A coworker and I got into a discussion today after she lamented the dearth of dateable guys with cooking skills. I can't believe there is a scarcity of guys in their 30s and 40s with cooking skills. All the guys I know definitely like to eat.

Anyone care to support or refute my coworker's observation?

I am 47 single and have made some of the ladies in our Church mad.Some of my desserts get ate before thiers.You really need to try my cheese cakes. Mmmm I have been called the cakeman at the local truck stop.I take cakes in to share.

I know in my case, I learned to cook out of necessity. You can only eat out alone so much.

I think a lot of it is dependent on the guy's dating history and interest in good food.

I personally cannot conceive of not being able to cook, but then again, my fiancée will burn things with microwave... so they exist.

I'm in my 40's and I love to cook. Before we had kids I'd love to pick a recipe that had 2 hours of prep (weekends of course) that included a bottle of wine. Now that I'm married with young kids I still do ~70% of the cooking though the meals are less involved. I just like to be independent, which explains why I can iron, do the laundry, etc..

I learned how to cook from my dad. Even though my mother knows how to cook, my dad is by far the better cooker. Whenever I need to know how to make something I calls of my dad and his cooking skills never fails. My mother use to get mad behind this, and still does to date, and oneday she challenge my dad to a cook off. Mind you my mom cooking isn't bad but my dad just naturally knows his way around the kitchen. Now even though my dad won the cookoff when crowned my mom the winner, it was my dad idea, so she wouldn't feel bad.

My fiancé knows how to cook too and he isn't afraid to follow a recipe from a cook book. Him cooking helps a lot and takes the load off me sometimes and I love it when he mades me a complete breakfast in bed too.

I think I am a far better cook than my wife or her mother. Women tend to follow a recipe and men tend to follow their hearts and minds. What combination's sound good to them is what you get. But then again growing up with a single drunken mother in the 50's I learned a lot of stuff out of necessity, like cooking, cleaning and sewing.