Put me down as someone who likes to cook. My reasons are fourfold.
I started cooking around 1999 or so. I’d just broken up with my live-in girlfriend because she’d decided that (a) she was more lesbian than bisexual, and (b) irrespective of (a), I was an enormous jerk. Which I was, but I was trying not to be. Anyway, I was living solo for the first time in a while, and I was feeling lonely. Ordering pizza or whatnot, or microwaving a frozen dinner, made things even worse, so I started studying cookbooks and putting together dinners so I could feel, I dunno, normal.
The second reason is that I find the process of cooking things, especially from scratch and even more so as part of an entire meal, to be an enjoyable and relaxing process in and off itself. I like figuring out what dishes go well together; I like deciding what order the various dishes need to be begun so that everything is ready at approximately the right time; I like putting the process of making pastries especially from scratch. Cooking is simply fun.
The third reason is that I’m a tad persnickety. If I make a sweet potato pie myself rather than buying one from Kroger, I can be sure to get the crust exactly the way I like it, not the way another baker likes it. (And yes, I consider that baking is a subset of cooking, not an entirely different discipline.)
The last is ego. I enjoy the positive feedback I get from people I feed, which is part of the reason I keep making pastries even though I don’t eat most of them. Stoopid diabetes.
Anyway, that’s just me. Do you like to cook? If yes, can you articulate your reasons? If not, why not?
I do like to cook. I’m not great at it… I still read along with recipes even if I’ve made them before, but I like to tweak them. Cooking’s about the only creative outlet I have these days, and I find it relaxing as well.
I also feel like it’s one of my most important contributions to our household. I do all the meal planning, and I need to make sure that leftover chicken gets made into that quiche. We also need to eat it on the proper night, because I want the veggies to be fresh, or that’s the night most of the kids will be around, or whatever.
I love to cook. Taking numerous ingredients, doing things to them, winding up with something better than just the sum of the parts is just rewarding. I’m not really “artistic” in any way, other than cooking.
I don’t love to cook, but I have been cooking way more of late than I used to. The family used to rely on fast food way more often than now. Cooking is healthier, cheaper and makes me feel useful. Thankfully, however, the kids are now learning how to cook their own meals.
I’m not that into cooking. I can do it. But, like many things in life, it seems like the effort overtakes the reward. I’ll “cook” a sandwich, or some eggs, and sometimes grill a steak. But I’m not interested in long prep times or heavy clean up requirements.
Really enjoy it because I’m good at it. It started out as a sop to boredom 40 years ago or so, when my wife was working days and I was working nights. Daytime TV was even worse then than now, so I started looking at recipes in a large cookbook by either Better Homes and Gardens or some other brand. It had a green cover, is about all I remember.
Boredom relief turned into stress relief, as I realized that chopping up vegetables was less of a legal problem for me than chopping up my boss or my wife. I ended up making almost all dinners for a family of six for about 20 years, as my ex was a lousy cook.
As the years went by and a lot of trial and error also went by, I started transitioning from amateur cook to knowledgeable cook, and to having a broad on-board information base about what goes with what and how to create dishes out of ingredients at hand. A few classes on the basics, including soups, stews, and sauces went a long way toward being consistently successful in the kitchen.
There’s just a real sense of satisfaction in turning out a meal that is all done at the same time, is flavorful, and is appreciated by others.
I like to bake, even though it’s a pain in the ass sometimes (looking at you, danishes)
I don’t consider baking and cooking to be the same thing unless maybe it’s a chicken pot pie.
Cooking is alright, but I don’t find it relaxing. Too much timing involved and after years of cooking I still don’t have it right. Unless I just fully chop all the vegetables and meat beforehand, in their entirety, I’ll always get something mis-timed and become rushed as I realize the water’s already boiling or the oven’s already hot and I’m still chopping, etc. I don’t like chopping things up, so I get no enjoyment out of that either way I do it. And getting the main dish and sides to finish at the same time! Ugh.
Then it’s a lot of standing there pushing the food around from time to time. No point in leaving because I can’t really do anything else in 4 minutes and I don’t want a fire in the kitchen either. Then there’s stuff like ah-ah, don’t let the spices cook for more than 30 seconds! Or a white sauce and ah-ah! Have to stir it continuously! You want a nice marinaded beef? Ah-ah! Remember to do that the day before you actually want to eat it!
I think maybe the one reason I like baking more is simply…I don’t have to chop anything. You just pop all that stuff in a bowl, mix it up, and put it in the oven. Just like cooking, I don’t like recipes that make me wait or do things on very short timers as much as the ones that don’t. Haven’t made a cheesecake in a while because I have to make it the day before I want to eat it, etc.
I like the food I make and I like how I can make it cheaper and healthier than a restaurant, but it’s still annoying. My husband does most of the cooking but he’s not too fond of it either.
Also, seriously, if you’re going to say “put in some salt, cumin, cilantro, chili powder, garlic powder, whatever to your taste!” you gotta give me SOMEthing. I’ve never made this recipe before, I don’t have even the slightest idea if I should start with one teaspoon of each spice or if that’s too much. I can tweak after you’ve given me some sort of starter ratio. Don’t act like your readers all know what we’re doing - that’s why I’m reading a darn recipe.
I love to cook, and I am very good. But I am married to a woman who loves to cook even more than I do, and who is excellent at it. So my efforts are generally relegated these days to manning the grill and baking, which she admits I am much better at.
Being a bachelor for as long as I was meant learning to cook, and my taste buds demanded that I learn to do it well.
I don’t like cooking. I like baking. It’s precise, you follow the recipe the same way every time and voila! You get the same thing. Cooking is kind of bullshit. And I’m not entirely comfortable pan-frying meat.
That being said, I have made sure to have about half a dozen meals I can cook really well. So I can entertain, and I can cook delicious food, and I even enjoy those meals.
Generally, though, if I were left to my druthers, I would learn to cook, but I would probably be 90% vegetarian.
I like to cook, and am pretty good at it, but don’t do it as much as I’d like since my wife works at home. If I cooked we’d be eating at 9 pm. She is also very good at it.
My father came from a restaurant family, and he ran a lunch counter before the war, and actually taught my mother how to cook better. I learned from him in Boy Scouts, and also learned even in the '50s that there was nothing odd about men cooking.
I also like it because recipes are algorithms and I’m a computer scientist.
When I retire I’m going to start going through our cookbook library and cook lots of things that appeal but which we’ve never had time for.
I like shopping, at least for food, clothes, books, and guns. But then I’m a freak.
On a day that’s not the first of October, I’ll start a poll in which to discuss shopping propensities. Unless somebody else wants to do so first, of course.
Food shopping is the only shopping worth doing. Everything else is a pain. But selecting ingredients, planning menus, experimenting with new recipes…rapture!
I dislike cooking. Baking can be fun, but baking is also entirely optional - you only do it when you feel like it. Cooking is a daily obligation if you want to eat.
My reasons for disliking cooking: 1) I’m not all that fond of eating, so I’m not generally motivated by the tastiness of the product. 2) My household has four picky eaters, and the foods we’re each willing to eat don’t have a lot of overlap. If I cook something, it’s not like other people are going to enjoy it. 3) I’m messy. I hate cleaning up after myself. 4) There are a lot of other things I’d rather spend my time doing, so I resent food prep for taking up my time and energy. 5) I’m not especially good at it, so I often find it frustrating when things don’t go well.
ETA: On the other hand, going to the farmers’ market is typically one of the highlights of my weekend.
Since you insist on perpetuating the whole silly “Baking is a whole 'nother thing from cooking, not a subset thereof,” I am going to have to do something cruel to a randomly chosen Philadelphian to chastise you.
I don’t like cooking or food shopping. I’ve got so many other things to occupy my time and any time spent cooking (and then cleaning up) just seems wasted.
I love cooking! I plan menus, do the shopping, and I’m good at timing the components so the meal is done all at the same time. I like to bake, too, but it’s not quite the same creativity-wise.
