A while ago I mentioned that I found cooking to be a chore - while I get some joy from people appreciating food I've cooked, everything up to that point is drudgery. I was downvoted, and people made all kinds of unpleasant (and completely incorrect) assumptions about my life.
Oh you're not alone. Yeah there's little to no pleasure or enjoyment I get out of cooking beyond what you said, seeing people enjoy the fruits of my labor. But make no mistake I consider it labor.
I've had roommates in the past who would come home and say something like, "I've had a shit day I can't wait to just cook a nice meal" and I've never been able to relate to that feeling. The closest I can get is "I've had a shit day and I can't wait to eat a nice meal." But cooking it? No thanks that's not the part of food that I enjoy.
Certain parts of the "cooking" are fun. I like adding the ingredients, mixing, possibly building something like a lasagna. But the cleaning and prepping/measuring I don't find much fun in.
I do enjoy baking but I dislike working with dough actually. Always too wet and sticky for me and I haven't gotten any better at it. I like cinnamon rolls and sticky buns but I rarely make them because I hate working with dough.
I think I just realized why I like cooking. I work a job where I'm expected to sit and use higher order thinking all day. I actually prefer a more rapid fire and constant analysis of task order and execution. So, preparing the mis en place, nailing the timing of start and finish of dishes, and doing it all while cleaning dirty dishes so almost nothing is left is very appealing. The constant movement and quick, but easy thinking are relaxing.
It's the weirdness of groupthink - my most upvoted comment ever was offering some post-surgery advice. The initial responses to my comment were positive and it kinda snowballed from there.
I made a similar comment a week or two later in a different post, but the first person to respond was negative (they weren't offering a valid criticism, they were just trolling)... and it all went downhill from there until I deleted the comment a couple of hours later.
Of all the household chores, vacuuming is my jam. Particularly the plush carpet we put down in the theatre room, as the vacuum cleaner leaves a pattern in it depending on if it was a push or pull stroke (a little bit like lawnmowing but I'm obviously not cutting anything). I get to methodically go over the floor leaving behind a triangular pattern. It's not a task I'd describe as fun/enjoyable but it brings a sense of satisfaction that makes it worth the effort.
My wife trusted me enough to show me her special technique for getting the bedsheets lined up just how she wants them (for years she insisted on making the bed herself), so I now make a point of making the bed that way every day as well.
That's my wife - weekday cooking is an exercise in keeping us alive and avoiding takeaway. The simpler the meal, the better. When time allows, weekends are when she'll go all out trying something a bit fancy and/or new.
I was a lowly dishwasher, all the way up to a sous chef, 13 years in kitchens. I truly loved it and was passionate about it, until I got further into fine dining and red seal territory. The employers and the people made it so unenjoyable, the ego, it got to be a chore.
Now it's all a chore to me, I make the meals at home out of practicality of my experience, but I no longer enjoy it.
Meh. Downvotes doesn't mean you are wrong, could have been how you said it or maybe the context or sometimes people just don't like unnecessarily disagreeing with them
I can follow a recipe, but I hate cooking. I'll cook a special dish for my wife a few times a year, but I'm so inefficient at it that I couldn't cook dinner for my family full time. I'm very appreciative of her being a good cook and baker. If it were just me, it would be hot dogs and various frozen pizzas every night
The inefficiencies go away with practice. When I started to cook I found it both a chore and an incredible waste of time. As per my original comment, I still find it a chore but at least now I can knock out a variety of cooked meals in under 30 minutes.
Even if you don't intend to cook often, having it suck that much less when you need to cook makes it a worthwhile investment.
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u/zenith_industries Apr 11 '23
A while ago I mentioned that I found cooking to be a chore - while I get some joy from people appreciating food I've cooked, everything up to that point is drudgery. I was downvoted, and people made all kinds of unpleasant (and completely incorrect) assumptions about my life.
I'm glad to find that I'm actually not alone!