WITH the advent of more fast food joints in neighbourhoods across the country, certain culinary skills are disappearing. One of those is the simple skill of chapati making.

Okay, I say simple but it not as easy as it looks and many a weekend has been spent trying to perfect the rounded flatbread.

Now, some readers may think this is not a major issue and three days into the new year we should have much more important stuff to worry about. But hear me out.

The chapati is the staple diet of millions across the planet and cooked primarily by women (although not in your average restaurant). But some feel the skill is not being passed on from mother to daughter.

In my household the men were taught how to cook a chapati as well as the women. I have to say my mother was a little more forward thinking or didn’t think we should get away with not cooking for ourselves. The same cannot be said for 90 per cent of other men.

I guess there are a few reasons for this cultural shift in attitudes. More and more women are working and have less time to cook the chapati and secondly, it is essentially easier to buy it than cook it. You can’t go wrong for 30p a chapati and I have to say if it wasn’t for these shops we would be in a whole load of trouble.

So, where does that leave us? I have spoken to women who feel they must conceal the fact they can’t cook a chapati and men who hide the fact their wife can’t! I kid you not. There is also this notion that these skills, although necessary in the villages, are no longer of any use here.

We are seeing a cultural shift due to generations no longer fitting into the lifestyles of their parents and grandparents. Many may just see this as a changing of the times but others are a little more apprehensive it seems.

I was speaking to one shop owner who sells traditional products. He has seen a rise in the number of ‘chapati making’ utensils in recent years, especially to younger couples.

Many are finding that life with quick and easy fixes is not all that is cracked up to be and maybe a step back is indeed a step forward. Makes sense.