A young man came to my mum's shop last week; bought rice, fresh fish and other ingredients to cook jellof rice which the money amount to about a thousand naira.
The following day the man came back to the shop and said the food was not sweet. Then my mum asked him how he prepared the meal because he bought enough ingredients to prepare a nice meal. He said he put the fresh fish, rice, tomatoes and other ingredients together in one pot. My mum started laughing and told him that's not how to do it, told him what to do next time and all that.
The Nigeria culture or Africa as whole tend to see cooking as the responsibility of the wife/woman but that's a wrong mentality and view about cooking. If the man knows how to cook there is nothing wrong in it, in fact it will help the man in his marriage and save him a lot of cash as a single.
I spent six years on campus and for those six years I didn't eat more than five times in the restaurant, didn't have any girlfriend that was coming to cook for me; I did all the cooking and it saved me a lot of money. But I know some students back in the university who didn't have a pot to cook, they ate at eateries or their girlfriends come to cook for them. The five times I ate in eateries where during exam period that I had no chance to cook due to how choked up my exam time table were.
You might say those who ate in eateries or invited their girlfriend to cook that it's their money and not mine, that's true but then it will have a great effect in then when they eventually get married. I know you will ask me how? Let's take some practical incidences
The young man I just talked about is above 30 years and soon will get married, now such a person when the wife becomes sick or when she is heavily pregnant, who will cook the meal? You might say get a house help or go to the eatery but the truth is that you will spend a lot of cash and it will still not give you the sweetness and freshness of a meal.
Another thing is that when a man knows how to cook, he will definitely know the prices of goods in the market and with that he can easily assist the wife in going to the market. I know you will say it's not necessary but it will shock you to know that love in marriage is not all about sex, giving her cash and buying her things. Going to the market with her, helping her to cook and other little things will make that woman respect and cherish you. I am not married but I speak from the experience of my mum and my late dad.
Another thing it does is that it keeps the home at peace. One thing I have told myself is that God helping me I can never have issues with my future wife when it comes food and cooking; if she refuses to cook then I will cook and if her meal does not taste well then I will teach her. Funny I guess? But that's truth because my parents owned a restaurant for close to twenty years and I learnt the buying and cooking.
Young men let's learn to cook because it's not a crime if we can cook, learn how to prepare zobo, kunu, pap, chinchin etc, it's not a crime.