[nraf]

Many of these items are complety arbitrary. As someone who's been cooking some pretty elaborate dishes for over a decade, I don't actually recall ever coming across these two distinctions.

Why is cinnamon sugar "composite" whereas 5 spice is atomic? Who defines these? Are you suggesting that if you use packaged cinnamon sugar on donuts you can't claim to have made them?

For reference, I mostly roast and grind from whole spices. If I need garam masala, Chinese 5 spice, Lebanese 7 spice, etc, I'll make it from scratch. If I new cumin or coriander powder, etc, I'll grind them in my spice grinder.

Are you suggesting that jarred pasta sauce and pizza are different to each other? Following your criteria, I'd classify both as composite.

Not to say that I disagree with most of the list - there's a distinction between highly processed and cooking dishes from scratch, but it's more nuanced than what you've presented here.