Okay maybe this isnt the best demographics here but like I mean as in if you know someone who’s Gen Z, do they have a “idk how to cook” issue?
(Please don’t be like “omg its easy, how could you not know” in the comments, be nice in the comments okay 🙈)
Every Human needs to learn to cook. Not a gourmet 12 course meal. Just cook simply to feed yourself. This is a basic skill.
I don’t disagree, but the number of things “every human needs to learn” has become utterly impossible.
Cooking, sure.
Cleaning and housekeeping, yeah, okay.
Managing your money, banks, pension, boring stuff. Ugh.
Media literacy (understanding author’s biases, checking sources, etc.), uhh, getting pretty hard, but not learning this can end up destroying your life.
How to use a computer, and how to use Windows and MS Office in particular, because you’re going to have to do that at some point whether you want to or not. Ugh, getting a bit tedious now. And the software keeps changing so you have to re-teach yourself every now and then.
Identifying scams and phishing, and what to do when you encounter one. That’s a real tough one, and keeps getting harder faster because scammers continue to invent new tricks.
Politics. Gotta know a thing or two, and who to vote for (if you live in a democracy).
Detecting deepfakes and AI propaganda. Maybe count this under media literacy, but it’s a totally new thing that everyone needs to know.
How to use public transportation. Can be really difficult in some places, and always very intimidating the first time you do it.
The list goes on and on and on. Every single human is expected to be Superman now. No, I refuse. Fuck that.
I’m shit at cooking. I will avoid cooking as much as possible unless my life depends on it. And I rely on my family and the society around me to keep me fed. I repay in other ways. I can fix just about anything around the house. And almost any computer trouble. My family relies on me to do those things.
I’m not surprised that people can’t cook. The world is impossible to navigate.
Well said. Don’t even need to spend money to learn. Go to web. Find interesting tasty recipe… Try it out. Leftovers for lunch or freeze. I’m gen x and grew up cooking. Trust me - eat microwave pre made crap too much and you’ll be fat with ass cancer before you know it.
or is that just a minority?
I mean, where? Things like this depend entirely on your local culture and policies.
I read that theres a global phemonmeon ranging all the way from US to China and im not sure if the mainstream media is right and kinda wanna hear annecdotes. But I’m gonna assume mainstream media probably excludes “poor” countries (since they dont have the luxury that “rich” countries have)
Apparantly this issue is even worse in China because of high tech (in terms of smartphones and app usage) combined with the labor is cheaper so Gen Z Chinese can afford delivery services to be used frequently.
Just for context, a hell of a lot of Boomer men (and those men before them) could barely warm up a can of soup because cooking was women’s’work, despite most “great” chef’s being men at that time. Gen X men were a little better, but not by a lot. I’m Gen X for context.
It really only became widely desirable / fashionable for men to cook with the Millennials came along. Before then, the ladies were expected to learn how to cook from other ladies, but of course only some of them had role models to teach them.
tl;dr everyone cooking is a relatively recent phenomenon, and as all the commenters here say, it’s a skill one needs to learn. Thanks for coming to my mini-TED talk.
As a millennial, I only learned to cook as self-defence; my mother was a shitty cook. On top of that she regularly did some diet stuff while I was underweight. Virtually none of my male peers did much beyond heating stuff up.
My friend’s boomer aged parents got a divorce at like age 75. Nobody really saw it coming. His dad sent us a picture of some stew he tried to make and I didn’t even know you could make stew so bad. I could just tell from the picture. My chef roommate went over and showed him some instructions and tips on how to cook.
My problem is that I can cook but never have the willpower to after work, so I usually don’t eat or eat some junk
As far as I know cooking (and no, shoving something in a microwave is not cooking ) isn’t an ability you’re born with, you need to learn it from someone.
Yes, I do know Gen Z who cook. I even know Gen Z who meet up with friends to cook together. Not because “cooking is so easy”, most of them learned it from their parents, but that’s to be expected because where I’m from most people cook on a daily basis.
I guess it depends on where you’re from and whether cooking is a regular thing there, then you just learn it like you learn how to use the washing machine or the hoover.
Cooking is different than using a washing machine. A washing machine is basically a “microwave that cleans your clothes”… as mean as in “put the stuff inside, press some buttons, and wait”, well with just one extra step of adding detergent but yea the point is you dont have to actively monitor it through the whole process, and have some leeway after its “ready” (cuz food just gets cold, and your clothes dont start rotting unless you leave it in there for like 5 hours or something)
As for “where I’m from” oh yea kinda reminds me, my parents are from China and I think Chinese cruisine is just complicated as hell, cuz like one time I tried like stir-fry some beef dish already marinated and ready to cook, and like I try to do it from memory of watching dad cook, but it ended up like tasting a bit “off” vs how he normally cooks. And yeah I have no clue how the marinating works, they just put a bunch of weird sauces and its done too fast I cant even remember which bottles of sauces and I was standing too far away to see the label on them.
I could roughly make a Tofu dish thingy but its like barely 50% of how my dad made it, then I think he got older and in like a few years, food quality started to deteriorate too, I lowkey think he was just like omg why is my son so stupid, eh I dont even feel like cooking and so less effort got put into it cuz he was tired, tired of having kids lolol 💀
I think Asian households just creates a “distance” that makes it hard to be like “omg dad teach me how to cook” cuz if you mess up they’re gonna have the Tiger Parent Death Stare.
You could ask some of your family for the recipe? It’s kinda sad that you’re trying but it’s off.
im a gen z with insane executive dysfunction thanks to adhd. for a while when I was living on my own, yes I was living on microwave meals. they’re really cheap to get a bunch where I live and they have some variety, and I grew up on them due to my parents not really cooking often and being a latch key kid so they were a little nostalgic. but once I realized I never felt full after eating one and making some more money I started meal prepping for the whole week. i know how to cook and I can make some banger meals but my main problem is cleaning up everything afterwards. I’m learning to enjoy cooking and i always try to make a meal for any guest I have over.
Fun fact - Throughout much of recorded human history, there is evidence that much of the human population has relied on centralized food services and kitchens.
Not knowing how to cook is not as uncommon as people seem to think.
The fast food joints in the ruins of Pompei are fascinating. Stone tables with circles cut out so you could put food on the table and warm it from below, it’s basically a modern street vendor setup without the glass.
I’m seeing a lot more apartments without kitchens than I did 20 years ago.
Both my kids are Gen Z and at least from my experiences talking to them and their friends, one of the big factors is no one taught them when they were young. I’m not talking anything formal, just helping out in the kitchen, chopping veg, grating cheese, whatever. Either their parents don’t cook or they didn’t let them be active participants in meal prep.
My kids however do know how to cook, as they’ve helped out since they were little. Learned from my own experience as a picky eater - get your kids involved in making stuff and you won’t have to worry about them only eating chicken nuggets or whatever. Once they were teenagers, they got assigned meal prep once a week - they’d pick a recipe, help with the shopping, and make dinner (with help if they asked for it). And now they’re both adults who can make their own food. It’s shocking to me though how many in their generation just were never given the chance to learn the basics when they were young.
i think its your first point, parents/friends dint show them how to cook. and they are likely just microwaving things. the parents are cooking all thier meals for thier children and they dont push them to participate or dont do it in a way to let them learn from it(some are enablers, and will just baby the child which has its own problems, because they dont want them to mess up the kitchen)
My kid is gen-Z and he loves to cook. When he was still living at home he used to have to cook once a week, and now he’s living on his own he gets inspo from Sorted.
I’m gen z. Cooking is difficult. I do it sometimes. My trick is throwing things I like into a pan and hoping they get better. It’s easier with some things.
One tip I have is: Do not do thing concurrently. You will fail. Everything I do takes very long, and if I do two things at once it will be a Desaster.
A trick to make it more fun is listening to music or a podcast while you do it.
Also, many things you can get at the supermarket have instructions or suggestions about how to prepare them.
You don’t have to do a whole range of things. It’s okay if you can do one recipe and that’s it for a start.
youtube might be helpful, if you are into rice, you can try getting a rice cooker.
I’m gen z and everyone I know cooks elaborate meals. We love it
Time is also an issue, people are working 2 or 3 jobs now that include weekends who don’t have anyone to help.
I’m on the older side of Gen Z and absolutely love to cook (and consider myself pretty good at it). I don’t really like meal prep though. Something fresh each day for dinner, and if there’s time, lunch. I also try to source as much as possible (herbs, vegetables) from my terrace/“garden”.
I’d say it’s about 10% of the time trying a new recipe, 70% of the time just cooking from memory based on past recipes we liked (adapted for what’s available, of course), and 20% just trying something new from scratch.
Food is also one of my biggest expenditures each month. We don’t really eat out at all, but still. Good ingredients and not going by price in the supermarket is the main luxury I splurge on.
My younger brother is essentially the same, though a bit more budget-aware. He also cooks at least once a day. I quite often get pictures of his food, and it always looks delicious.
Funnily enough, we cook pretty differently, and both completely differently than our mom.
Friends in the same generation also all either like to cook, or, well, just cook.
So, can’t exactly confirm your hypothesis. We’re not US-American though.
eating out is pretty expensive you if do it everyday, or regularly, apparently alot of older couples do that, living above thier means.
