Cooking for one

On most nights, Jo Anne Sitjar, a 40something construction project manager who lives alone in Glendale, Calif., faces a familiar question – to cook or not to cook?

"I usually deal with it by eating out," she says. If she's not dining with friends, she'll pick up takeout sushi or citrus-soaked grilled chicken from Pollo Loco – "the lesser of the fast-food evils." The costs, she acknowledges, add up, and the fare is not always as healthy as she'd like.

But eating at home presents its own challenges. "I did the crockpot thing for a while, but the food stays around forever and I got tired of it," Ms. Sitjar says. "I did the Lean Cuisine thing too, but that's really dull, and microwaved food has too much sodium."

These dilemmas ring true to many who live by themselves, which, according to census statistics, now compose more than a quarter of American households – outnumbering those made up of married couples with children. Since few people can afford to eat out every night, a growing number of cooking-for-one classes and solo-serving cookbooks is addressing the shift in demographics, offering not only practical advice but also a sense of camaraderie when it comes to fending for oneself in the kitchen.

"People have a psychological block about cooking for themselves," says Toni Lydecker, a cooking instructor and the author of "Serves One: Simple Meals to Savor When You're on Your Own." "They tend not to bother, instead of thinking of being alone as an opportunity to eat what they want."

Ms. Lydecker and other cooking-for-one instructors and writers take as their starting point the manifold possibilities of preparing meals solo. Having no one but oneself to consider, they say, gives one freer rein in the kitchen and greater license to experiment.

"It's the most creative type of cooking," says Judith Jones, Julia Childs's longtime editor at Knopf and the author of the forthcoming "The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food." "So many people live alone, but don't give themselves permission to make a nice meal that's just for them. You can buy something like veal that you wouldn't necessarily think of as being for one person and have scallopini one night and a nice tenderloin another night."

The prospect of preparing a veal dish might strike fear in the hearts of those ill-acquainted with their kitchens, but teachers of popular cooking-for-one classes around the country are encouraging culinary novices to get creative in different ways. Chief among these is jettisoning traditional notions of food preparation, and along with them, their cookbooks. Another is having students forage in their cupboards and supplementing what they find with fresh ingredients such as fruits, vegetables, and herbs. The idea is that by starting with some low-pressure experimentation, students gradually learn to feel competent behind the counter.

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