Cooking with someone vs. alone
 

Do you like to cook with someone, or is the kitchen YOURS, NOW GET OUT!

I find I enjoy cooking with someone. One person chopping, one person mixing, you are talking, both tasting, it's kinda intimate, can be romantic/sexual, but also is just fun. I've cooked with my friend Tom (we are both quite hetero) and I've cooked with my ex, and I've even cooked with my kid and her boyfriend.

While I usually cook alone, I think I enjoy cooking with someone a bit more.

Any thoughts, opinions, stories?

Depends on the dish. Making a homemade pizza. One person rolling out the homemade dough, another person chopping up toppings, and everyone gets to decorate their own pizza I think is a blast.

If I work well with the person (they chop veggies while I mix up something) then I enjoy that too, but if we start to get in each other's way it gets frusterating and I'll be the first to bail out of the kitchen and go to mixing drinks, or ask the "helper" to help with setting the table.

Maybe too much of my mom rubbed off on me. If she's in the kitchen cooking, you stay the hell away. Offer to set the table before or afterwards offer to clean, but clear the area if she's cooking.

If I'm grilling, leave me alone. Anything else, someone should be there, because I have no clue what I'm doing.

I assume you don't like people coming over and trying to baste or flip stuff? What about people standing around drinking and talking to you while you man the grill?

I have always cooked alone.

It sounds like it would be fun to share the fun, but I don't know many people who cook.

I'll cook with you

No way. I'm pretty anal about when I flip food, where I move it around, etc. When people come over and start poking and prodding, I lose track of what was where, they flip prematurely, or if you're my father, say that it's "raw" and continue to cook everything until it resembles a lump of coal.

My mom and I are a seamless team in the kitchen. We've been cooking together for a long time. She's about the only person I'll tolerate sharing the kitchen with, though. I hate, hate, hate when my SO comes in the kitchen and stands over my shoulder while I'm cooking. I don't mind people hanging out and being social so long as they're not in my way while I'm cooking. Unfortunately our current kitchen is laid out in such a way that almost anyone trying to hang out in the kitchen is going to be in the cook's way.

I just cook stuff that is simple like sausages on the BBQ. I just heat up the BBQ, take the sausages out of the package, place them on the BBQ, wait, turn them, wait, maybe turn them some more and then eat.

If I was cooking a big meal like a Christmas dinner then ya I would like some company, but I don't do that.

I prefer to cook alone... as much as the idea of cooking with someone appeals, they tend to get in my way.

I like to have company wen I cook, but I don't want anyone "helping". I cook based on internal parameters, rather than following a recipe, and I don't want people getting in the way or trying to assist.

My ideal is to have a kitchen large enough for a decent sized food preparation and cooking area, and a big kitchen table that people can sit at and pass the time.

Elbow surfing... I friggin hate it too!

I prefer to cook alone... I LIKE being in control of everything going on in the kitchen. I don't mind my SO helping with chopping etc, but god forbid she turns the heat up or down on something!

And don't $%*ing touch anything on the BBQ... I am The Tong Master.

I cook at least 6 out of 7 days.