Why is cooking the most manly skill anyone can have? Now you might not think that cooking, stereotypically portrayed as a woman’s job due to the nuclear family and the idea of a housewife and a working husband, has gained a reputation for being a non-manly or non-masculine trait. However, I am here to argue that cooking is one of the most manly things anyone can do!

Now what makes cooking manly in my eyes? Well to start it is providing for those you live and bond with. While cooking for work might not have this appeal, cooking for friends and loved ones is an amazing task if you pull it off correctly. You can provide the food that fuels your loved ones’ day and can make them feel better than they would have had they opted for a bowl of cereal or fast food compared to the french toast with a side of sweet strawberries and some bitter dark chocolate to cut through all the sweet. Now while this might not sound manly, one of the most important parts of becoming a good man is to provide for those you love. Providing the food they eat in its prepared form is one of the best ways to provide for those under your care.

Next manhood and manly traits are often examples of creating something. For example, woodworking allows you to create wooden furniture, and it tends to be stereotypically a very masculine hobby. Wood cutting makes lumber to be burned for fire or used in previously stated woodworking to make whatever the maker pleases within the dimensions of the wood. Plumbing lets you fix problems in your home and others homes and creates a better life for those around you. THe food creation process covers all of these. From the getting the ingredients where you or others have to get the ingredients you will wield, to the creation of food, a form of art that’s also simple and efficient. Lastly it improves the lives of those that taste your cooking.

Last but not least, the creation of food teaches lessons in one of the most important skills when it comes to being a man. Patience. In styles of cooking like soups, american BBQ, pickling, and the creation of some foods comes a large factor of waiting. Be it watching a stock pot bubble on low with all the ingredients waiting for the flavors to combine into a robust stock. Or waiting for something to smoke and turn into one of the most divine pieces of food ever made. Cooking on all levels has a factor of being patient and smart, lest your food is burnt and your time is wasted. This patience is one of the most important parts of being a man, so to learn it through something as already productive and necessary for your day as cooking makes you life easier and better.