Of all the skills you can add to your toolkit as a man, cooking is one that often goes overlooked. It just doesn’t seem as immediately practical as other alternatives. And while there are indeed skills that are more important than cooking, learning how to cook still offers a wide range of advantages, both for single men and married men. Let’s go over some of those advantages.
1 – Become more self-sufficient
Learning how to cook isn’t just about making elaborate and photogenic plates. Once you know the basics of handling food in the kitchen, you can take steps to make all your future meals more delicious and more convenient, depending on what your goals are.
You can learn how to season and freeze steak in a way that allows you to have it ready in 30 minutes whenever you want it, whether it be today or in three months. You can learn how to make a wide range of plates that will keep for days, or how to make your favorite meals you typically had to go to restaurants to get.
The result is that learning how to cook allows you to rely much less on takeout, frozen meals, and snacks while also improving the quality of what you eat. After all, food is a basic need, and learning how to handle food will give you greater mastery and self-reliance in how you attend to that need.
2 – Great date idea
Cooking isn’t just about putting together elaborate meals, but of course, it is also about that. And being able to cook a special meal for a special someone can be pretty rewarding. And early in a relationship, it can also be a great excuse to invite someone to your place for a second or third date for a good meal paired with some wine.
Cooking together with your significant other can also be quite fun, as it is often easier to chitchat when your hands are busy with something. In addition, if your SO is also into cooking, you can take the chance to learn from each other. And if they aren’t, you can either teach them simple recipes or enlist them as your assistant.
3 – Eat healthily
It is generally easier to eat healthily and stick to restrictive diets if you can cook for yourself. There are also a variety of healthy foods and beverages much cheaper to make than buy, as is the case with ginger kombucha and a variety of vegan and vegetarian dishes. Finally, cooking your meal also allows you to avoid some of the low quality — and less healthy — ingredients that stores and restaurants often use to cut back on costs.
4 – Cook for friends
Cooking can also be a great way to get friends together at your place. It’s far too familiar for people to find themselves losing touch with their adult friends. And while it can be hard to convince people to show up to just “hang out,” putting together a special lunch or a barbecue over the weekend can be a great way to get old friends to take time out of their schedule to show up.