couldn’t agree more. Despite coming from a family where men only entered the kitchen on special occasions, Hanis cooks for his wife, Priscilla, four times a week.
He credits the Food Network with making it OK for him to head up the home kitchen. Asked if he wished his wife cooked more, Hanis adamantly says no. “I think that every time you make a good meal, it’s like winning something, like a competition. And if she were also a cook, maybe I wouldn’t do it as much and wouldn’t feel as special. No, I’m OK being the only one,” he says. Though he quickly adds, “I do wish she cleaned the dishes more.”
dschuster@nypost.com