I don’t think it’s generational in a way that GenZ is any different. This is an age thing.

Most people never need to cook before they’re 18. They just got fed at home. When people first start to move out, things start to shift. Some people get into relationships where the other person cooks. They’re still being provided for.

Others learn a bare minimum of things to cook and do it badly. They do feed themselves but self describe as “can’t cook”.

And some step up and learn the things you need to know to cook that isn’t taught in school.

Time goes by, and more people find themselves in situations where they now need to cook. The population of cooks grows and the non-cooks shrinks.

Whether it’s because of changing interests, financial pressure, divorce, whatever, people need some pressure to develop the skill, and over time they do.

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.

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.

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.

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'm seeing a lot more apartments without kitchens than I did 20 years ago.

COVID broke people. I know people who cooked their own food all the time, and they've shifted to 100% online ordering or going for take-out -- even breakfast and lunch -- and they're paying through the nose. But this just seems like the New Normal to them.

I don't think the problem is unique to Gen Z but it definitely skews toward the younger generations.

I work with a lot of Gen Z and it’s been fun talking to them about cooking! They are learning techniques, recipes, and talking about how they are improving each time they make something.

We share recipes and have fun with it. Ofc everyone eats out, or brings microwave meals. That’s life. But watching them learn and grow as people is pretty awesome. Some boomer probably asked the same about my millennial self.

I think not knowing how to cook is common when toung. Today in my early 40's I'd say I'm pretty decent, but I was useless in my 20s.

What got me started was necessity due to all of a suddenly having kids. Trial and error.

What clicked was when I learned that being a half-decent cook didn't mean knowing recipes by heart (although I'm sure many do), but more generalized approaches that work well for various ingredients. If you know them oven temp for various stuff, the rest is mostly just preference when it comes to flavoring, and that's something you learn to measured with your heart over time.

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

35 here: my cooking before I could afford to eat out every meal was boiled chicken and rice. The prep time for meals that I enjoy are multi hour affairs, and I’d rather work an extra hour for a meal prepared by a professional whose food I enjoy.

It's not necessarily something to be ashamed of. In some societies, people rarely cook for themselves at all. It's all done by professionals and the restaurants are cheap and plentiful enough to support that. The problem is that this is definitely not the case in the places you are probably referring to

To counter your anecdote with my own, not that I've seen. My Gen Z sister and her cohort of Z friends have a "chosen family" dinner every weekend where they come over and cook. One person takes lead, the rest help as needed, and almost every single one finds recipes and learns techniques from Instagram or TikTok.

They've come up with some crazy good dishes that I wouldn't have stumbled across via traditional cookbooks and more millennial + oriented websites. My sister also has much better and more varied techniques than I ever got the old way, learning from mother and other relatives.

At that stage of my life, my cooking was rudimentary. While my parents made sure we could cook, it was limited to grilling and baking

or is that just a minority?

I mean, where? Things like this depend entirely on your local culture and policies.

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.

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.

I'm a millennial who's just learning to cook, definitely not gen Z lol. I dated people that cooked but mostly it was out food, microwave food, and extreme basics like spaghetti that's noodles and jar sauce.

My parents both grew up extremely poor with both parents working. They didn't really get taught how to cook. And being poor meant, no extra money for anything with flavor. My parents spice cabinet had salt, a 5 year old container of pepper, and a probably older container of Italian seasoning. That's it.

For most of my life I thought I just didn't really like food until I moved out. We didn't have a lot of money either so we didn't really go out. Having my own job and living with other people meant I had money to go out and holy shit, out food was delicious! Never occurred to me until years later that, this could be made at home much cheaper if I just take the time to learn how.

My boomer mother can burn water, so wtf are you on about the kids for?

I'm gen z and everyone I know cooks elaborate meals. We love it

I call myself a cook, and my son a chef. I have a few dishes that I know so well that I just wing it on measurements. He creates dishes on vibes. He has this intuition about what he does. Part of that does come from his mom and I, but I think a lot of it comes from his maternal grandma.

I did not know how to do much “grown up” stuff when I moved out 20+ years ago. I don’t think this is a generational divide. If anything, Kids These Days™ have short form videos that they can lean on for cooking and even basic home maintenance. Car repair videos on YouTube are ubiquitous. They’ll be fine.

Gen Zers that i know all cook way more than i did at their age

I'm a millennial and I know how to cook, but I absolutely hate it, and food is so expensive. I live alone, so either I eat the same meal for a week straight or seem to waste half the ingredients for a meal. I started using a restaurant that does a meal prep service and I can buy 10 dinners for ~$75. They're all healthy-ish, give me dinners for 2 weeks, and all I have to do is take them from the freezer and heat them up in the microwave. In contrast, last time I went to the grocery store I bought 2 limes, 5 lemons, a loaf of bread, a cup of soup, and a bag of pretzels and it cost over $30.

I'm 27 and perfectly fine at cooking! But yeah, just like someone else here mentioning it's because I have a sibling who's 10 years younger than me so I basically raised them. I was cooking for the family by like age 12.

I don't know many people my age who blatantly don't know how to cook. My husband isn't the greatest at cooking with no recipe, but he can absolutely keep himself fed with the dishes he does know. He can even fry an egg, despite the fact I only let stainless steel pans in our kitchen.

This is actually a problem at my work, that gen z do not know how to cook at much higher levels than others.

I work in residential mental health, so we have some cooking to do. The overwhelming majority of gen z co workers seriously struggle with anything more than heating up. It affects how we divy up job duties and caused issues when we tried to save money by doing more cooking in house.

Time is also an issue, people are working 2 or 3 jobs now that include weekends who don't have anyone to help.

I wouldn't qualify it as a Gen Z thing. As a Xennial, I have a quite a few Gen Z coworkers and most of them actively talk about recipes and meals they're making and they are not just slapping some Mac and Cheese together and calling it. Some of the meals they're talking about cooking are fairly advanced. At least two have dedicated pizza ovens and make their own dough. A number of them are cooking involved multi-course meals I'd never have tried until I was in my late 30's... Hearing their recipes and such I'm fairly impressed on a regular basis.

I think it's more related to experience and available time and CASH. One of them has fallen a bit back into hello fresh, a few times a week, but they just had a kid, so no blame there.

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.

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.

Multiple times as a child I had the sudden urge to cook something for fun, got up to prepare, and realized I don't know where my parents put which ingredients.

I did learn a decent amount when I lived away from parents for a while and could actually experiment daily now I knew where everything's stored.

But the gen Z housing crisis has hit me too and now I only know how to cook very basic stuff off the top of my head again.

My niece and nephew are young but can both cook. if you don't know you learn the same way you learn any other skill. When I was figuring it out I looked up simple recipes and mastered those and then moved on to more complicated ones. If I didn't know how to do something I watched someone on Youtube do it first. Even when I was starting out it was rare that I ended up with a meal that was inedible. There's nothing to be afraid of.

I don't think it is a "idk how to cook" more than "i don't need to cook" problem. You don't need to know how to cook to survive when food delivery services is just one click away and if that is not your thing you can always takeaway or dine-in at the restaurant/shops instead.

I can cook, i enjoy cooking, i prefer cooking but sometimes i am lazy so i do takeout or dine-out instead. Most of the people i know don't know how to cook (by that i mean anything more than reheating precooked food, frozen food etc) if anything i am in the minority.

maybe the ones that are still living at home and parents are cooking all thier meals? its a notable increase thats for sure.

Gen Z is not specific enough to be a useful demographic cluster. You have to overlay it over another specification or it's trying to pretend someone who is somewhere in an ill defined age range, living in Shanghai as the child of a politician is going to have something relevantly similar to someone of a vaguely similar age, though with possibly a full 10 years difference, from Nunavut, put into the foster system.

Gen Z is 14-29 year olds. Most of these probably still live with family so yeah, how often do you expect them to cook?

Gen Z has a basic competence issue apparently because everyone complains about their ability to do everything. Weaponized incompetence or whatever they are calling it. The good news when it comes to being able to cook is that anyone can figure it out for themselves. If you can make instant ramen noodles then you can cook.

I highly recommend anyone who wants to learn to cook get a hold of the Fannie Farmers CookbookFannie Farmer Cookbook find a used copy somewhere because $50 for a book first published in 1869 is friggin ridiculous.

This book is basically a reference book as well as a recipe book. It explains just about everything from measuring to prepping to storing things in your pantry. It is stuffed with recipes for basic things and then a bunch of recipes that build on those basics.

My mom was a lifelong food lover and taught herself to cook because her mom couldn’t. She had a library full of cookbooks from all over the world and through the ages. The only cookbook she gave me when I moved out was the Fannie Farmer Cookbook which is a tome to be sure. She told me it was the only one I would ever really need. Everything else is just recipes.

Gen Z, millennial, Gen X it doesn’t matter who you are it is flat out cheaper to cook your own food. If you are single then soups and casseroles are your buddy. If you make a different one every other day and freeze the rest you will have a constant supply of a variety of meals you can reheat at will so you don’t get burnt out. If you are a couple just about every meal feeds four which is dinner plus leftover lunch for the both of you.

I live in Houston, TX which is one of the most diverse food scenes anywhere with some of best restaurants for every kind of food and I can’t find a steakhouse that consistently makes a better steak than me. The closest I’ve come was from a guy selling steaks at a bar I used to go to 15 years ago. No one makes better pancakes than I do. I’ve never been hesitant to order pancakes when I’m out but I’m always disappointed and feeling ripped off. The difference is staggering. Pancakes are cheeeap and making them better costs next to nothing. The only restaurant food I buy is food I don’t make yet.

Stop giving your money to people who really don’t deserve it. Learn to cook. One thing at a time. Every success leads to more success. The knowledge you gain is for life. You pass some of it on and one day far in the future every human will be a master chef because what else is there to do?

My son is 22 now, when he was 14 I started giving him “serious” cooking lessons, as in not just helping mom in the kitchen but making whole meals with only guidance from me. When he was ~19 in college all the boys on the floor of his dorm decided they wanted to do a 4th of July cookout. My son was the only boy on the whole floor who knew how to cook. They winged it on the grill and that was fine but even like potato salad was too much for anyone else to make. He called me to tell me how proud he was of himself for essentially running the whole thing because it would have just been meat and chips without his cooking lessons. Obviously this is just one kid in a dorm for a mathematics/computer science college so big grain of salt of course but both my kids (20 and 22) are the only ones in their friend groups who can cook

They're fine. We talk about cooking before class on occasion and my students tend to be pretty on top of that, and baking. This is especially true of women who take care of their siblings. Honestly, it's on par for the age, but there is one more unique aspect and that's reliance on Tiktok or IG for recipes.

That means that I'll sometimes run into people who love cooking but they're often making what's popular at the time. But... my cohort, millennials, aren't too different in using our online recipes. They're just a little less... creative, compared to what you see on Tiktok. Plus, video format is trash for cooking, but that's my own opinion.

It's not that hard and can be a mindfulness exercise with the washing, cutting and other prep, and then cook it and smells delicious and enjoy the food when it's ready. It can be as healthy as you want. Ina Garten videos/books explain well and she's like a kind and helpful aunt! Mr. Money Mustache also has some good advice on food and nutrition and cutting costs too.

Stay under 25 g added sugars a day, have them after/with fiber, good fats and proteins to slow the sugar hit to the brain and liver. Check fasting insulin and C-reactive protein along with the usual checks to look for metabolic and inflammatory issues earlier. Homa-ir and TG/HDL are useful to check your health for your gender and age, before you need treatment for something. You can eat great, spend less and be healthier!

I know a couple people at work who consistently bring trader Joe's microwave food, the rest bring stuff from home.

I'm a young millennial (31) with some old gen Z friends (mid to late 20s) and the cooking thing is all over the place with us. The biggest cook is the oldest Gen z guy in the group who loves cooking. Me personally I don't care to cook. Cereal for breakfast, a microwave meal or sandwich for lunch, then a frozen pizza or frozen chicken for dinner is good for me.

Learn how to cook a couple new recipes a week and eventually you will be good at cooking

I'm an elder millenial and my parents cooking consisted of 1) BBQ a piece of meat until it's real dry and 2) microwave a can of veggies.

I moved out early and in a pretty unsupported way, so I had to pretty much immediately figure out how to feed myself. I don't remember who pointed me to Budget Bytes but I'm pretty certain Beth pretty much taught me how to cook.

This is not paid, I just really love Budget Bytes. The recipes are generally pretty simple and approachable. They are obviously budget friendly. But most of all every single recipe has step by step pictures. if I don't know what a fine dice vs a mince is -- it's in the pictures. If I don't understand what spoon coating thick is -- also in the pictures. Last benefit: Beth would regularly make suggestions for additions or substitutions. Other commenters would say their favorite changes. There's a few contributors these days, but they all seem similarly good.

im ahhh. not proud but kinda a sterotypical guy in the kitchen and I live large on the largess of my wifes skill. When I was single pizza was a very common meal for dinner and fast food for breakfast and lunch. Freezer filled with microwaveable options and plenty of cereal on hand at all times along with bread, peanut butter, jelly, lunch meat and cheese.

Maybe more broadly, consider that it's not always simply "kids these days" but often just the stage of life one is in. Don't worry, they'll come around to seeing most things your way - just that you'll again have moved on to a yet later stage and not notice that they're now in agreement with your former self

The Zoomers i know are either amazing cooks or can cook 1 meal but eat out 90% of the time. But for every one that can cook there are 3 that dont cook. I dont know a single millennial or gen xer who cant cook or couldnt cook at 16. I dont think the problem is universal to gen z. Its just an issue in wealthy urban populations.

Im not good with meal prep so I just heat up a frying pan throw some meat in, throw some veggies in and season it. Its quick, tasty and cheap. I rotate the meat and veggies so im always eating something different. I buy the veggies frozen and presliced so no prep or wastage.

Is this more of a white people problem? I feel like most of the other Asian kids I grew up with learned how to help in the kitchen before they could really reach a stove top without a step stool. This might just be an immigrant family thing though.