Damek.

Cooking is an inherently communal activity. For most of us, the prime association with cooking is that it happens within a family context; mom or dad cooking for the family. This makes cooking for yourself a more acutely lonesome activity than it has any real right to be.

Indeed. And it makes cooking for yourself and others acutely more rewarding than it has any real right to be. The link is mainly about “the trend of men cooking to woo women,” but this part was the closest to home for me.