My favorite dish to manufacture: A medium well pan seared sirloin with a big, buttery baked potato, a napa cabbage salad with balsamic vinegrette dressing and backyard tomoatoes, and an ice cold glass of amber beer.

It’s manly to love your mother’s cooking, but it’s even manlier to cook like her.

It’s also very manly to have a candle-lit dinner waiting for your significant other when she gets in on occasion.

Dying of malnutrition a month after college: Extremely un-manly.

-Fear of mistakes. The first thing to realize is, mistakes will happen. You’ll burn something, you’ll add the wrong ingredient, you’ll undercook a few things. Some stuff will get thrown out, some will get ate by the dog, some will taste surprisingly delicious. You really have to watch out for that last bunch, because some of those will put you in the emergency room. You will screw up. Learn from your mistakes, and overcome. And when your woman makes fun of you for setting off the smoke alarm, tell her to get her skinny butt out of your kitchen before she messes something up.

-Lack of creativity. When I find a recipe, I only follow it to the letter once. After the first batch I’m already thinking up ways to improve it. Flavorology, (Maybe some cayenne?) Chemistry (Should I increase the amount of baking soda?) and Thermodynamics (cookie sheet bad! Cast Iron Good!)all come into play. Making the same thing over and over again is boring. You should always be trying to improve and specialize.

-Over reliance on gizmos. Some tools are cool, some are awesome. Some are just stupid. Know when to get a new gizmo, and when to just sharpen your knives. Don’t buy anything that some screaming guy on TV is trying to sell.

-Sticking to the same genre. Yes, cooking steaks with a grill or fire is Manly to the max, but if that is all you can do, then you need to grow your portfolio. Get a slow cooker and try making chili or stew, get an ice cream maker and make up some ice cream for the kids. Throw some ears of corn or potatoes wrapped in foil next to those steaks the next time you fire up the weber. Grab a cast iron skillet, and make up some bacon and eggs. Bonus points if you hijack the mrs’ oven and figure out how to build made-from-scratch biscuits. The fire and the grill is the beginning.

-Labeling something as too feminine to fool with. Strawberry shortcake looks pretty feminine until you find some young vixen eating strawberries and whipped cream off your torso. Baking looks pretty feminine at first, but there’s alot of complicated chemistry going on with those biscuits. (Baking soda IS NOT baking powder, don’t make the same mistake I did.) Veggies sound feminine, until you throw them in a slow cooker with a huge slab of beef and make a roast. Bread? Bread can be the culinary equivelant to Rocket science at times.

That, and I think being able to prepare a meal that is not only nutritious and sustaining but also innovative and creative is a fine example of a well-integrated man.

Cooking involves fire, sharp objects, and dead things. What isn’t manly about that?

Thus, following the stereotype, The Woman, usually acts as hostess, and is generally who welcomes people to the home, and basically does the “behind the scenes” work in the kitchen – The salads, the prep work for the meat and such. The man, is usually out by the grill, typically with beer in hand, flipping burgers over an open flame. It is very infrequent that one will see these 2 roles completely reversed.

To further the stereotype, After the man has come home from a long work day, he is tired, and would like his stay-at-home wife to serve him dinner and take care of him. this is where most people (Like abdullah above) see cooking as a woman’s job. On the other hand, on the weekend, the man loves to roll out the grill and provide for his friends and family in a different way. by mastering the element of fire in a controlled environment, the man likes to light the barbecue. The man, taming nature’s most dangerous and unpredictable element gives him a sense of power over nature. Then taking the meat – once a living being, and placing it on the grill, only amplifies that sense. “This animal I place on the grill has not mastered nature like we have…” once again, inflating the sense of power through ego. The man is complemented on his mastery of the grill. The Woman is complemented on the recipes used.

Of course, as I said, this is an incredibly stereotypical view, and in real life, does not always pan out that way…. But it’s how it’d go if you were watching “Leave it to Beaver” with a touch of Al Bundy…..

Abdullah, I pity your wife.

That aside cooking is most assuredly manly. Any skill, really, when mastered can become a manly endeavor. It’s all in the confidence of the person doing it. Knitting was popularized in large parts by sailors, who got bored on cruises and made clothing. It’s a matter of self sufficiency, and that’s never not manly.

Personally, I don’t get the fascination with meat + fire = manly, though. The most manly dishes to me are stuff like stuffed manicotti. The kind that one italian uncle makes, better than anyone you’ve ever met. I think cooking with cheese is more manly than cooking with meat, personally. And no, I’m not a vegetarian.

I also don’t really care about it impressing women. I find cooking to be another way a man can provide for his family, and another example of the renaissance man. Cooking is something we have to do every day, to survive. To not master it seems foolish. But, I’m in training to be a chef, so I might be biased.