[abracadaniel]

My grandmother cooked daily and taught her kids to cook. My mother cooked weekly and taught us to use the microwave. Sure anyone can learn to cook, just like anyone can learn to play the piano, but it requires time, money, dedication, and the push to get started. It’s much easier if you were taught some of the basics as a kid, or had an example in your life.

[johnisgood]

It still baffles me that people compare cooking to playing an instrument. It really is not that difficult to cook, depending on what it is. Do people know how to make schnitzel (breadcrumbed meat)? Make fries? Make rice? Make boiled potatoes? Or are those things difficult as well? Making a stew out of legumes is not that difficult either. Boil your legumes, then mix eggs, flour, and paprika together, put it in oil, heat it up for a few seconds, then pour everything into the water you are boiling your legumes in. Put some herbs to your liking. That is literally it. Healthy, delicious stew of any legumes.

[vunderba]

Agreed. The analogies to playing a musical instrument or speaking a foreign language are pretty silly.

Cooking (provided you have access to some simple cookware) is literally printing out the recipe and FOLLOWING THE DAMN INSTRUCTIONS. If that’s beyond someone’s abilities then I weep for the general state of mankind.

[Telaneo]

It's not difficult per se, but you can't throw anyone into a kitchen and expect food to be made as a result. You still need to be taught to some extent. The bar is a lot lower than playing an instrument or many other things, but there's still a bar below which (edible) food will not be made. If you've never been taught and never went out of your way to learn, you won't know how to.

Some people get out of school not being able to read and write, at least to any meaningful degree. The fact that some people get out of school not being able to cook thus shouldn't be surprising.

[abracadaniel]

For someone raised around music, starting a new instrument might not sound very challenging. You could get good at twinkle twinkle little star on the recorder in under an hour. Take carpentry as another example. It’s not hard. It’s not expensive to get into. But, if you never had someone in your life who was into it, then it just never occurs to you to try it.

[ludicrousdispla]

You could open a trendy restaurant in SV called 'Soup Kitchen' serving various stews and goulashes and I am confident it would do very well.