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I admit that I have had the same reaction from my colleagues and classmates alike; especially when it comes to baking, actually. They all seem to think that cooking and baking is some magical phenomenon that can only be done with skills that they apparently do not possess. No one really mentions the time factor to me, but rather, the talent/skill factor. They all claim that they are horrible at cooking and baking, etc.

Now, I cook for myself basically, but I just bought a really nice crock pot and have used it every single week since then, finding easy recipes in which all that I have to do is chop some things up, add water and turn it on and walk away. That is certainly not magic. But, I wonder more about what makes people think that such efforts are too hard. Are we now so far removed, generationally-spekaing, from remembering watching our mothers/grandmothers (and guys, too), cook and bake? I rather young (29) and i still remember learing to bake from my grandmothers and mother and cooking with my mother, or even just watching her cook, from an early age. Don't we have that memory anymore?

@Traveller - I hear it especially with the baking. I mentioned that I had to make my bf a chocolate cake for his birthday and one person asked which bakery I was going to and another asked me what cake mix I was using! I'm like, no - I'm baking it from scratch - and I just got a horrified look in response. I'm young too - 25 - and I'm hearing these comments from people who are in the range of 22 - 45. I guess it is a dying breed.

Yup. Sometimes it comments like, "You know you can buy that, right?" Or I'll mention what I'm planning for dinner, and a friend will say, "I cooked last night, I'm not cooking again tonight," like it's some huge burden.

Honestly, though, fast food or carryout isn't faster than cooking for me...I mean, by the time I put on shoes, get in the car, drive to wherever, stand in line, etc...in that time, I could make a simple pasta dish or cook some meat and veggies, and not spend as much money.

I get really weird looks when I say that I bake all our bread. There are only two of us. I make a loaf or two a week, depending on the size of the loaves and what we're eating. It's not a big deal. Depending on what else I'm doing, it's less interruption in my day than a trip to a store.

Or my FIL will say, "If I ate like this every day, I'd be fat." Well, no, when you eat like this every day, you don't stuff yourself, because you know that you'll have something just as good the next day.

i think it's sad.
people are just lazy.
they have no idea what they're missing out on.

i just into baking this year and have used every excuse to bake. my friends are stunned that its all from scratch. they just couldn't believe i made homemade brownies last week. it was soooo easy. almost as easy as a box mix. i take it all as a compliment, especially when i get such good reviews. it's fun to hear them rave and think that i performed something magical when in fact it was pretty easy.

I'm on both sides of this. When I was in my 20s, 30s, and 40s, I cooked every day--but as each decade passed, aspects of what and how I cooked shifted. In my 20s, in addition to daily cooking, I made bread every Saturday and a pie each Monday. In my 30s, I had two children, and the baking went by the wayside except for holidays: pies, cut out cookies, truffles, fudge, fruticakes, cheescakes, jams, pickles, etc. were made, consumed and gifted, but only at holidays...In my late 30s, I left corporate America for teaching, the hardest job I've ever done. And I was at one time the CEO of a multi-million dollar non-profit. And with that shift, I stopped making consumable gifts, pared the holiday cooking/baking back to just what would be consumed at the family dinner/day experience we always host, and I began cooking on Sundays for the coming week, preparing two "major meals" that could be tweaked through the week with as little effort on my--or anyone else's--part as possible. I am now in my 50s. I still cook on weekends for the week during the school year, and try to get back in the kitchen during the summer...'cause I miss it. And I despair for those who have never spent any time in that magical room. And I despair for their children, and their budgets and their sense of what food IS...

When I was at school everyone thought it was weird because none of us had time to eat let alone cook. Now that I'm in the "real" world, it's quite normal.

I literally had to coach a fellow employee to roast broccoli - I had to give her huge encouragement and it was a big thing for her - she was very proud. She had never turned on her oven, despite living in her apartment for over 5 years. She had all this expensive cooking stuff but never used it. I gave her a recipe for roasting broccoli and still had to coach her over the phone on how to do it. She is in her late 30s. I just don't understand. It seems like a survival thing to know a few simple preparations of food. I understand people who don't really like to eat or have any interest in cooking, but it's important to know how to cook a fried egg or just even turn your stove on. I'm not talking making your own pasta. The fact that there was a show called 'How to Boil Water' is very telling. It is a shame.

Unfortunately it really does seem like the basic skills of cooking are being lost on the younger (ie, my) generation... I am the only, and I mean ONLY person my age that I know, who has both the skills and equipment necessary to roast a whole chicken. Yes, that most basic of dinners, roast chicken, mashed potatoes, maybe some carrots or brussels sprouts roasted as well... waaaaay beyond most people my age, it seems. And I have a lot of other young married friends. It seems they are serving their DH's cold deli sandwiches for dinner (aka "cooking" or "playing Betty Crocker" as one friend puts it) or ordering out.
Now granted, I am not making Thanksgiving dinner every night of the week... but come on! Isn't this a basic skill to be learned before leaving the nest?? My parents considered basic cooking skills, as well as balancing a checkbook, two necessary things to know before leaving the house.
The other "dying skill" it seems, is the ability to use leftovers. I guess because so few people cook their meals, the concept of using that leftover chicken in a salad tomorrow night is waaaay beyond.

It is the norm for me. It's healthier and far less expensive. More importantly, it's often tastier! And more fun!

Obligatory remark: Not everyone has the means/equipment/education/ background/etc. to cook for themselves. And I think NYC is unusual in that it's often cheaper to eat out than to cook your own food (or so I've had friends tell me).

I used to have roommates that lived on cold cereal, bagged salad, and canned veggies, dumped in a saucepan and eaten, undrained. And that was the extent of their kitchen time. So sad.

@karynMC - I'm not arguing against that - I guess I was stuck in the context of the comments that had been made and of the post itself, which is entirely different than the food desert/povertyline scenarios.

It's not just the younger generation not cooking. I know plenty of people who say that they cooked when their kids were home and they don't want to do it any more. So they eat our and order in as much as possible.

One of my husband's favorite stories is about one Wednesday night when I was flambe-ing a duck breast and the flame ran up my arm and across the back of my furry sweater without damaging the sweater or me. The part he likes about the story is that whenever he tells it, someone in the audience invariably says, "Wait a minute, it was Wednesday night and she was FLAMBE-ING a duck breast????????" They can never believe that you don't have to wait for the weekend or a holiday to cook a meal!

that is sad. I want to cook for other people, and I would love to have regulars, but I would like for them to eat their own food and use my restaurant as an occasional place to eat. I would love to see them once every week or two and get to know them. I know that some people cannot cook and that is why I intend for my menu to include regular meals; not just fried crap all the time.

One of the reasons I am trying to start my restaurant is because the food quality in the area is horrendous. little or no real flavors, few choices of healthy options, no size differentiation, and servers who don't care. My plan is to have at least 3 different sizes of all meals so that small eaters have a choice as well as huge eaters.

I really don't care about making a whole lot of money, I plan on doing profit sharing with my crew, they worked to make the money so they should reap the reward of their hard work. I just provided an avenue for them to express themselves and be productive.

but as to people that cannot cook, perhaps a cheep basics cooking class would be in order. Just enough to pay for the ingredients and the time of the instructor. Nothing fancy just, the basics principals of cooking for everyday life.

@smallblondemom - As someone who celebrated her last birthday in a burn ward (I am fine now), that story freaks me the hell out!

you know what's even sadder?

people don't even know how to heat food up .... i sell prepared foods and people are always asking, "how do i heat this up?" .... duh.

I love eating out as much as other people, but there is always that thirst in me for cooking. I love the creativity process of it. The joy of it when my dish turns out delicious. The pain of it when my dish turns out not so well. I critic myself and I think that is a part of self improvement.

Most of my friends and co workers don't know how to cook. I'm not talking about multi courses meals here, they don't even know how to make omellette or scramble eggs. They don't know how to make pasta dishes. They said that they don't have time, eating out is more fun and easy, or they just don't have the talent. Cooking at home is not a talent show, I mean you are not on food network or anything. You are at your home, in your own kitchen. Who cares if your food doesn't taste like restaurants dishes, it can be better, it can be worse. Either way, in my opinion, that's a part of living.

I have a friend (a guy for the record) who says he can't justify cooking for one person. I'm not sure what he says if he has friends or family over. He eats breakfast at home (cereal, toast) and then eats lunch and dinner out.

I have another friend who says she "doesn't cook". Not that she can't cook, she just chooses not to.

@laurelie: I don't understand how someone who eats takeout everyday would gain weight cooking for herself? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

@beth1--I hope you're not frying bacon or other spattering fat foods! ; ) Youch!

I love to eat, so I love to cook. It's relaxing for me. Plus it's waaaaaaaaay cheaper than other options. I can guarantee I'm paying at least 1/4 of what those people pay for eating out/processed food/takeout, and mine is better. People who pride themselves on not cooking are wasting their money.

I cook every night as well, and I really enjoy hosting, making things from scratch, and baking for the fun of it. My co-workers, friends, and boyfriend's family all find this completely insane. I really do think it is unfortunate that so many people now rely on processed foods and restaurants/take out. We eat way better food than anyone I know - and for a fraction of the cost. There is such gratification to eating something you made with your own hands, and enjoying recipes and techniques that were passed down from previous generations.

I get this reaction all the time. It's always amusing when people swear that they could never cook for themselves and go on about how I must practically be a certified chef, like I was just born knowing how to cook...um, no. It's called practice! (Though some people definitely have more of an affinity for it.) And it's also funny when people assume that cooking for myself = making fancy dishes.

@therealchiffonade - I work on Wall Street and at my firm we get meals for free - delivery. So that means that most of the people I work with eat take-out for breakfast, lunch and dinner! for me, it's just depressing to never have home-cooked food. For the people I work with it's normal and they love it. A delivery person shepherds their food to their desk for each meal and they never have to budge from their seat or rinse a dish.
I think it's just depressing, personally.

I think NYC is a different animal. I grew up in the Midwest, where a restaurant dinner was a very special occasion. And, everyone knew how to cook, including the "feminists" who simply micro'd dinners. In NYC there's other factors: working til 8/9 pm frequently, very small or non-existent kitchens in rental apts, quality of appliances (my stove had two temps: Inferno and lukewarm), etc.
On the other hand, here on SE we've seen stories of underground dinner clubs in NYC, so somebody's cooking!

@widget, i work til 1am... and i cook before i go to work (most of the time)

I know this will sound overly dramatic, but learning how to cook changed my life. I was really depressed earlier this year, and a bunch of people suggested I take up a new hobby to make myself feel better. I thought about what I could do that would be both enjoyable and productive, and I soon realized that food is one of very few things about which I get genuinely excited. So, I decided to hone my cooking skills. I really enjoy the sense of accomplishment when I make something yummy, and I think that's helped my overall mood to improve.

I think more people should try cooking their own food, although I do realize that some people (like my mom) have tried and just don't enjoy it. It's like any other hobby, but in my opinion, all grown-ups should have at least basic kitchen knowledge.