According to Dr. Gary Chapman’s love language theory, people experience and receive love in five different ways: acts of service, quality time, receiving gifts, words of affirmation and physical touch. I would argue that there is a missing sixth love language, and naturally, that is food.
Growing up in a home where family dinner was a must and my sister had to make all her food from scratch, it was only a matter of time before I ended up becoming a foodie. Nothing makes me happier than having a full fridge and eating delicious food.
More importantly, I love cooking, especially when I am cooking for others. Cooking a delicious and nourishing meal for others brings me immense joy. Nothing makes me happier than sitting at the table with my friends after a fulfilling meal.
It saddens me that a lot of people my age don’t know how to cook or don’t have any interest in it. Cooking is a fundamental skill that everyone should have. Don’t get me wrong, you by no means need to be a Michelin-starred chef, but being able to feed yourself nourishing food is incredibly important.
When I encourage people that I know to start cooking, I am usually met with one of two responses. The first is that they don’t know how to cook. The good news is that you can always learn! TikTok, YouTube, Instagram or even a cookbook. There are plenty of resources available to learn how to make a good meal. It doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated in any way.
The second excuse I usually get is that they don’t want to cook because their parents aren’t good cooks. I’ve always been confused by this, because you can be a good cook even if your parents are not. The food you make might be even better than anything you’ve ever had cooked by someone else.
I also find that people get hung up on family recipes. If you don’t have family recipes, or you don’t have any you would want to pass along, that does not necessarily mean you cannot create your own loved recipes. If you have a pasta recipe that you love and make it for your friends, and they love it, then they might pass it to their friends. Before you know it you have 10 different people that love a recipe you started.
In my opinion, that’s kind of the whole point.
People become unnecessarily afraid of cooking. The truth of it is, you are going to make some disgusting stuff accidentally. I recently attempted to cook my roommates a buttery lemon pasta. Let’s just say we ordered something for dinner.
Sometimes recipes online sound delicious. They are not always as great in person as they sound in the proverbial space of the internet. Sometimes, though, it is delicious beyond comprehension.
This is where my theory of why people hate cooking comes in. Cooking is a gamble. Sometimes it’s great, and sometimes it’s terrible. There really is no knowing until you try the recipe. The fear of failure, of wasting precious ingredients and even judgment keeps people from getting in the kitchen. The reality is you will never get better if you never try.
All this being said, I encourage everyone to learn how to cook. It is important to feed yourself, and I encourage you to try out cooking for others too. You might just find that you enjoy it! Start out with something simple and go from there. Play around with different flavors, find recipes that you like and take it easy. Don’t stress about it being perfect – nothing ever is.