Eehhh.. I'm a decent cook, I can adjust things for my taste but there's no way I can compete with people who do this for 40h/week over multiple years with kitchen appliances worth as much as a decent second hand car. Hell, good restaurants have access to produce I can't really get since I'm not going to tour 4 farms to make 1-4 portions of food.
Sounds like you're comparing your cooking to the top shelf of restaurants. Most of the mid ones and all of the chains buy frozen goods, fresh produce and ready-made stuff like sauces from Sysco. I promise you, you can compete with Sysco.
Yeah, the cheap shit I win against. Maybe my perspective was/is bad since I already cook unless I'm going to a good place or at least a mediocre place with cuisine I can't cook.
Of course you can. Those appliances have the purpose of making their job faster and more practical. There's no recipe that you can't make at home, and YouTube is full of videos where the top chefs from the world's most famous restaurants show you how to cook their plates at home.
Eehhh.. I'm a decent cook, I can adjust things for my taste but there's no way I can compete with people who do this for 40h/week over multiple years with kitchen appliances worth as much as a decent second hand car. Hell, good restaurants have access to produce I can't really get since I'm not going to tour 4 farms to make 1-4 portions of food.