28% Of Americans Say They Don’t Know How To Cook.

Let me start this post by saying in my opinion the actual truth is if you can read you CAN cook but you may not enjoy or want to or have some other perfectly valid excuse. That said, a new survey confirms that is the way for  about one third of Americans claiming ignorance as the second-most-cited reason for not cooking regularly.

And the rest of the excuses go like this:

• 51%, (and one assumes there's a certain amount of overlap in these two cohorts) was that the surveyed party had a spouse or partner who does most of the cooking.
• (21%) say "not having enough time" and "not wanting to clean up afterwards"
• (25%). Many also indicated that the time it takes to go grocery shopping is a major impediment.

The survey was sponsored by the makers of Bosch Appliances, so it's possible the results are skewed in such a way as to encourage the purchase of work-saving kitchenware. But the results generally jibe with other surveys of American cooking habits. One from 1996 showed that 53% of Americans felt that they knew less about cooking than their parents did.

On the flip side, in a report from the Chicago Tribune:

How many love to cook? Here are a few numbers to chew on:

Who loves to cook? 33 percent “Matures” (aged 65 and older), 28 percent “Baby Boomers” (aged 46-64), 32 percent of men, 28 percent of women.

How many times a week do they cook at home? 41 percent (5-plus times), 29 percent (3-to-4 times), 19 percent (1-to-2 times), and 11 percent (rarely or never).

How are they cooking at home? 81 percent cook what they know, 75 percent save time by using pre-prepped and/or frozen ingredients and kitchen appliances such as microwaves and toaster ovens to both speed up the process and clean-up involved.

Personally, I can cook but don't do anything too fancy most of the time cause it is just me.