...just a line of thought (hardly new or unique, but still notable I believe) after having read the thread & comments on Vox Day's post The world we have lost -- referencing the WaPo article on "The slow death of the home-cooked meal"* -- and the comments under it, especially the one by "Wanda Sherrat":

How interesting! And yet, if you look at real estate listings, a big selling point is the big, fabulous, beautiful kitchen with luxury appliances and granite countertops. Why pay for such a lavish kitchen when you're only going to use it to make coffee and toast in the morning?

Maybe it's a sort of nostalgia for the past, when the kitchen really was an important power center of the house. Sort of the way people still talk of how important it is for family cohesion to talk things over around the dinner table, when it's been decades now since families all sat down together nightly to eat all at the same time.

Nostalgia? Maybe.

But I think it more likely a matter of attempting to use PERCEPTION to override REALITY.

IOW it's women (and men) wanting to "disprove" that no actual cooking IS being done within the home... by having a massive kitchen (i.e. "commercial sized") with an entire array of every possible appliance, utensil, etc.

Much like the "faux-rock" facades (with massive columns, huge foyers, etc) of McMansions... the point is to chiefly to create the impression of something (orderly, functional "family" etc) -- and going overboard (i.e. "spare no expense") to that end.**

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* Also, relative to the statistics cited in that article -- versus the reality of what I have seen in most of the homes, couples, families -- I think the situation is actually a lot WORSE than the data make it appear.

To wit, what exactly qualified as a "home cooked meal" within the data that was gathered?

• Does a Papa Murphy's "take & bake" pizza qualify as "homemade"? (It is after all technically "home cooked," but than again, so is a "frozen" pizza.)

• How about various "delicatessen" foods? Does warming up deli-sliced ham qualify? Dishing out deli-made potato salad?

• What about "canned" foods (Chunky Soup? Chef Boyardee pasta?) or "box-mix" meals (BettyCrocker & Hamburger-Helper, etc?)

Point isn't to get too pedantic, but rather to simply understand that the very definition of "home cooked" (much less "homemade") is rather subjective, and likely to have changed rather dramatically across the decades -- rendering any "survey says" results rather dubious (at best), and probably entirely useless for comparative purposes (change over time).

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** My personal "anecdotal" conclusion is a sort of inverse rule of thumb:

• The FANCIER (larger, more modern, trendy-faddish, even better "equipped") the kitchen, the LESS likely any food served from it will have actually been truly prepared/cooked within it.

And the same in regards to men & "grilling":

• The bigger/fancier the "grill" (or worse "outdoor kitchen" patio area), the LESS likely it is that the man (or anyone) has actually done any substantive "cooking" on it -- maybe some hot-dogs, bratwurst (sausage), and pre-formed "hamburger-patties" for some graduation party... but virtually never any steaks, chops, ribs, roasts or etc.

Conversely, people with SMALL (galley, etc) kitchens, and small (even "tiny") grills -- seem to do a LOT more (frequent AND substantive) actual cooking (from scratch), and grilling (of steaks, chops, ribs, whole chickens, etc).

I have no doubt that the people with the big grills; the oversized, fanciful, excessively specialty appliance "equipped" kitchens, etc -- that they had every INTENTION of learning how, and eventually using all of it (particularly for some big "parties" etc) -- but then, when it comes down to it... well, it just seems to them like too much work especially given all of the other things they feel they need to prepare (i.e. the other "perception" things; decorations, etc) that they have little or no energy left for any actual cooking (besides, it's not only easier but much more "reliable" to simply by deli-made stuff, be it potato salad, or sub sandwiches, or etc).