History Main / FeminineWomenCanCook

* Discussed in ''VideoGame/Persona3''; [[ShrinkingViolet Fuuka Yamagishi]], despite her gentle and supportive personality, perceives herself to lack femininity due to her talent at [[WrenchWench tinkering with computers and electronics]], and wants to learn how to cook to make up for it. Unfortunately, [[LethalChef her cooking is quite awful]]. However, the trope is played straight by [[TheHeart Yukari Takeba]] and ''[[UpdatedRerelease Persona 3 Portable]]''[='s=] female protagonist, though the latter is more of a TomboyWithAGirlyStreak; ''Portable''[='s=] protagonist is such a SupremeChef that she can actually teach Fuuka how to cook properly.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'':
** Comicbook/{{Raven}} can't even cook pancakes.
** Starfire's a straight example if you accept that Tamaranian cuisine is difficult for Earthlings to swallow at its best (unless you're [[BigEater Terra]]).

** Discussed in ''VideoGame/Persona3''; [[ShrinkingViolet Fuuka Yamagishi]], despite her gentle and supportive personality, perceives herself to lack femininity due to her talent at [[WrenchWench tinkering with computers and electronics]], and wants to learn how to cook to make up for it. Unfortunately, [[LethalChef her cooking is quite awful]]. However, the trope is played straight by [[TheHeart Yukari Takeba]] and ''[[UpdatedRerelease Persona 3 Portable]]''[='s=] female protagonist, though the latter is more of a TomboyWithAGirlyStreak; ''Portable''[='s=] protagonist is such a SupremeChef that she can actually teach Fuuka how to cook properly.

[[folder:Fairy Tales]]

%% * Arcueid from ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' can count as a type 2 or arguably type 5. She is not brainless but she is an [[CloudCuckooLander airhead]] due to her empirical ignorance about the modern world or the world in general. She also happens to be the strongest thing on the planet (ORT don't count). Regardless, she has perfectly good reasons why she can't cook and depends on her love interest Shiki to cook for her, who is not an amazing cook but is good enough. She probably enjoys the fact that he cooks for her more than the actual cooking themselves anyway.

* [[CordonBleughChef Orihime Inoue]] from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' has both tomboyish (likes sci-fi, wears track pants and T-shirts in the Soul Society arc) and girlish (nurturing personality, BarrierWarrior powers, wears her hair VERY long) traits and can cook. Being a CloudCuckooLander ''and'' an ExtremeOmnivore, her meals consist of so many strange combinations, most people aren't willing to try her food to discover this. The few who do (such as Tessai and Rangiku), discover that there is genius in the madness and that her meals are well-cooked and taste good. She also holds down a part-time job in a bakery.
* ''Manga/BlueExorcist'' [[AvertedTrope averts]] this completely, as ''no woman'' of the main cast is shown capable of cooking. Shiemi certainly tries, but it always tastes awful and is stuffed full of herbs [[spoiler: though that comes in handy once]], and the one time Izumo is seen about to cook she looks incredibly lost. The one person who can cook? The resident AntiAntiChrist [[SuperStrength Rin]], who, admittedly, is a fairly [[InTouchWithHisFeminineSide girly]] guy (or rather gender-neutral), who, to add insult to injury to any poor girl around trying to attract his twin brother [[ChickMagnet Yukio]] via ThroughHisStomach, is also a SupremeChef with a [[WordOfGod 100% success rate]].

* ''Manga/CookingPapa'': Araiwa's wife is a reporter without the time (or skills) to cook her family's meals. Fortunately her husband's workplace is at only five minutes from home.

* Shimura Tae from ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'' can be considered a subversion of the Type 3 variant of this trope. She definitely fits the bill character-wise, although she capriciously vaults back and forth between feminine innocence and tomboyish wrath whenever somebody offends her or [[StalkerWithACrush infringes upon her privacy.]] She has been repeatedly stated to only know how to boil eggs, and the resulting product is always a blackened and inedible pulp much to the chagrin of the people she was cooking for. As a result of this RunningGag, her younger brother Shinpachi usually does the cooking in their household.

* ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'':
** Hinagiku is shown as a wonderful cook despite her Tomboy exterior. Her attempts to bring attention to her ability symbolizes her trying to show her feminine side more.
** Hayate is a great cook and is continually shown to be so feminine a boy he can be mistaken for a girl. Hayate is shown to be hyper-qualified at everything he does.
** Maria is depicted as skilled at everything. So good cooking ability plays into that as well.
** Nagi is shown to be a LethalChef- another clue that she's a {{Tomboy}} and still too immature to be a woman (and therefore at a disadvantage in her romantic pursuits).
* ''Manga/HellTeacherNube'': [[AnIcePerson Yukime]] dreams of cooking delicious meals for her love interest, Nube, and when he can't enjoy them (since they're frozen solid, her being a [[{{Youkai}} Yuki-onna]] and all), she's upset at her own lack of skill more than his own refusal.
* Invoked in ''Manga/ICantUnderstandWhatMyHusbandIsSaying'' when Kaoru goes to her father ([[LikeFatherUnlikeSon who is a professional chef]]) to learn how to cook so she can be a better wife. Although her husband is perfectly fine with her burnt-rice-with-chunks-of-raw-carrot.
* Rosetta Passel from ''Anime/KaleidoStar'' is shown as an absolute disaster at the kitchen and housekeeping, since she's practically lived on tour her whole life and has rarely had the chance to experience what a true home life is. She gets a bit better with Sora's help. On the other hand, the initially very childish and immature May Wong is an excellent chef...and is both tomboyish (VERY pushy and straightforward) and girlish (very feminine looks).
* Subverted with Tokine from ''Manga/{{Kekkaishi}}''. Despite being publicly known as a YamatoNadeshiko and having a mother who knows how to cook well, her attempts at cooking have all ended in failure. This probably falls under that note for type 2s, as her LoveInterest is a baking otaku, and is probably at least competent at cooking non-sweet foods.
* Inverted in ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha''. Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate, who are independent, [[PersonOfMassDestruction highly destructive]] {{Action Girl}}s with glowing military careers, are all revealed [[AllThereInTheManual in supplementary material]] to be good cooks in their own right. The LethalChef of the series? Why, it's the TeamMom and WhiteMagicianGirl, Shamal![[note]]Justified since Nanoha's parents own a bakery and she's been helping with household chores since before season 1, while Hayate used to be a [[SocialServicesDoesNotExist crippled girl living on her own,]] and the first episodes of ''A's'' shows her cooking, ''while in a wheelchair''. Fate, meanwhile, is revealed in [[ComicBookAdaptation one of the manga chapters]] to have been taught how to cook by Linith, Precia's CatGirl familiar who raised her before the events of the first season.[[/note]]
** Dieci is also revealed to be one of the more feminine Numbers, and being one of the best cooks. However, her sisters [[{{Tomboy}} Subaru]] and [[OneOfTheKids Sein]] are also excellent cooks, the latter at least fits the excellent parts, the former is known for cooking [[BigEater massive amounts of food.]]
* Played with and somewhat reversed in ''Manga/MadeInAbyss''. The only clearly-female main character, Riko, can make delicious meals out of practically anything, but she [[{{Tomboy}} isn't feminine]]. Nanachi is [[AmbiguousGender resolutely gender-ambiguous]] and terrible at cooking, seemingly due to an atrophied sense of taste. Reg, despite being male, is probably the most feminine of the three, but he's [[LethalChef even worse than Nanachi]].

* In one episode of ''Anime/NerimaDaikonBrothers'', Mako goes to see a famous fortune-teller, who asks her to make something from a plate of cocktail weenies. She then rejects Mako's Weenie Eiffel Tower, telling her that "a girl who can't even do a lick of cooking will die tomorrow," and that she'll only become a woman when she can cook, clean, and do the laundry. The character was based on Kazuko Hosoki, an actual famous fortune teller, who had very conservative views on gender roles.

** Subverted in ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5'' as the girlier girls of the team, Komachi and Karen, can't cook worth a hill of beans. Neither can the tomboyish Rin or the star of the series Nozomi.

** In ''Anime/SmilePrecure'', this is played straight with Yayoi, who's a good cook and very feminine (aside from being a big fan of {{toku}}satsu and wanting to be a manga artist). However, it's averted with Akane and Nao, who are both {{Tomboy}}s but still good at cooking (Akane's family runs an okonomiyaki restaurant, and Nao comes from a large family so she often has to help out).
** Zigzagged in ''Anime/DokiDokiPrecure'': The feminina Mana and Ayumi are good cooks, running a restaurant, but Makoto, who is even more feminine, is comically bad at cooking.

* Subverted in ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis'', where the SupremeChef among {{Tom|boy}}oka [[TomboyAndGirlyGirl and]] [[ShrinkingViolet Sakuno]] is… the tomboyish Tomoka. It's not that Sakuno is ''bad'' in the kitchen, but Tomoka is specifically mentioned to be the best of the two. (Somewhat justified since Tomoka has a partial PromotionToParent to deal with: she learned to cook out of the necessity to take care of her two much younger brothers while their parents are at work.)

* ''Manga/RealBoutHighSchool'' (the anime version) has an episode where Ryoko and another girl compete to make lunch for the boy they have a crush on.
* Subverted like everything else in ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion:'' Rei thinks up the idea to cook for everyone, and try and get Shinji and his father together. There's just one problem, from the number of cuts she has it seems she used that large kitchen knife she was waving around more on her hands than on the food. Further subverted in that the dinner doesn't even eventuate.
* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' subverted this as well - Anthy Himemiya, despite being extremely feminine, is a LethalChef whose cooking is so terrible, it actually ''explodes.'' Then causes people to switch bodies. [[spoiler:It's pretty obvious she did that one on purpose to mess with people - under that demure exterior is enough frustration and broken, passive-aggressive malice to power a small town, due to her horrifying past and her current role as the Rose Bride that forces her into a passive DamselInDistress role -- whether she wants to be or not.]] Normally she fulfills this trope to a tee, being essentially in charge of cooking and cleaning in Utena's dorm and despite only two people living there, repeatedly producing veritable feasts for dinner.
* In ''Franchise/SailorMoon'', tomboy Makoto (AKA Sailor Jupiter) is easily the best cook of the group. A manga side story that focuses on her shows she cooks and does housework when stressed or depressed, even if it stops her from doing more important things, like studying for entrance exams. Because of suggestions it ultimately relates to her femininity complex, this aspect is [[ValuesDissonance reinterpreted in some adaptations]] as having a professional interest in running restaurants.

* ''Manga/SorcererHunters'' has a fun example that fits with Tira's being somewhat offbeat: she's clumsy when she has to cook by conventional means, cutting her fingers and turning vegetables into rubble. But when she's allowed to "transform" and do it her own way, her prep is flawless.

* In ''Literature/TheStoryOfSaiunkoku'', Shuurei, the protagonist, is the first ''ever'' woman politician in her country, and she is an excellent cook. Her red bean buns in particular are much loved by the other characters.

* Parodied in ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', where the girly girl Nia becomes a sort-of [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter The Minnesota Fats]] for the local CoolBigSis Yoko since she's good at almost everything...until the BeachEpisode shows that Nia is a ''horrid'' cook: whatever she cooks ''looks'' delicious, but it knocks out most people who taste it (poor Rossiu spent a whole episode out of commission!). Although her {{Love Interest|s}} Simon genuinely likes her cooking, even if no one else does. In one of the spin-off manga, it's shown Kamina would have loved her food too. So who knows, maybe it's food fit for only the manliest of men/women.
* {{Inverted|trope}} in ''Manga/ThreeLeavesThreeColors''. Youko, the girliest of the three friends, can't cook to save her life, while resident BigEater Futaba (who's slightly boyish) ''can''.

* In ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'', Veronica subverts this by being a notoriously bad cook who couldn't boil water in a blast furnace. Furthermore, any boy who is pressured to eat what she prepares is usually convinced they are about to commit suicide. A spoiled rich girl like Veronica has no doubt never needed to learn to do such "menial" tasks, which are for the servants to do. By contrast, the more tomboyish Betty is a SupremeChef.
* Averted in an issue of ''[[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]] Classified'' written by Creator/GailSimone, where ComicBook/WonderWoman presents the other members of the JLA with a traditional Themyscrian pastry. Flash and Green Lantern are more than a little panicked at the thought that Wonder Woman ''bakes''... and shocked by the tasty results.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': DependingOnTheWriter, Lois Lane.
* While ComicBook/RedTornado (Abigail "Ma" Hunkel) is more known for being rather rough-and-tumble and looking like a linebacker than being feminine, she is a caring mother/grandmother and excellent chef whose meals the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica are quite appreciative of.
* A weird subversion in ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'', in which ComicBook/{{Artemis}}, Diana's counterpart from the violent Amazon faction, reveals she can cook during ComicBook/WonderGirl's TrainingFromHell. There's nothing feminine about it though...
-->'''Artemis''': We eventually proved ourselves to our elders by making them a feast from the eighteen eyes of a slain hydra.\\
'''Cassie''': Oh, perfect. I can't even reheat mac and cheese.

* In "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/donkeyskin/stories/allfur.html All Kind of Fur]]", she can cook a marvelous soup, and she also slips the ring he gave her into it.
* In "Literature/CapORushes", she makes gruel for the sick young man, which gives her a chance to put the ring in it.
* In "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/jacobs/english/fishring.html The Fish and the Ring]]", the heroine swings a job in the kitchen, which is how she happens to cook the fish that has the ring -- and so make her father-in-law give up his persecution.
* In "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/russian/folktalesfromrussian/tsarevnafrog.html The Frog Princess]]", cooking a loaf of bread is one of the brides' tests.
** In "[[http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0402.html#aung The Frog Maiden]]"', the frog makes rice and meat.
** In "[[http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0402.html#tortoise The Prince and the Tortoise]]", the tortoise cooks a meal for the king.
** In "[[http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0402.html#wardrop The Frog's Skin]]", the frog secretly cooks for her husband before he learns it is her.
--->''In a short time the frog leaped out of the fireplace, jumped over to the doors, and all around the room. Seeing no one there, it went back and took off the frog's skin, put it near the fire, and came forth a beautiful maiden, fair as the sun; so lovely was she that the man could not imagine anything prettier. In the twinkling of an eye she had tidied everything, prepared the food, and cooked it. When everything was ready, she went to the fire, put on the skin again, and began to croak.''

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* Majorly subverted in ''Fanfic/TheBlackHearts'' with Melanie Black. Mercury says his mother is an excellent cook and usually has to do the cooking since Marcus is too busy [[TheAlcoholic drinking]] or [[ProfessionalKiller killing people]]. However, Melanie is [[{{Jerkass}} rude]], {{abusive| parents}}, [[LackOfEmpathy callous]], and [[SirSwearsALot vulgar]]. Not traits that are typically associated with being feminine.
* ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'' has Chloe Cerise spend time in the Library of Flying Books Car cooking a chef's salad and meatball soup for her, Atticus, and the flying books.
* Played with in ''Fanfic/LegendsCollideAlolasHouseOfChampions''; Nora is the most notable cook of the bunch, but she's [[TheLadette as far from "feminine" as it's possible to get]]; Leaf and Dawn are much more feminine, and Leaf can cook fairly well while Dawn [[LethalChef can't cook at all]]; May and Rosa each have mostly good cooking skills, and are [[TomboyWithAGirlyStreak tomboys with girly streaks]].
* Inverted in ''Fanfic/MyHuntsmanAcademia''. Pyrrha, Weiss, and Nora have never stepped into a kitchen to cook something themselves. Izuku, the only one on the team with cooking experience (and is a particularly skilled pastry maker because of his [[SeriousBusiness rivalry with Ren]]) is uneasy about leaving them alone in the kitchen, but they insist on making one meal for him before winter break because he's cooked for them all semester. The resulting mess (an attempt at chicken curry) looks like it's [[LethalChef poisonous, covered in mold, may or may not be moving, and somehow got black hair in it]] when none of them have black hair. They agreed to [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain never speak of it again]] and the sight of it would haunt them all for the rest of their days.

[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
* While just a minor character, Mirabel's mother in ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'' is the most feminine ([[OnlySaneWoman and stable]]) woman of the family. Her Gift is making food with magical healing powers.
* Pictured above: In ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog,'' the heroine, Tiana, loves to cook, and from the age of six shows off her prodigious gumbo skills. Her dream is to own a beautiful, community-nurturing restaurant where she herself is the head chief. Her skills were honed in her home kitchen but, like Collette, she is a ''professional'' chef who's worked her whole life to get where she is.
* Colette from ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'' twists this trope around by being strong, feminine, and an outstanding chef at one of Paris' top restaurants all at once. She makes a speech partway through the film which is a TakeThat to the notion that women can only cook within the home, which is clearly a BerserkButton.
** It's also Averted in the food industry as a whole- there's a ''lot'' of ingrained sexism and it's very hard for a woman to get into ''haute cuisine''. Colette managed it because she was willing to go through hell for it.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', Snow White's ability to cook is one of her defining traits and what ultimately convinces the dwarfs to let her stay with them. Within the film we see her cook a pot of soup and later gooseberry pies for the dwarfs; she also mentions that she can make apple dumplings and plum pudding.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]
* Film ''Film/{{Always}}''. Air-traffic controller Dorinda Durston wants to have a man over for dinner. She has to buy a pre-cooked meal and pretends that she prepared it herself.
* Lara Croft in ''Film/LaraCroftTombRaider'' even screws up reheating a ready meal in a microwave. She's of noble blood, and her butler does all the cooking. She's also most definitely ''not'' feminine. The one time she puts on an elegant dress, her butler nearly has a heart attack (he's been trying to get her to act like a proper lady for years) and quickly corrects the situation by serving her guns on a tray.
* Éowyn in Creator/PeterJackson's ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers'' is shown to be a horrible cook by Aragorn's wordless expression when she attempts to make stew for him (matching at least two trope variants, since Éowyn is not at all happy in a medieval woman's role ''and'' she has an unrequited crush on Aragorn). It probably helps that she's highborn, so she probably has servants for cooking, and she's traveling with minimal equipment.
* ''Film/NoNameOnTheBullet'', Anne is introduced making a meal for Luke and Asa. Asa warns her to never let Luke in the kitchen after they are married because everything he cooks tastes like a prescription.
* Lee Leander in ''Film/RememberTheNight'' cooks some muffins, and is told by Aunt Emma that the way into a man's love is by cooking for him. Lee doesn't really believe this and throws muffins right in front of Sargent out of anger.
* In the 1984 film ''Film/{{Runaway}}'', it's TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture and [[InTheFutureWeStillHaveRoombas robots do a lot of the routine work]]. Tom Selleck plays Ramsay, a policeman who hunts down rogue {{Killer Robot}}s. He's assisted by a [[ActionGirl strong and capable female officer]], Karen Thompson, who in fact is more competent than he is because he's acrophobic. By the end they're falling in love, and how does he ask her to have a relationship with him? He says ''"Can you cook?"'', causing the woman to melt adoringly into his arms as the sparks fly.
* ''Film/WomanOfTheYear'' spends much of the movie showing how Katharine Hepburn's female reporter is the intellectual equal (or even superior) of Spencer Tracy's male reporter. The last scene in the movie is of Hepburn trying to make waffles but failing spectacularly, indicating that by being so successful in the "man's world" (the movie was released in 1942), she's rendered helpless in the "woman's world."
[[/folder]]

* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'':
** Polgara. She ''can'' cook, masterfully, and she at least pays lip service to the idea that she, as a woman, is better off manipulating events subtly and behind the scenes. The events of ''Polgara the Sorceress'', however, prove that she's just as willing as her father Belgarath to flat-out strongarm people (or a ''nation'') into doing what she wants, and she's almost as proficient as him at it, to boot.
** The "Rich people can't cook" variant is Ce'Nedra. She's not quite a LethalChef, but almost.
** Garion, the protagonist, is probably a passable cook, just by virtue of being raised in a kitchen and watching his aunt Pol at work. He knows how to cook bacon over an open flame and not burn it, at least.
* In ''Literature/BelisariusSeries'', Lady Sanga is so good a cook that the absence of onions at the place she was supposedly murdered makes her husband wonder if she really was murdered. In her case, she was an aristocrat and didn't need to cook or even do much of anything. She just loved cooking.

* ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' is a world in which, due to the [[GenderRarityValue sheer rarity of males]], most gender roles are {{Stereotype Flip}}ped and twisted about a little. As such the ability to cook for a large family is seen as a very good skill for a man to have. Jerin, staying out of the kitchen to avoid tempting visiting women, finds that one of his sisters has prepared only potatoes for their guest's dinner and has to recruit siblings to help him make it into a full meal.
* In Creator/JohnHemry's ''[[Literature/PaulSinclair Burden Of Proof]]'', Carl talks of how Paul and Jen have settled down since they started to date; he expects Jen to knit and cook and stuff. Paul observes that she does nothing more than microwave meals -- but there's nothing like a home-microwaved meal.
* In Creator/JohnCWright's ''Literature/ChroniclesOfChaos'', Vanity (the more feminine of the two girls), can barely make coffee, and the less said about her "hamburger" the better. However, Amelia notes that whatever she does make tends to taste delicious anyway.
* Double subverted in ''Literature/DragonBones'': While they're roasting meat over open fire, Ward tells his sister Ciarra that she's doing it wrong. In the end, though, his piece of meat is burned, while hers is okay. He was very distracted and irritable at the time.
* Molly Carpenter from ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' is committed to getting Harry Dresden healthier, by cooking healthy meals for him. Unfortunately, though she can make a mean cup of coffee, a chef she [[LethalChef ain't.]]
--> '''Harry''': Once she burned my egg. My boiled egg. I have no idea how.
* ''Literature/EightCousins'', also by Louisa May Alcott, subverts it. The small heroine Rose learns to bake the perfect loaf of bread, but it's presented as only one aspect of a pretty well-rounded education that also involves learning to sail, ride and generally become '[[PluckyGirl strong-minded]]', right alongside her seven boy cousins.
** One of whom takes up [[RealMenWearPink knitting]] while laid up from an injury, reminding himself that [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_knitting#Importance_in_Scottish_history Scotsmen all through history]] have "clicked the [[HaveAGayOldTime pricks]]" but hiding his work from his brothers because he knows they'll call him "Granny".
* In Creator/PatriciaCWrede's ''Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles'' story "Utensile Strength", one woman breaks her engagement on discovering her fiance can bake better than she does. (Four others get engaged on the spot, thinking this might be useful.)
** Princess Cimorene rebels against all the girly things that princesses are supposed to do, but part of that rebellion was learning to cook. She can even cook for DRAGONS.
* In Creator/CSLewis's ''Literature/TheFourLoves'', part of Mrs. Fidget's control techniques was to cook for her family.
* In Creator/SarahAddisonAllen's ''Literature/TheGirlWhoChasedTheMoon'', Julia became an obsessive cook while pregnant. Sawyer's mother also cooked, habitually for him.
* In Creator/TomClancy's ''Literature/JackRyan'' series, Cathy Ryan -- wife of the titular protagonist -- is a good example. A full-time doctor, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins, and an award-winning researcher, she still nonetheless takes great pride in her gourmet chef abilities (her potato salad is apparently to die for). It has been suggested within the books themselves that the reason she is so good at it is that cooking, being the application of proper ingredients, time, and preparation, appeals to her meticulous nature.
* In Creator/LMMontgomery's ''Literature/JaneOfLanternHill'', Jane takes to cooking like a duck to water, feeding both herself and her father though she was never allowed to cook before. She does prudently buy a cookbook first, and donuts defeat her.
* Parodied in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', where confused crossdresser Nobby Nobbs believes he's expected to do the cooking because he's a woman. To make it even sillier, there is an actual woman present, but Sergeant Angua "doesn't do cookery" (She's an Independent Career Woman. She's also a vegetarian werewolf, who prefers to avoid the smell of meat in human form.)
* Though she's not portrayed as particularly gifted, Catti-brie Battlehammer of ''Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt'' novels, for much of her life a tomboyish ActionGirl, can at least make enjoyable road stew. Though it's implied that, like many other of her useful skills beyond "sharp wit", Drizzt, a ranger used to surviving in the wild, [[NeverASelfMadeWoman taught her how]].

* In the ''Literature/MercyThompson'' novels, Mercy is a Volkswagon mechanic who dresses in grubby T-shirts, snarks off incessantly to every macho-male she encounters, and devours small furry animals when she turns into a coyote. The one "girly" thing she does is to bake lots of cookies or brownies.
* In Creator/JaneAusten's ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'', the trope gets brushed on, because cooking is also a matter of low class.
** Mrs. Bennet informs the company at one point that Charlotte Lucas was probably wanted home to help with the mince pies; she brings up her daughters differently, and has the servants do their own work.
** Mr. Collins makes the mistake of thinking one of the Bennett daughters helped with the meal. Mrs. Bennet corrects him; after all, that's what they have servants for.
* In ''Literature/RedeemingLove'', this trope is averted with former prostitute Angel, who is very good at looking and behaving like a [[ProperLady lady]], but has next to no domestic skills because she’s never needed them before getting married. This is a source of angst and frustration once she reaches a point where she wants to do something appropriately wifely for Michael like make him dinner. Played straight when she gets enough practice that she actually becomes quite skilled in the kitchen, and acquires a job as a cook later on in the novel.
* A massive [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] in ''Literature/ShakuganNoShana'' comes when it turns out that NinjaMaid Wilhelmina, loyal servant and ParentalSubstitute to Shana, [[LethalChef can't cook to save her life.]]
* An InvokedTrope in ''Literature/SomeoneElsesWar'', where the very sexist [[ChurchMilitant Lord's Resistance Army]] leaves cooking up to the girls and lets the [[ChildSoldiers boys]] do everything else.

* Kahlan from the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series. A ruler of the Midlands, with powerful MindControl powers, a brilliant tactician and an excellent fighter...really loves cooking. A cook who knew her since childhood claimed Kahlan scared everyone whenever she came into her kitchen and asked for some pots (a normal reaction to a Confessor. Nothing to do with her skills).
* Subversion: From Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove'', specifically from the entries in "The Notebooks of Lazarus Long":
-->''"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, '''cook a tasty meal''', fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."''[[note]]Emphasis added.[[/note]]
** This is Heinlein's "Competent Man/Competent Woman" concept.

* In ''Series/ThirtyRock'', Liz is generally depicted as the independent-career-gal-living-off-fast-food type, but there was one episode ("The C Word") in which she baked cupcakes for the writers (and they apparently turned out all right).
* Barney Fife of ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'' feels this way, and initially is dead set against Andy dating Helen Crump because she doesn't know how to cook very well. Andy, however, doesn't really care when she says she and any man she marries would have to make do with TV dinners. Barney is horrified, but all Andy says is that he likes TV dinners.
* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'': Starbuck can cook, as seen in "Daybreak".
* Ellie May of ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies'' may be as down-to-earth country as any of the Clampetts, but she can't cook for nuthin'.
* ''Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}'': Cordelia Chase is a Type 2. Her brownies could qualify as nuclear waste.
* Ria, in seventies BritCom ''Series/{{Butterflies}}''. She's very feminine, alright. But an atrocious cook.
* ''Series/CasesOfTheFirstDepartment'':
** Subverted when major Kozak's daughter wants to appease her father (who got angry because of a clogged bathtub) by telling him she will cook schnitzels. He says ok and she says she's gonna download the recipe.
** Captain Prazak's wife makes him a sandwich when he's called to a case in the middle of the night.
* Zigzagged a little on ''Series/Chef1993''. Since it's a sitcom about a high-class restaurant, most of the characters, male or female, ''can'' cook, with the notable exception of Janice Blackstock, who is written as a perfectly feminine, albeit career-oriented, woman. But it's okay because she's married to the best chef in the world (just ask him). She manages the restaurant, and at no point is her inability to cook seen as negating her femininity (although Gareth makes fun of her for it once). The third season inverts this with the RichBitch character Renee, who [[GirlyGirl loves the colour pink]] and is completely useless at cooking when introduced, although it's implied she gets better toward the end of the season. Prim and proper [[TheSnarkKnight Lucinda]] and slightly masculine Savannah are both brilliant cooks.
* Subverted on ''Series/DrQuinnMedicineWoman,'' where Michaela, a highly educated and competent doctor, cannot cook at all. This plays into a few different aspects of her personality, including the fact that she decided to become a FrontierDoctor rather than marry, after a childhood spent with a father who made her his protégé despite not being the son he wanted. While not masculine, Michaela is definitely more practical than the other women she interacts with, which translates into being less overtly feminine. Although even if she had married, it's implied it's unlikely she'd be expected to know how to cook anyway, as she was raised in privilege and this is another demonstration of her FishOutOfWater experience on the frontier.
* Debra of ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond''; she's a traditional stay-at-home mom who happens to cook badly. It's probably not quite as bad as her mother-in-law makes it out to be, but it's pretty bad.

* Averted and {{lampshade|Hanging}}d on ''Series/{{Frasier}}''. Daphne, the sweet, caring, [[TeamMom maternal]], capable, very feminine [[TheHeart Heart]] is, surprisingly, such an appalling cook that the badness of her cooking and the repulsiveness of her recipes is a RunningGag and transcends mere badness and becomes a [[EpicFail kind of awesomeness]]. However, Daphne ''believes'' she is this trope and is oblivious to her lack of talent until Niles, [[ItMakesSenseInContext as part of an effort to prove how much he loves her]], kicks off his list of her flaws with a gleeful "[[{{Understatement}} To be honest, I don't much care for your cooking]]. In fact, you can't cook at all." which strikes her dumb with astonishment. This could also be an American joke on British cuisine.
* ''Series/{{Friends}}'':
** Inverted with Rachel. She's the most girly GirlyGirl from their group and she's very feminine, fashionable, and sexy of the girls but she is a terrible cook (including once putting beef in the trifle).
** Monica is a domestic beauty who longs to have a family. She is a professional chef but she also feeds the gang for the whole series. She loves to play the role of a perfect hostess and loves cooking for her friends. She is also very competitive, strong-willed and gutsy and something of a GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak.
* Invoked by allusion in ''Series/GameOfThrones'', where Shae demurs on preparing any food for Tyrion, recalling how one of her previous customers had, after sampling some of her concoctions, told her that [[DamnWithFaintPraise for a cook, she was a pretty good whore]].

** Lorelai Gilmore and her teenage daughter Rory subsist on junk food, diner food, and takeout. Lorelai ended the series with Luke, a diner owner. (While she is an incompetent cook, she is an excellent seamstress and can whip up a fancy dress in under a week.)
** Rory is shown cooking twice in the whole series and both times a larger point about how either she is becoming adrift in a sea of privilege or showing how unfitting a life of domesticity would be for her.

* Lisa Douglas from ''Series/GreenAcres'', a socialite who [[LethalChef has never cooked a decent (or edible) meal]], yet is oblivious to her lack of culinary prowess.
* Marnie Madden from ''Series/TheHour'' gets her own cooking show in the second series, where she acts as a stereotypical fifties wife. Shame her actual life is a bit more complicated.

* On one episode of ''Series/JustShootMe'', Nina is asked to cook a meal for a congressman she's dating. (She was auditioning for a stuffing commercial, long story.) An aging former model who's never been in a kitchen in her adult life, she has to ask Maya for help over the phone. Maya has been seen hosting a dinner in at least one episode, and although no comments, good or bad, are ever made about her cooking, it can be assumed that she's at least a competent cook.
* Used to a remarkable extent in ''Series/KyleXY'', despite both parents working. During a period when the mother of the family Nicole isn't cooking the rest of them don't even seem to consider the possibility that maybe someone else could cook, subsisting on takeout food.
* In ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker'', Cara is chopping wood while Kahlan gathers it, and she chides Zedd and Richard for fussing over the food while the women chop and gather wood. Zedd answers that on a team, every member of the team should perform according to their abilities... and considering Cara's last attempt at cooking, she should stick to chopping.

* Peg Bundy from ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' is a pretty decent cook; she just never actually wants to and is so lazy that a packet of Jiffy Pop (that expired 3 years prior) is what she uses to celebrate. On the odd occasion that she actually puts any effort into it, she cranks out some world-class meals.
* Tyler, Wendy's new boyfriend on ''Series/TheMiddleman'', cooks for her. She returns the favor to him in "The Palindrome Reversal Palindrome" when she cooks a few...Hot Pockets.
-->"Lacey let me in. Don't worry, I only spent the first ten minutes digging through your underwear drawer. Now I'm testing your oven."
-->"We have an oven?"
-->"It's the big metal box where you keep the extra paint."
* Averted in ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' with [[ActionGirl Ziva David]]. No one would ever accuse her of being overly girly; a Mossad-trained assassin, accomplished field agent, and more often than not the toughest person in any room she happens to be in. And she has cooked on occasion for her friends and fellow agents, much to their delight. Abby Scuito is quoted as saying "Her cooking rocks!"
* ''Series/TheOutpost'': {{Averted}}. Though very feminine, Gwynn's a terrible cook. This isn't that surprising-as a noblewoman, she didn't have to learn.
* ''Series/SchittsCreek'' has Joceyln and Moira. The motherly Joceyln knows how to cook and bakes for people, but Moira used to pass off her housekeeper's enchiladas as her own cooking, a fact that is revealed when Moira borrows Joceyln's kitchen to make them. The show has a gender-flipped version later with their spouses. The lunkheaded but masculine Roland knows how to grill, but Johnny doesn't because he always hires a chef to do the grilling.
* ''Series/SexAndTheCity'': Carrie Bradshaw is lucky if she can brew a pot of coffee. Thankfully all her major love interests know their way around the kitchen.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E6MuddsWomen Mudd's Women]]", cooking is one skill that ought to be considered above looks.
-->'''Eve:''' Is this the kind of wife you want, Ben? Not someone to help you, not a wife to cook and [[TextileWorkIsFeminine sew]] and cry and need, but this kind. Selfish, vain, useless. Is this what you really want?
* Former Borg drone Seven of Nine takes up cooking in the final season of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' as a symbol of her [[BecomeARealBoy progression towards humanity]]. Captain Janeway on the other hand can never get the hang of her food replicator, even to make a decent cup of much-beloved coffee.
* Kitty Forman in ''Series/That70sShow''. It's so much that Eric and Red are helpless when she is angry with them and refuses to cook, leading them to eat processed simple foods like potato chips and pop tarts.
* ''Series/VeronicaMars'' isn't traditionally feminine in her behavior (mostly just badass), and her cooking skills seem to be average for someone who often prepares dinner for herself and her dad. However, her friend Wallace suspects that deep down inside, there's a girl who's "just dying to bake [him] something". In a way, he's right - she later prepares packages of "spirit cookies" for him on game days. She does so anonymously until he catches her baking.

* Implied/Downplayed in the female version of ''Theatre/TheOddCouple''. Florence (genderbent Felix) is a prissy former housewife who loves cooking, prides herself on her cooking, and is noted for her cooking skills. Olive (genderbent Oscar), meanwhile, is a sport-loving career lady (this version of the play's set in the mid-1980s) who late in the second act doesn't remember or even look to remove Florence's roast capon from the oven before it burns up past being saveable.
* In ''Theatre/OfTheeISing'', Wintergreen isn't too keen on marrying Diana Devereaux or any of the other BeautyContest girls, since he doubts their ability to cook: "Why, the average girl today can't cook--she can't even broil an egg." Mary insists that ''she'' can cook, and introduces him to her corn muffins, which go ThroughHisStomach straight to his heart.
* In ''Theatre/OnTheTown'', Hildy claims she can cook, but the bill of fare she presents to Chip consists of {{Double Entendre}}s served up in a ListSong. She does, with great effort, manage to prepare one specialty: a peeled banana.

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' inverts this trope. Not only are some competent chefs actually reasonably manly men like [[OneManArmy Ragna]], [[CoolOldGuy Jubei]] and [[BattleButler Valkenhayn]], but only three girls' culinary skills have been reliably measured. Litchi Faye-Ling is known to make some good meatbuns, as [[BigEater Taokaka]] can attest. Also, during ''The Wheel of Fortune'', [[TokenWholesome Tsubaki]] entertains the notion of inviting [[LoveInterests Jin]] over for some of [[{{Tomboy}} Makoto's]] home-made stew, something she probably wouldn't consider if [[OutdoorsyGal Makoto]] wasn't competent.[[labelnote:*]]This trait presumably carries over to the mainline Makoto as well.[[/labelnote]] The other girl in question is the more feminine Noel, whose skills [[LethalChef speak for themselves.]]
* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', one of the first things that Alistair asks Morrigan when she joins the party is whether or not she can cook. She can, but is rather irritated at being made the party cook. She's also the least feminine of the female party members. Alistair only asks her because [[LethalChef his cooking would kill them]].
* Completely inverted in ''VideoGame/RPGShooterStarwish''. It's guys who are great at cooking, not girls. Resident SupremeChef is Johnny, and [[TheHero Deuce]] while far from Johnny's skills is pretty decent cook himself, and cooking is [[RealMenWearPink his hobby]]. [[WrenchWench Ginny]] is the only girl to actually make something edible, [[{{Tsundere}} Tessa]] is figurative LethalChef, while [[MadScientist Deadeye]] is ''literal'' LethalChef'' (one of her meals actually sent Ginny to hospital).
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' have Tifa Lockhart in this trope. Although, we don't see her cook. Several characters comment her cooking is wonderful. After ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' is released, we can see her cooking foods. Her specialty is eggs, chips, and pizza.
** The ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII: Episode Zero'' {{Prequel}} novel reveals that between Lightning and Serah, the latter is the better cook. As for Lightning, [[http://tensai-shoujo.tumblr.com/post/78189867668/hope-a-microcosm-of-culinary-delight-did-he in a side conversation]] in [[VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII the third game]], she mentions that even though Serah was always better than her, she can still "grill a mean Behemoth steak." She admits in another sidequest to help out a chef that [[OneNoteCook Behemoth steak is the only thing she can cook.]]

** Exaggerated by Rose in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', who is the perfect girlfriend, but a terrible cook. However, she's a Patriot spy who modified her personality to fit Raiden's profile of the ideal woman, and her bad cooking is the one chink in her armour.
* The ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' series plays with this in various ways, though a general rule of thumb is that the more traditionally "feminine" heroines are terrible chefs, while less "feminine" women tend to be at least competent.
** Inverted in ''VideoGame/Persona2''; it's mentioned that compassionate and almost motherly [[GenkiGirl Maya Amano]] is nonetheless incompetent at cooking, to the point that she'll eat nothing but [[TrademarkFavoriteFood canned crab]] every night if left to her own devices. Fortunately, her [[TheLadette alcoholic boxer]] roommate Ulala Serizawa is a pretty capable cook.

** ''VideoGame/Persona4'' is a notable aversion; the two traditionally feminine girls [[YamatoNadeshiko Yukiko Amagi]] and [[TheHeart Rise Kujikawa]] [[LethalChef can't cook at all]] (well, Rise isn't unskilled, but her food's only edible if you're a fire eater like her). That said, the more tomboyish [[CuteBruiser Chie Satonaka]], who is insecure about her femininity, is an even worse chef than them. Just to give an idea of how bad these three are - when they gave Nanako (TheHero's cousin) cooking suggestions on how to make chocolate (telling her to put coffee, spices, and ''fish''), they ended up by proxy '''creating an EldritchAbomination!!''' The MC is immediately hit with the Fear status effect as a result! In contrast, {{Bifauxnen}} detective Naoto Shirogane is a competent cook, though it's mostly because she's actually capable of following cooking instructions. At the end, Yukiko, Rise, and Chie are only able to bake an edible cake by getting the help of Naoto, and Naoto notes that it still took them three tries. It's also implied highly feminine [[RichBitch Ai]] cannot cook either when she remarks that it would be nice to end up with a guy who can cook after eating food prepared by TheHero.
** ''VideoGame/Persona5'' doesn't really address this like prior games do, but it's noted that, in her confidant, [[StudentCouncilPresident Makoto]] (who is somewhat tomboyish, but also demure) can generally cook well, mostly because her [[AloofBigBrother workaholic sister]] and caretaker Sae infrequently comes home. DummiedOut dialogue suggests that the girly [[TheHeart Ann]] cannot cook at all, and all that [[GamerChick Futaba]] knows how to make is instant noodles. The delicate Haru doesn't know how to fully cook at ''present'', but she's fantastic at [[GreenThumb harvesting vegetables]] and wants to learn how to cook in the future, what with her aspiration to open her own organic-friendly cafe. [[CoolOldGuy Sojiro Sakura]], on the other hand, is a firm proponent of RealMenCook, although we [[OneNoteCook don't see him cook anything]] other than a curry that his [[TheLostLenore old flame]] Wakaba perfected and carefully-crafted cups of coffee. The protagonist can learn how to make both from him...and only both of those things.
* Living up to her first name, Flora Reinhold of the ''VideoGame/ProfessorLayton'' series is about as feminine as you can get: always wearing dresses, being polite and soft-spoken, and being a DamselInDistress at one point. And, according to the games' ending credits, she cannot cook but seems to like to anyway.

** Inverted with Lily and Odette. The former is the most feminine out of the three sisters, but she is a horrendously bad cook that can easily cause fainting spells and uses things like [[CordonBleughChef recovery potions]] in her dishes. Her younger sister Odette is more tomboy-ish, but the best at cooking and is even the main chef of their inn.

*** Raine Sage is a teacher, the sole parental figure for her kid brother, and a notoriously bad cook.
*** Subversion with Sheena who is one of the best cooks the party has, especially regarding familial recipes (she gets this as a title: "the culinary master who raised home-style cooking to the highest level"), yet she's a {{Tsundere}} tomboyish ActionGirl. However, the deviation from the trope is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in one scene where HandsomeLech Zelos [[SlapSlapKiss calls her on it]]:

*** It turns out that in [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld the sequel]], ''Dawn of the New World'', Marta can't cook either. In fact, when Sheena joins the party, a skit shows Emil crying from happiness because he never found a woman who could cook before Sheena.
** ''Emil'' is a wonderful cook (and has a habit of [[RealMenWearPink sculpting food into intricate shapes]]), and he's easily the most (or second most, after Colette) effeminate character in the game. Partly subverted, since [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Ratatosk Emil]] cooks just as well (though his food ''looks'' worse).
*** In the first ''Tales of Symphonia'', there is actually a skit that {{lampshade|Hanging}}s the aversion. Lloyd notices that Regal is a vastly superior cook to Raine, and Regal says that more men are good at cooking because of their physical strength. In the same skit, he says women are more equipped to fighting.
** This is a habit in the ''Tales'' series. The main character is always good at cooking. The main heroine is almost always a bad cook. Then the second woman in the party (like Sheena) is either good at cooking, or neutral. It's usually done to get some laughs at how bad the heroine's cooking is.
** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'', this trope is tendency is played around with. [[TheHero Luke]] is a mediocre to bad cook with a somewhat exotic taste, while [[AloofDarkHairedGirl Tear]] (the main heroine) is a good cook (albeit she cooks roughly like a guy would as she was taught by her brother Van). Anise is the best cook in the game and is the second woman to join you. [[TheOjou Natalia]], meanwhile, is quite possibly the worst cook in the party, as there is a skit in which she tries to ''heal'' a burning soup and she repeatedly burns her dishes beyond recognition. [[spoiler:Asch is noted to be a surprisingly good chef, in contrast to Luke.]]
** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'', the heroine [[WhiteMagicianGirl Mint]] is a wonderful cook and quite praised for her skills. [[{{Tsundere}} Arche]], on the other hand, has [[LethalChef made people faint with her cooking in multiple games.]] The main girl of ''VideoGame/TalesOfEternia'' is also a wonderful cook, though she's [[CuteBruiser not quite]] [[GoodOldFisticuffs as feminine]] as Mint.

* Played with in YuriGenre VisualNovel ''VisualNovel/AkaiIto''. The protagonist Kei is the most stereotypically feminine amongst the female cast, but her cooking can only be described as biohazard. TheLadette Sakuya usually ends up cooking for her.
* And again its sequel ''VisualNovel/AoiShiro''. The {{Tomboy}} protagonist Syouko --the captain of the kendo team and the object of admiration of her underclassgirls-- can cook as well as the very feminine Yasumi, who has a serious crush on her. Kind of making [[ThroughHisStomach through-her-stomach]] strategy unviable.

* Played with Kotone in ''VisualNovel/CafeEnchante''. While in the beginning, her coffee-making skills and cooking was mediocre, with practice, she is able to prepare coffee that the caffeine-loving Misyr enjoys and several dishes that BigEater Ignis would always clean up.
* Subverted in ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}''. Tomboyish {{tsundere}} Kyou is a very good cook, while her ShrinkingViolet twin sister Ryou is a LethalChef. Although this is hardly the only way in which the twins play with stereotypes, as Kyou's hair [[LongHairIsFeminine is long]] and Ryou's [[BoyishShortHair is short]]. Sanae Furukawa's bread is also horrible, but she's otherwise a very good cook, as are the other girls in the series.

** Downplayed with Amanda. She certainly knows her way around a kitchen, but that’s mainly due to her working in a diner.

* Lauren from ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'' can learn to cook anything, sometimes with a minimum of “suitable” ingredients.

* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' features Rena, Rika, Mion, and to a lesser extent Satoko, who are quite skilled in cooking. They all have their reasons though. The man of the group, on the other hand, is closer to a Lethal Chef when he tries to cook something more elaborate than instant noodles; Rena's father is also a dreadful cook, but he still tries. Actually, no man can cook in this series.
* ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' plays around with this:
** Lilly Satou is an excellent cook and has been cooking for her older sister Akira since they were young. The thing is... Lilly has been completely blind since birth.
** Hanako Ikezawa, Lilly's friend, is an interesting case. Main character Hisao finds her cooking to be very good, but Lilly mentions that Hanako likes to experiment, and says it in a way that implies some of those experiments produced unpleasant surprises.
** Ironically, the best cook in the group is... the tomboyish Emi Ibarazaki. (Who likely learned from her very girly and beautiful mother, Meiko.) And the worst one is Shizune Hakamichi, the local MsFanservice.
* Subverted with Becca in ''VisualNovel/{{Melody}}''. When she cooks a meal for the protagonist to thank him for fixing her faucet, he notes that the meat must be overcooked.
* Touko in ''VisualNovel/{{Suika}}'' learned to cook specifically to appeal to Yoshikazu. Sayaka is also going for this and is apparently a competent cook, but Souji is [[TheAce just better.]]
* Arcueid from ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' can count as a type 2 or arguably type 5. She is not brainless but she is an [[CloudCuckooLander airhead]] due to her empirical ignorance about the modern world or the world in general. She also happens to be the strongest thing on the planet (ORT don't count). Regardless, she has perfectly good reasons why she can't cook and depends on her love interest Shiki to cook for her, who is not an amazing cook but is good enough. She probably enjoys the fact that he cooks for her more than the actual cooking themselves anyway.

* Marsha from ''Webcomic/CollegeRoomiesFromHell'' massively subverts this. While she can have some pretty big {{Yandere}} qualities, she's generally considered the most cute and feminine of the female cast. Her cuteness even borders on supernatural levels, with her "manga eyes" able to entrance almost any male, and small furry animals constantly following her due to her Snow White Syndrome. She also comes from a family of chefs and wants to be one herself. Despite all this, her cooking is [[LethalChef considered slightly more toxic than toxic waste itself]].

* In ''Webcomic/{{Erstwhile}}'', [[http://www.erstwhiletales.com/kthrush-12/#.Uzocele1CUk the beggar expects the princess to cook -- though he bows to reality when she's clearly incompetent.]]
* Agatha in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' can cook - she's a MadScientist and it's ''"just simple chemistry"'' - but the circumstances under which she discusses it don't exactly portray her as feminine. She's having to pretend to be a murderer, to give an alibi for sneaking into MalevolentArchitecture and living DeathTrap Castle Heterodyne, which is used as a prison for the ''really'' bad criminals.
--> '''Sanaa:''' So - what did you ''do'' to wind up ''here'', anyway?\\
'''Agatha:''' Poisoned thirty-seven people. Who ''complained'' about my ''cooking''.

* In ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure'', [[http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0401.html Jordie takes a second to realize that his Mom bringing porridge means it's a dream because she never cooks.]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Completely averted in the Italian webseries [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfWj9qhNHisO_un8a7ux1qA ''Insopportabilmente donna'':]] its creator/protagonist, Creator/TessMasazza, is so inept at cooking that her friends panic at the mere sight of her picking up a knife to help them prepare a meal and [[ReassignedToAntarctica immediately send her to buy some food at the farthest away supermarket.]]
[[/folder]]

* Mrs Turner on ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' apparently can't cook very well, having fed her family with live squid casserole, shoes, food items that have been so foul they started attacking the rest of the family...Cosmo also seems to imply that Wanda's cooking is bad as well.

* In WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Pinkie Pie and Sugar Belle are two of the girlier ponies, and Pinkie Pie is a sweet lover who works in Ponyville's cake shop, while Sugar Belle runs her very own bakery. Rarity, the girliest of ponies, has also been shown to be a decent cook.

* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'': Lindsey averts this trope. While she is the most feminine of the girls in the original cast, her cooking skills lead to disastrous results.

* Claire from ''WesternAnimation/{{Trollhunters}}'' is able to whip up guacamole that impresses even Jim.

Keep in mind that this trope refers to ''home'' cooking, not professional cookery. (Although working in a restaurant may still be counted as one of the AcceptableFeminineGoalsAndTraits depending on how it's presented.) Younger tropers might be surprised to learn that before the 1980s, women were generally not allowed to work as professional chefs.[[note]]Famous female chefs do seem to have worked professionally pre-1980, whether in their own eateries or publicly.[[/note]] The excuse usually given was that the work was "too physically hard" for women, but in reality, the common belief was that although a woman could make an adequate home cook, she could ''never'' be a real chef, because [[DoubleStandard being a chef took a certain genius]] that no woman could possibly ever, ''ever'' have. The resistance to women working as professional chefs was so strong that some women who tried ended up having to leave the profession to protect themselves from sexual harassment and violence. Thus Colette in ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'' can cook and be a fiery feminist heroine at the same time - as she points out, she ''has'' to be a fiery cook in order to become a chef at all.

* Inverted in ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha''. Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate, who are independent, [[PersonOfMassDestruction highly destructive]] {{Action Girl}}s with glowing military careers, are all revealed [[AllThereInTheManual in supplementary material]] to be good cooks in their own right. The LethalChef of the series? Why, it's the TeamMom and WhiteMagicianGirl, Shamal![[note]]Justified since Nanoha's parents own a bakery and she's been helping with household chores since before season 1, while Hayate used to be a [[SocialServicesDoesNotExist crippled girl living on her own,]] and the first episodes of A's shows her cooking, ''while in a wheelchair''. Fate, meanwhile, is revealed in [[ComicBookAdaptation one of the manga chapters]] to have been taught how to cook by Linith, Precia's CatGirl familiar who raised her before the events of the first season.[[/note]]

* Parodied in ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', where the girly girl Nia becomes a sort-of [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter The Minnesota Fats]] for the local CoolBigSis Yoko since she's good at almost everything...until the BeachEpisode shows that Nia is a ''horrid'' cook: whatever she cooks ''looks'' delicious, but it knocks out most people who taste it (poor Rossiu spent a whole episode out of commission!). Although her {{Love Interest|s}} Simon genuinely likes her cooking, even if no one else does. In one of the spin-off manga, it's shown Kamina would have loved her food too. So who knows, [[RatedMForManly maybe its food fit for only the manliest of men/women.]]

* In ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', Dawn was good at baking Poffins and Serena is an excellent patisserie. May subverts it despite her coordinator status by being a LethalChef.

* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' features Rena, Rika, Mion, and to a lesser extent Satoko, who are quite skilled in cooking. They all have their reasons though. The man of the group, on the other hand, is closer to a Lethal Chef when he tries to cook something more elaborate than instant noodles; Rena's father is also a dreadful cook, but he still tries. Actually, no man can cook in this series.
* Subverted with Becca in ''VisualNovel/{{Melody}}''. When she cooks a meal for the protagonist to thank him for fixing her faucet, he notes that the meat must be overcooked.

* ''Webcomic/MenageA3'' features [=DiDi=], who lacks some of the attributes of extreme femininity, but who is certainly very, very female -- and who is a keen hobbyist cook, implied to be far and away the best in the kitchen of the lead cast.
* In ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure'', [[http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0401.html Jordie takes a second to realize that his Mom bringing porridge means it's a dream because she never cooks.]]
* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2012-07-01 one choice Monique is presented with is Wife Material, with a conspicuous oven containing a dish.]]

* WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'s best gal pal the tomboyish Patti was shown in one episode to not be a good cook, despite being TheAce in many other areas.

* In WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Pinkie Pie and Sugar Belle are two of the girlier ponies, and Pinkie Pie is a sweet lover who works in Ponyville's cake shop, while Sugar Belle runs her very own bakery. Rarity, the girliest of ponies, has also been shown to be a decent cook.
** On the flip side, tomboyish farm girl Applejack has proven to be good at cooking with her family's apples, which makes sense since that's one way her farm makes money.
* Mrs Turner on ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' apparently can't cook very well, having fed her family with live squid casserole, shoes, food items that have been so foul they started attacking the rest of the family...Cosmo also seems to imply that Wanda's cooking is bad as well.
* Played very straight in ''WesternAnimation/WildWestCowboysOfMooMesa''. The tomboyish Cowlamity Kate is such a horrible cook that the others dread her recipe for rhubarb pie, while the more traditionally feminine Lilli Bovine's culinary skills are universally praised.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AtomicBetty'', Betty's grandmother is a RetiredBadass and can't cook to save her life.
* A running gag in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' is that Marge buys into this a lot, but is in fact a pretty bland cook. She claims her secret ingredient is salt and is flummoxed at the idea that a spice rack could hold as "many" as 8 spices, claiming some must be doubles and having never heard of oregano before.

* In ''Literature/TheBible'', this is one of the traits of the ideal wife in [[Literature/BookOfProverbs Proverbs 31]]. "She is like a merchant fleet, bringing her food from afar. She rises while it is still night, and supplies provisions for her household, the daily fare of her maids." She's also [[TextileWorkIsFeminine pretty handy with a spindle]]. (It's part of a very big list; being able to do ''any'' of it is seen as a good thing. That said, if she CAN cook, it means another skill that doesn't need to be outsourced.)
* A massive [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] in ''Literature/ShakuganNoShana'' comes when it turns out that NinjaMaid Wilhelmina, loyal servant and ParentalSubstitute to Shana, [[LethalChef can't cook to save her life.]]

* ''Series/SexAndTheCity'': Carrie Bradshaw is lucky if she can brew a pot of coffee. Thankfully all her major love interests know their way around the kitchen.

* Lois in ''Series/LoisAndClark'' can't cook... as shown in one episode, at the end of which she inherits cookery talent from the ghost of a disgruntled housewife who possessed her. Cookery is never mentioned again.
* In ''Series/ThirtyRock'', Liz is generally depicted as the independent-career-gal-living-off-fast-food type, but there was one episode ("The C Word") in which she baked cupcakes for the writers (and they apparently turned out all right).
* ''Series/{{Friends}}'':
** Inverted with Rachel. She's the most girly GirlyGirl from their group and she's very feminine, fashionable, and sexy of the girls but she is a terrible cook (including once putting beef in the trifle).
** Monica is a domestic beauty who longs to have a family. She is a professional chef but she also feeds the gang for the whole series. She loves to play the role of a perfect hostess and loves cooking for her friends. She is also very competitive, strong-willed and gutsy and something of a GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak.

* Debra of ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond''; she's a traditional stay-at-home mom who happens to cook badly. It's probably not quite as bad as her mother-in-law makes it out to be, but it's pretty bad.
* Former Borg drone Seven of Nine takes up cooking in the final season of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' as a symbol of her [[BecomeARealBoy progression towards humanity]]. Captain Janeway on the other hand can never get the hang of her food replicator, even to make a decent cup of much-beloved coffee.
* Zigzagged a little on ''Series/Chef1993''. Since it's a sitcom about a high-class restaurant, most of the characters, male or female, ''can'' cook, with the notable exception of Janice Blackstock, who is written as a perfectly feminine, albeit career-oriented, woman. But it's okay because she's married to the best chef in the world (just ask him). She manages the restaurant, and at no point is her inability to cook seen as negating her femininity (although Gareth makes fun of her for it once). The third season inverts this with the RichBitch character Renee, who [[GirlyGirl loves the colour pink]] and is completely useless at cooking when introduced, although it's implied she gets better toward the end of the season. Prim and proper [[TheSnarkKnight Lucinda]] and slightly masculine Savannah are both brilliant cooks.
* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'': Starbuck can cook, as seen in "Daybreak".
* Ria, in seventies BritCom ''Series/{{Butterflies}}''. She's very feminine, alright. But an atrocious cook.
* Lisa Douglas from ''Series/GreenAcres'', a socialite who [[LethalChef has never cooked a decent (or edible) meal]], yet is oblivious to her lack of culinary prowess.
* On one episode of ''Series/JustShootMe'', Nina is asked to cook a meal for a congressman she's dating. (She was auditioning for a stuffing commercial, long story.) An aging former model who's never been in a kitchen in her adult life, she has to ask Maya for help over the phone. Maya has been seen hosting a dinner in at least one episode, and although no comments, good or bad, are ever made about her cooking, it can be assumed that she's at least a competent cook.
* Played with in ''Series/{{Firefly}}''. In "[[Recap/FireflyE06OurMrsReynolds Our Mrs. Reynolds]]", Mal's almost painfully submissive new wife Saffron turns out to be a fabulous cook. Zoe is not amused when Saffron suggests she cook for her husband, and is even less amused when Wash drools over Saffron's cooking. However, in "[[Recap/FireflyE10WarStories War Stories]]", a rather touching scene has Zoe cooking for Wash after he leads the charge to rescue Mal.
-->''"Mmmmmm. Wife soup."''
* In ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker'', Cara is chopping wood while Kahlan gathers it, and she chides Zedd and Richard for fussing over the food while the women chop and gather wood. Zedd answers that on a team, every member of the team should perform according to their abilities... and considering Cara's last attempt at cooking, she should stick to chopping.
* Used to a remarkable extent in ''Series/KyleXY'', despite both parents working. During a period when the mother of the family Nicole isn't cooking the rest of them don't even seem to consider the possibility that maybe someone else could cook, subsisting on takeout food.
* Peg Bundy from ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' is a pretty decent cook; she just never actually wants to and is so lazy that a packet of Jiffy Pop (that expired 3 years prior) is what she uses to celebrate. On the odd occasion that she actually puts any effort into it, she cranks out some world-class meals.
* Averted and {{lampshade|Hanging}}d on ''Series/{{Frasier}}''. Daphne, the sweet, caring, [[TeamMom maternal]], capable, very feminine [[TheHeart Heart]] is, surprisingly, such an appalling cook that the badness of her cooking and the repulsiveness of her recipes is a RunningGag and transcends mere badness and becomes a [[EpicFail kind of awesomeness]]. However, Daphne ''believes'' she is this trope and is oblivious to her lack of talent until Niles, [[ItMakesSenseInContext as part of an effort to prove how much he loves her]], kicks off his list of her flaws with a gleeful "[[{{Understatement}} To be honest, I don't much care for your cooking]]. In fact, you can't cook at all." which strikes her dumb with astonishment. This could also be an American joke on British cuisine.
* Ellie May of ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies'' may be as down-to-earth country as any of the Clampetts, but she can't cook for nuthin'.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E6MuddsWomen Mudd's Women]]", cooking is one skill that ought to be considered above looks.
-->'''Eve:''' Is this the kind of wife you want, Ben? Not someone to help you, not a wife to cook and [[TextileWorkIsFeminine sew]] and cry and need, but this kind. Selfish, vain, useless. Is this what you really want?
* Series/VeronicaMars isn't traditionally feminine in her behavior (mostly just badass), and her cooking skills seem to be average for someone who often prepares dinner for herself and her dad. However, her friend Wallace suspects that deep down inside, there's a girl who's "just dying to bake [him] something". In a way, he's right - she later prepares packages of "spirit cookies" for him on game days. She does so anonymously until he catches her baking.
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'':
** Lily is the girly girl and feminine woman of the group. Some episodes mention that Lily is a great cook and bakes excellent cakes or cookies. For instance, she prepared the very delicious Thanksgiving dinner.
** SweetBaker Victoria, Ted's girlfriend, is a very pretty and sweet woman, and a professional baker who met Ted at one wedding. She often bakes cupcakes for Ted.
* ''Series/CasesOfTheFirstDepartment'':
** Subverted when major Kozak's daughter wants to appease her father (who got angry because of a clogged bathtub) by telling him she will cook schnitzels. He says ok and she says she's gonna download the recipe.
** Captain Prazak's wife makes him a sandwich when he's called to a case in the middle of the night.
* Marnie Madden from ''Series/TheHour'' gets her own cooking show in the second series, where she acts as a stereotypical fifties wife. Shame her actual life is a bit more complicated.
* Barney Fife of ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'' feels this way, and initially is dead set against Andy dating Helen Crump because she doesn't know how to cook very well. Andy, however, doesn't really care when she says she and any man she marries would have to make do with TV dinners. Barney is horrified, but all Andy says is that he likes TV dinners.
* Averted in ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' with [[ActionGirl Ziva David]]. No one would ever accuse her of being overly girly; a Mossad-trained assassin, accomplished field agent, and more often than not the toughest person in any room she happens to be in. And she has cooked on occasion for her friends and fellow agents, much to their delight. Abby Scuito is quoted as saying "Her cooking rocks!"
* ''Series/SchittsCreek'' has Joceyln and Moira. The motherly Joceyln knows how to cook and bakes for people, but Moira used to pass off her housekeeper's enchiladas as her own cooking, a fact that is revealed when Moira borrows Joceyln's kitchen to make them. The show has a gender-flipped version later with their spouses. The lunkheaded but masculine Roland knows how to grill, but Johnny doesn't because he always hires a chef to do the grilling.
* ''Series/TheOutpost'': {{Averted}}. Though very feminine, Gwynn's a terrible cook. This isn't that surprising-as a noblewoman, she didn't have to learn.
* Subverted on ''Series/DrQuinnMedicineWoman,'' where Michaela, a highly educated and competent doctor, cannot cook at all. This plays into a few different aspects of her personality, including the fact that she decided to become a FrontierDoctor rather than marry, after a childhood spent with a father who made her his protégé despite not being the son he wanted. While not masculine, Michaela is definitely more practical than the other women she interacts with, which translates into being less overtly feminine. Although even if she had married, it's implied it's unlikely she'd be expected to know how to cook anyway, as she was raised in privilege and this is another demonstration of her FishOutOfWater experience on the frontier.

* In ''Theatre/TheGoldenApple'', Miss Minerva bakes a seven-layer cake for the fair "just to prove I'm feminine." But Lovey Mars takes along her mincemeat pie and Mrs. Juniper brings her prize-winning angel food cake. And then old Mother Hare appears and offers her AppleOfDiscord to the most feminine of them all, for confectionery values of femininity.
* Implied/Downplayed in the female version of ''Theatre/TheOddCouple''. Florence (genderbent Felix) is a prissy former housewife who loves cooking, prides herself on her cooking, and is noted for her cooking skills. Olive (genderbent Oscar), meanwhile, is a sport-loving career lady (this version of the play's set in the mid-1980s) who late in the second act doesn't remember or even look to remove Florence's roast capon from the oven before it burns up past being saveable.

* Depending on the player, in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3's'' Citadel DLC a female Shepard romancing Kaidan can either avert this trope or play it straight depending on a dialogue choice made when Kaidan cooks for her ([[TheLadette Shepard]] being a textbook ActionGirl).
* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'':
** Played straight in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots''. Sunny is taught how to cook by Naomi, and it eventually becomes a plot point. [[spoiler:Sunny uses Raiden to deliver a coded culinary message indicating she'd attacked the Patriots]].
** Exaggerated by Rose in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', who is the perfect girlfriend, but a terrible cook. However, she's a Patriot spy who modified her personality to fit Raiden's profile of the ideal woman, and her bad cooking is the one chink in her armour.
* The ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' series plays with this in various ways, though a general rule of thumb is that the more traditionally "feminine" heroines are terrible chefs, while less "feminine" women tend to be at least competent.
** Inverted in ''VideoGame/Persona2''; it's mentioned that compassionate and almost motherly [[GenkiGirl Maya Amano]] is nonetheless incompetent at cooking, to the point that she'll eat nothing but [[TrademarkFavoriteFood canned crab]] every night if left to her own devices. Fortunately, her [[TheLadette alcoholic boxer]] roommate Ulala Serizawa is a pretty capable cook.
** Discussed in ''VideoGame/Persona3''; [[ShrinkingViolet Fuuka Yamagishi]], despite her gentle and supportive personality, perceives herself to lack femininity due to her talent at [[WrenchWench tinkering with computers and electronics]], and wants to learn how to cook to make up for it. Unfortunately, [[LethalChef her cooking is quite awful]]. However, the trope is played straight by [[TheHeart Yukari Takeba]] and ''[[UpdatedRerelease Persona 3 Portable]]''[='s=] female protagonist, though the latter is more of a TomboyWithAGirlyStreak; ''Portable''[='s=] protagonist is such a SupremeChef that she can actually teach Fuuka how to cook properly.
** ''VideoGame/Persona4'' is a notable aversion; the two traditionally feminine girls [[YamatoNadeshiko Yukiko Amagi]] and [[TheHeart Rise Kujikawa]] [[LethalChef can't cook at all]] (well, Rise isn't unskilled, but her food's only edible if you're a fire eater like her). That said, the more tomboyish [[CuteBruiser Chie Satonaka]], who is insecure about her femininity, is an even worse chef than them. Just to give an idea of how bad these three are - when they gave Nanako (TheHero's cousin) cooking suggestions on how to make chocolate (telling her to put coffee, spices, and ''fish''), they ended up by proxy '''creating an EldritchAbomination!!''' The MC is immediately hit with the Fear status effect as a result! In contrast, {{Bifauxnen}} detective Naoto Shirogane is a competent cook, though it's mostly because she's actually capable of following cooking instructions. At the end, Yukiko, Rise, and Chie are only able to bake an edible cake by getting the help of Naoto, and Naoto notes that it still took them three tries. It's also implied highly feminine [[RichBitch Ai]] cannot cook either when she remarks that it would be nice to end up with a guy who can cook after eating food prepared by TheHero.
** ''VideoGame/Persona5'' doesn't really address this like prior games do, but it's noted that, in her confidant, [[StudentCouncilPresident Makoto]] (who is somewhat tomboyish, but also demure) can generally cook well, mostly because her [[AloofBigBrother workaholic sister]] and caretaker Sae infrequently comes home. DummiedOut dialogue suggests that the girly [[TheHeart Ann]] cannot cook at all, and all that [[GamerChick Futaba]] knows how to make is instant noodles. The delicate Haru doesn't know how to fully cook at ''present'', but she's fantastic at [[GreenThumb harvesting vegetables]] and wants to learn how to cook in the future, what with her aspiration to open her own organic-friendly cafe. [[CoolOldGuy Sojiro Sakura]], on the other hand, is a firm proponent of RealMenCook, although we [[OneNoteCook don't see him cook anything]] other than a curry that his [[TheLostLenore old flame]] Wakaba perfected and carefully-crafted cups of coffee. The protagonist can learn how to make both from him...and only both of those things.
* ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'':
** Played with. Ann, a tomboy, [[LethalChef cannot cook well]] in her [[VideoGame/HarvestMoon64 first appearance]]. Come its [[VideoGame/HarvestMoonBackToNature successor port]], and she's one of the best cooks in the game.
** Eli is rather feminine and is a baker.
* Living up to her first name, Flora Reinhold of the ''VideoGame/ProfessorLayton'' series is about as feminine as you can get: always wearing dresses, being polite and soft-spoken, and being a DamselInDistress at one point. And, according to the games' ending credits, she cannot cook but seems to like to anyway.
* ''VideoGame/RuneFactoryOceans'':
** You start the game as the male protagonist Aden but have the choice of switching to the female protagonist Sonja once you've restored her body. Sonja will inherit all of Adel's skills with the exception of cooking, which will automatically be bumped up to 40 if Aden had any less than that.
** Inverted with Lily and Odette. The former is the most feminine out of the three sisters, but she is a horrendously bad cook that can easily cause fainting spells and uses things like [[CordonBleughChef recovery potions]] in her dishes. Her younger sister Odette is more tomboy-ish, but the best at cooking and is even the main chef of their inn.
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'':
** Sumia is very girlish and tries to use her cooking to win over Chrom's affections. She also attempts to help [[SweetTooth Gaius]] gather good ingredients, [[HilarityEnsues with disastrous results.]] Some of Sumia's Event Tiles conversations have her saying she has made lunch for any of her love interests... [[CuteClumsyGirl and that she tripped over the lunchbox.]] [[RunningGag Twice.]]
** Noire, the ShrinkingViolet archer with a SplitPersonality, is very girly as well ''and'' she's great at baking.
** Lissa is a TomboyPrincess who tries to bake for Kellam. [[EpicFail She fails]]. She also attempts to cook for the aforementioned Gaius, and that goes a little better... since this time he's watching over her and giving her cooking lessons.
** Sully and her daughter Kjelle are ''the'' {{tomboy}}s of the army... [[LethalChef and neither can cook.]] Ironically, two of Sully's potential husbands/Kjelle's prospect dads are Gaius and Stahl, who are {{supreme chef}}s.
** Olivia is rather feminine in looks and personality, and according to her supports with Kellam she's pretty good at making sweets. And she ''can'' be paired up with almost all the aforementioned guys.
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' have Tifa Lockhart in this trope. Although, we don't see her cook. Several characters comment her cooking is wonderful. After ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' is released, we can see her cooking foods. Her specialty is eggs, chips, and pizza.
** The ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII: Episode Zero'' {{Prequel}} novel reveals that between Lightning and Serah, the latter is the better cook. As for Lightning, [[http://tensai-shoujo.tumblr.com/post/78189867668/hope-a-microcosm-of-culinary-delight-did-he in a side conversation]] in [[VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII the third game]], she mentions that even though Serah was always better than her, she can still "grill a mean Behemoth steak." She admits in another sidequest to help out a chef that [[OneNoteCook Behemoth steak is the only thing she can cook.]]
* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' inverts this trope. Not only are some competent chefs actually reasonably manly men like [[OneManArmy Ragna]], [[CoolOldGuy Jubei]] and [[BattleButler Valkenhayn]], but only three girls' culinary skills have been reliably measured. Litchi Faye-Ling is known to make some good meatbuns, as [[BigEater Taokaka]] can attest. Also, during ''The Wheel of Fortune'', [[TokenWholesome Tsubaki]] entertains the notion of inviting [[LoveInterests Jin]] over for some of [[{{Tomboy}} Makoto's]] home-made stew, something she probably wouldn't consider if [[OutdoorsyGal Makoto]] wasn't competent.[[labelnote:*]]This trait presumably carries over to the mainline Makoto as well.[[/labelnote]] The other girl in question is the more feminine Noel, whose skills [[LethalChef speak for themselves.]]
* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', one of the first things that Alistair asks Morrigan when she joins the party is whether or not she can cook. She can, but is rather irritated at being made the party cook. She's also the least feminine of the female party members. Alistair only asks her because [[LethalChef his cooking would kill them]].
* Completely inverted in ''VideoGame/RPGShooterStarwish''. It's guys who are great at cooking, not girls. Resident SupremeChef is Johnny, and [[TheHero Deuce]] while far from Johnny's skills is pretty decent cook himself, and cooking is [[RealMenWearPink his hobby]]. [[WrenchWench Ginny]] is the only girl to actually make something edible, [[{{Tsundere}} Tessa]] is figurative LethalChef, while [[MadScientist Deadeye]] is ''literal'' LethalChef'' (one of her meals actually sent Ginny to hospital).

* Arcueid from ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' can count as a type 2 or arguably type 5. She is not brainless but she is an [[CloudCuckooLander airhead]] due to her empirical ignorance about the modern world or the world in general. She also happens to be the strongest thing on the planet (ORT don't count). Regardless, she has perfectly good reasons why she can't cook and depends on her love interest Shiki to cook for her, who is not an amazing cook but is good enough. She probably enjoys the fact that he cooks for her more than the actual cooking themselves anyway.
* Touko in ''VisualNovel/{{Suika}}'' learned to cook specifically to appeal to Yoshikazu. Sayaka is also going for this and is apparently a competent cook, but Souji is [[TheAce just better.]]
* Played with in YuriGenre VisualNovel ''VisualNovel/AkaiIto''. The protagonist Kei is the most stereotypically feminine amongst the female cast, but her cooking can only be described as biohazard. TheLadette Sakuya usually ends up cooking for her.
* And again its sequel ''VisualNovel/AoiShiro''. The {{Tomboy}} protagonist Syouko --the captain of the kendo team and the object of admiration of her underclassgirls-- can cook as well as the very feminine Yasumi, who has a serious crush on her. Kind of making [[ThroughHisStomach through-her-stomach]] strategy unviable.

* Subverted in ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}''. Tomboyish {{tsundere}} Kyou is a very good cook, while her ShrinkingViolet twin sister Ryou is a LethalChef. Although this is hardly the only way in which the twins play with stereotypes, as Kyou's hair [[LongHairIsFeminine is long]] and Ryou's [[BoyishShortHair is short]]. Sanae Furukawa's bread is also horrible, but she's otherwise a very good cook, as are the other girls in the series.
* ''VisualNovel/AmnesiaMemories''' fandisc ''Amnesia LATER'': The feminine heroine does a lot of cooking in the various stories. Partly justified, as she lives alone and knowing how to cook is a worthy skill in such a case. In Ikki's story, he expresses amazement at how well she cooks and she admits that she kind of had to learn to cook for herself because her father was often [[TheCasanova going out on dates with various women]].

* Played with and somewhat reversed in ''Manga/MadeInAbyss''. The only clearly-female main character, Riko, can make delicious meals out of practically anything, but she [[{{Tomboy}} isn't feminine]]. Nanachi is [[AmbiguousGender resolutely gender-ambiguous]] and terrible at cooking, seemingly due to an atrophied sense of taste. Reg, despite being male, is probably the most feminine of the three, but he's [[LethalChef even worse than Nanachi]].
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** [[ShrinkingViolet Hinata Hyuga]] in a filler episode of Part I ''Naruto'' and in an omake of ''Naruto Shippuden'' is shown to be an exceptional cook. And in ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'' she is shown as a SupremeChef with her son, Boruto, commenting once how she went overboard, and her husband Naruto mentioning how her food is delicious.
** [[{{Tsundere}} Sakura Haruno]] on the other hand, is shown in the aforementioned omake as LethalChef, being a medical ninja and her insistence on preparing "healthy" meals having something to do with it. By the time of ''Boruto'', she has improved her cooking skills considerably, after having been a housewife raising her daughter Sarada.
* Princess Ann from ''Manga/Samurai8TheTaleOfHachimaru'', as part of an attempt to connect with her Samurai Lord, Hachimaru, she decides to make lunch for everyone. The meal is delicious... just not very appealing to the eye.

* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': DependingOnTheWriter, Lois Lane.
* In ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'', Veronica subverts this by being a notoriously bad cook who couldn't boil water in a blast furnace. Furthermore, any boy who is pressured to eat what she prepares is usually convinced they are about to commit suicide. A spoiled rich girl like Veronica has no doubt never needed to learn to do such "menial" tasks, which are for the servants to do. By contrast, the more tomboyish Betty is a SupremeChef.
* While ComicBook/RedTornado (Abigail "Ma" Hunkel) is more known for being rather rough-and-tumble and looking like a linebacker than being feminine, she is a caring mother/grandmother and excellent chef whose meals the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica are quite appreciative of.

* In "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/jacobs/english/fishring.html The Fish and the Ring]]", the heroine swings a job in the kitchen, which is how she happens to cook the fish that has the ring -- and so make her father-in-law give up his persecution.
* In "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/donkeyskin/stories/allfur.html All Kind of Fur]]", she can cook a marvelous soup, and she also slips the ring he gave her into it.
* In "Literature/CapORushes", she makes gruel for the sick young man, which gives her a chance to put the ring in it.

* Inverted in ''Fanfic/MyHuntsmanAcademia''. Pyrrha, Weiss, and Nora have never stepped into a kitchen to cook something themselves. Izuku, the only one on the team with cooking experience (and is a particularly skilled pastry maker because of his [[SeriousBusiness rivalry with Ren]]) is uneasy about leaving them alone in the kitchen, but they insist on making one meal for him before winter break because he's cooked for them all semester. The resulting mess (an attempt at chicken curry) looks like it's [[LethalChef poisonous, covered in mold, may or may not be moving, and somehow got black hair in it]] when none of them have black hair. They agreed to [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain never speak of it again]] and the sight of it would haunt them all for the rest of their days.

* Disney heroines have gone through a particular evolution over the years:
** [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs Snow White's]] ability to cook is one of her defining traits and what ultimately convinces the dwarfs to let her stay with them. Within the film we see her cook a pot of soup and later gooseberry pies for the dwarfs; she also mentions that she can make apple dumplings and plum pudding.
** Colette from ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'' twists this trope around by being strong, feminine, and an outstanding chef at one of Paris' top restaurants all at once. She makes a speech partway through the film which is a TakeThat to the notion that women can only cook within the home, which is clearly a BerserkButton.
*** It's also Averted in the food industry as a whole- there's a ''lot'' of ingrained sexism and it's very hard for a woman to get into ''haute cuisine''. Colette managed it because she was willing to go through hell for it.
** Pictured above: In ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog,'' the heroine, Tiana, loves to cook, and from the age of six shows off her prodigious gumbo skills. Her dream is to own a beautiful, community-nurturing restaurant where she herself is the head chief. Her skills were honed in her home kitchen but, like Collette, she is a ''professional'' chef who's worked her whole life to get where she is.
** While just a minor character, Mirabel's mother in ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'' is the most feminine ([[OnlySaneWoman and stable]]) woman of the family. Her Gift is making food with magical healing powers.

* ''Film/WomanOfTheYear'' spends much of the movie showing how Katharine Hepburn's female reporter is the intellectual equal (or even superior) of Spencer Tracy's male reporter. The last scene in the movie is of Hepburn trying to make waffles but failing spectacularly, indicating that by being so successful in the "man's world" (the movie was released in 1942), she's rendered helpless in the "woman's world."

* Lara Croft in ''[[Film/LaraCroftTombRaider Tomb Raider]]'' even screws up reheating a ready meal in a microwave. She's of noble blood, and her butler does all the cooking. She's also most definitely ''not'' feminine. The one time she puts on an elegant dress, her butler nearly has a heart attack (he's been trying to get her to act like a proper lady for years) and quickly corrects the situation by serving her guns on a tray.

* Lee Leander in ''Film/RememberTheNight'' cooks some muffins, and is told by Aunt Emma that the way into a man's love is by cooking for him. Lee doesn't really believe this and throws muffins right in front of Sargent out of anger.
* ''Film/NoNameOnTheBullet'', Anne is introduced making a meal for Luke and Asa. Asa warns her to never let Luke in the kitchen after they are married because everything he cooks tastes like a prescription.

* Double subverted in ''Literature/DragonBones'': While they're roasting meat over open fire, Ward tells his sister Ciarra that she's doing it wrong. In the end, though, his piece of meat is burned, while hers is okay. He was very distracted and irritable at the time.
* In Creator/TomClancy's ''Literature/JackRyan'' series, Cathy Ryan -- wife of the titular protagonist -- is a good example. A full-time doctor, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins, and an award-winning researcher, she still nonetheless takes great pride in her gourmet chef abilities (her potato salad is apparently to die for). It has been suggested within the books themselves that the reason she is so good at it is that cooking, being the application of proper ingredients, time, and preparation, appeals to her meticulous nature.
* Though she's not portrayed as particularly gifted, Catti-brie Battlehammer of ''Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt'' novels, for much of her life a tomboyish ActionGirl, can at least make enjoyable road stew. Though it's implied that, like many other of her useful skills beyond "sharp wit", Drizzt, a ranger used to surviving in the wild, [[NeverASelfMadeWoman taught her how]].
* Subversion: From Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove'', specifically from the entries in "The Notebooks of Lazarus Long":
-->''"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, '''cook a tasty meal''', fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."''[[note]]Emphasis added.[[/note]]
** This is Heinlein's "Competent Man/Competent Woman" concept.

* In the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse, [[ActionGirl Mara Jade]] tries to give Luke a taste of home by cooking a Tatooine dish. She screws it up. Luke, perhaps for the sake of her feelings (or just to escape [[BerserkButton her rage]]), tells her that it smells just like he remembers; and that he really wanted to leave Tatooine because of the food.
* Parodied in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', where confused crossdresser Nobby Nobbs believes he's expected to do the cooking because he's a woman. To make it even sillier, there is an actual woman present, but Sergeant Angua "doesn't do cookery" (She's an Independent Career Woman. She's also a vegetarian werewolf, who prefers to avoid the smell of meat in human form.)
* Louisa May Alcott was very fond of this trope. The scenes in ''Literature/LittleWomen'' putting Jo March through the 'feminine redemption for the tomboy' version were repeated in several other of Alcott's novels and short stories, as her heroines contemplate taking up a profession and are firmly told that the most honourable profession for any woman is to [[StayInTheKitchen make a happy, comfortable home for her family.]] Which doesn't mean they always follow it, anyway.
* ''Literature/EightCousins'', also by Louisa May Alcott, subverts it. The small heroine Rose learns to bake the perfect loaf of bread, but it's presented as only one aspect of a pretty well-rounded education that also involves learning to sail, ride and generally become '[[PluckyGirl strong-minded]]', right alongside her seven boy cousins.
** One of whom takes up [[RealMenWearPink knitting]] while laid up from an injury, reminding himself that [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_knitting#Importance_in_Scottish_history Scotsmen all through history]] have "clicked the [[HaveAGayOldTime pricks]]" but hiding his work from his brothers because he knows they'll call him "Granny".
* Molly Carpenter from ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' is committed to getting Harry Dresden healthier, by cooking healthy meals for him. Unfortunately, though she can make a mean cup of coffee, a chef she [[LethalChef ain't.]]
--> '''Harry''': Once she burned my egg. My boiled egg. I have no idea how.

* In the Literature/MercyThompson novels, Mercy is a Volkswagon mechanic who dresses in grubby T-shirts, snarks off incessantly to every macho-male she encounters, and devours small furry animals when she turns into a coyote. The one "girly" thing she does is to bake lots of cookies or brownies.

* In Creator/PoulAnderson's "Break", Cleonie -- previously noted by the captain as a feminine woman -- is the sole passenger among the survivors of TheMutiny. When the (male) crew desperately work to save themselves in a damaged crew, she feels helpless, but the captain counters that she keeps the meals coming.
* ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' is a world in which, due to the [[GenderRarityValue sheer rarity of males]], most gender roles are {{Stereotype Flip}}ped and twisted about a little. As such the ability to cook for a large family is seen as a very good skill for a man to have. Jerin, staying out of the kitchen to avoid tempting visiting women, finds that one of his sisters has prepared only potatoes for their guest's dinner and has to recruit siblings to help him make it into a full meal.
* In Creator/CSLewis's ''Literature/TheFourLoves'', part of Mrs. Fidget's control techniques was to cook for her family.

* Iria Gai from ''Literature/AliceGirlFromTheFuture''. She was raised as an ultimate tomboy and was known to live for years on sandwiches. Then she fell in love and married...
* In ''Literature/RedeemingLove'', this trope is averted with former prostitute Angel, who is very good at looking and behaving like a [[ProperLady lady]], but has next to no domestic skills because she’s never needed them before getting married. This is a source of angst and frustration once she reaches a point where she wants to do something appropriately wifely for Michael like make him dinner. Played straight when she gets enough practice that she actually becomes quite skilled in the kitchen, and acquires a job as a cook later on in the novel.
* In Creator/JaneAusten's ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'', the trope gets brushed on, because cooking is also a matter of low class.
** Mrs. Bennet informs the company at one point that Charlotte Lucas was probably wanted home to help with the mince pies; she brings up her daughters differently, and has the servants do their own work.
** Mr. Collins makes the mistake of thinking one of the Bennett daughters helped with the meal. Mrs. Bennet corrects him; after all, that's what they have servants for.
* In Creator/PatriciaCWrede's Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles story "Utensile Strength", one woman breaks her engagement on discovering her fiance can bake better than she does. (Four others get engaged on the spot, thinking this might be useful.)
** Princess Cimorene rebels against all the girly things that princesses are supposed to do, but part of that rebellion was learning to cook. She can even cook for DRAGONS.
* In Creator/SarahAddisonAllen's ''Literature/TheGirlWhoChasedTheMoon'', Julia became an obsessive cook while pregnant. Sawyer's mother also cooked, habitually for him.
* In Creator/JohnHemry's ''[[Literature/PaulSinclair Burden Of Proof]]'', Carl talks of how Paul and Jen have settled down since they started to date; he expects Jen to knit and cook and stuff. Paul observes that she does nothing more than microwave meals -- but there's nothing like a home-microwaved meal.
* Invoked in ''Literature/SummersAtCastleAuburn'' when Roderick says this. Corie points out to him that's stupid because most noblewomen can't cook.
* In ''Literature/TheBlackCompany'', this appears in the form of "Non-Feminine Women Can't Cook". The Lady, Sleepy, and the Radisha, all powerful and formidable women, can't cook at all. The male narrator says at one point that he doesn't think any of them could boil water without burning it.

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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'':
** Akane Tendo's utter inability to cook symbolizes her tomboy inner nature, despite her preference for feminine garb. The fact that she ''desperately'' wants to learn to cook is a way of showing that she ''wants'' to be more feminine like her idolized older sister Kasumi. Ironically, WholesomeCrossdresser Ukyo's superlative cooking ability (she's a professional chef) is one indication that her inner nature is actually ''more'' feminine than dress-loving Akane. The only thing they have in common is [[GirlyBruiser martial arts.]]
** It's hinted that Nabiki Tendo can't cook, and can't be bothered to try, and prefers extremely expensive takeout instead. Since she is described as lacking a maiden's heart, the lack of cooking ability follows.
** Ranma is also able to cook basic meals, despite being a boy who hates being cursed to turn into a girl. His mother (unaware that the redheaded girl is the same person as her son) once compliments "her" cooking and immediately follows up with "You'll make a wonderful wife!" simply because of this skill. Needless to say, Ranma was not amused.
* Inverted in ''Manga/DNAngel'': the tomboyish Riku Harada can cook while her girly-girl sister Risa is a bonafide LethalChef. This is justified by their personalities: Riku is more hardworking and responsible while Risa is more spoiled and childish (she gets better in the manga).
* Aoba in ''Manga/CrossGame'' is the Tomboy category, while her feminine sister Wakaba can cook quite well.
* Inverted in ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha''. Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate, who are independent, [[PersonOfMassDestruction highly destructive]] {{Action Girl}}s with glowing military careers, are all revealed [[AllThereInTheManual in supplementary material]] to be good cooks in their own right. The LethalChef of the series? Why, it's the TeamMom and WhiteMagicianGirl, Shamal![[note]]Justified since Nanoha's parents own a bakery and she's been helping with household chores since before season 1, while Hayate used to be a [[SocialServicesDoesNotExist crippled girl living on her own,]] and the first episodes of A's shows her cooking, ''while in a wheelchair''. Fate, meanwhile, is revealed in [[ComicBookAdaptation one of the manga chapters]] to have been taught how to cook by Linith, Precia's CatGirl familiar who raised her before the events of the first season.[[/note]]
** Dieci is also revealed to be one of the more feminine Numbers, and being one of the best cooks. However, her sisters [[{{Tomboy}} Subaru]] and [[OneOfTheKids Sein]] are also excellent cooks, the latter at least fits the excellent parts, the former is known for cooking [[BigEater massive amounts of food.]]
* [[CordonBleughChef Orihime Inoue]] from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' has both tomboyish (likes sci-fi, wears track pants and T-shirts in the Soul Society arc) and girlish (nurturing personality, BarrierWarrior powers, wears her hair VERY long) traits and can cook. Being a CloudCuckooLander ''and'' an ExtremeOmnivore, her meals consist of so many strange combinations, most people aren't willing to try her food to discover this. The few who do (such as Tessai and Rangiku), discover that there is genius in the madness and that her meals are well-cooked and taste good. She also holds down a part-time job in a bakery.

* Parodied in ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', where the girly girl Nia becomes a sort-of [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter The Minnesota Fats]] for the local CoolBigSis Yoko since she's good at almost everything...until the BeachEpisode shows that Nia is a ''horrid'' cook: whatever she cooks ''looks'' delicious, but it knocks out most people who taste it (poor Rossiu spent a whole episode out of commission!). Although her {{Love Interest|s}} Simon genuinely likes her cooking, even if no one else does. In one of the spin-off manga, it's shown Kamina would have loved her food too. So who knows, [[RatedMForManly maybe its food fit for only the manliest of men/women.]]
* In ''Franchise/SailorMoon'', tomboy Makoto (AKA Sailor Jupiter) is easily the best cook of the group. A manga side story that focuses on her shows she cooks and does housework when stressed or depressed, even if it stops her from doing more important things, like studying for entrance exams. Because of suggestions it ultimately relates to her femininity complex, this aspect is [[ValuesDissonance reinterpreted in some adaptations]] as having a professional interest in running restaurants.
* Rosetta Passel from ''Anime/KaleidoStar'' is shown as an absolute disaster at the kitchen and housekeeping, since she's practically lived on tour her whole life and has rarely had the chance to experience what a true home life is. She gets a bit better with Sora's help. On the other hand, the initially very childish and immature May Wong is an excellent chef...and is both tomboyish (VERY pushy and straightforward) and girlish (very feminine looks).
* Subverted with Tokine from ''Manga/{{Kekkaishi}}''. Despite being publicly known as a YamatoNadeshiko and having a mother who knows how to cook well, her attempts at cooking have all ended in failure. This probably falls under that note for type 2s, as her LoveInterest is a baking otaku, and is probably at least competent at cooking non-sweet foods.
* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' subverted this as well - Anthy Himemiya, despite being extremely feminine, is a LethalChef whose cooking is so terrible, it actually ''explodes.'' Then causes people to switch bodies. [[spoiler:It's pretty obvious she did that one on purpose to mess with people - under that demure exterior is enough frustration and broken, passive-aggressive malice to power a small town, due to her horrifying past and her current role as the Rose Bride that forces her into a passive DamselInDistress role -- whether she wants to be or not.]] Normally she fulfills this trope to a tee, being essentially in charge of cooking and cleaning in Utena's dorm and despite only two people living there, repeatedly producing veritable feasts for dinner.
* In ''Manga/ParadiseKiss'', Isabella is constantly feeding everyone her exquisite traditional Japanese dishes. Coupled with her extremely feminine, motherly, and caring demeanor, she's the closest the series gets to a YamatoNadeshiko... apart from some [[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} embarrassing biological details.]]
* In ''Tori Koro'', Yae is the only one of the three main girls who can cook (and the only thing she can do well; she's bad at both physically (except baseball) and academically), provoking ire from others that she's more feminine than them.
* ''Manga/HellTeacherNube'': [[AnIcePerson Yukime]] dreams of cooking delicious meals for her love interest, Nube, and when he can't enjoy them (since they're frozen solid, her being a [[{{Youkai}} Yuki-onna]] and all), she's upset at her own lack of skill more than his own refusal.

* ''Manga/TheWallflower'': Sunako is an excellent cook, at least with Japanese food, and it's one of the big signs that she really is BeautifulAllAlong and Feminine All Along.

* In ''Literature/TheStoryOfSaiunkoku'', Shuurei, the protagonist, is the first ''ever'' woman politician in her country, and she is an excellent cook. Her red bean buns in particular are much loved by the other characters.
* In ''Manga/AiKora'', one of the signs that {{ninja}} girl Kirino is actually a TomboyWithAGirlyStreak is that she's an excellent cook.
* As seen above, Sumire from ''Manga/VenusVersusVirus''. The [[YoungerThanTheyLook slightly older]] Gothic Loli Lucia however could not cook well until Sumire taught her. Another variation that appears is that Sumire has a liking for flower arrangement.

* ''Manga/WanderingSon'''s protagonist Nitori is quite good at baking, though she's not shown to do any other sort of cooking besides that; [[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} she identifies as a girl despite her boy body]], and is pretty girlish as well. Her female peers aren't nearly as good at baking.
* ''Manga/SorcererHunters'' has a fun example that fits with Tira's being somewhat offbeat: she's clumsy when she has to cook by conventional means, cutting her fingers and turning vegetables into rubble. But when she's allowed to "transform" and do it her own way, her prep is flawless.
* A RareMaleExample occurs in ''AudioPlay/SaintBeast'' where an already [[LongHairedPrettyBoy very]] [[ViewerGenderConfusion effeminate]] character has his effeminacy further established by being the natural cook in his circle of friends.
* ''Manga/RealBoutHighSchool'' (the anime version) has an episode where Ryoko and another girl compete to make lunch for the boy they have a crush on.
* Toyed with in ''Manga/DearBrother''. On one hand, the YamatoNadeshiko-in-training Nanako is a SupremeChef and TheLadette Kaoru is a LethalChef. (Which gets a lampshade in the fourth episode of the anime, with Kaoru epically failing to separate egg whites and yolks and Nanako teaching her to do so). On the other, the ''other'' local {{tomboy}} Tomoko is ''just'' as good of a cook as Nanako is.
* Subverted in ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis'', where the SupremeChef among {{Tom|boy}}oka [[TomboyAndGirlyGirl and]] [[ShrinkingViolet Sakuno]] is… the tomboyish Tomoka. It's not that Sakuno is ''bad'' in the kitchen, but Tomoka is specifically mentioned to be the best of the two. (Somewhat justified since Tomoka has a partial PromotionToParent to deal with: she learned to cook out of the necessity to take care of her two much younger brothers while their parents are at work.)
* PlayedForDrama in ''Manga/SpyXFamily''. Yor is an assassin who got married to seem less suspicious, but due to her BunnyEarsLawyer nature (only being good at killing-related things), she is constantly worried about not seeming normal enough. She's good at cleaning (because of her experience in taking care of crime scenes), but she is a LethalChef (and good with poisons; it's unknown which came first). She tries to get her coworkers at her cover job to teach her to cook, and she eventually learns one recipe.
* ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' series:
** Sasami's the usual cook for the household, mostly out of a desire to pay back for staying at Tenchi's house. However, there are times where both Ryoko (very much TheLadette) and Ayeka (TheOjou, meaning she's very girlish) attempt to cook, mostly to win Tenchi over. One issue of the manga series had Tenchi fall ill after one of Ryoko and Ayeka's fights knocked him into the lake, leading to both girls trying to cook for him. Both girls are horrible cooks, but where Ryoko plows through trying to cook (with disastrous results, Ayeka ends up swallowing her pride and Sasami aids her. It's all for naught, though - by the time Ayeka's done cooking, Tenchi's feeling much better and it's ''Mihoshi'' who's sick (she got that way trying her own idea to cure Tenchi).
** Ayeka takes after her mother Misaki, who, being an ActionGirl ''par excellence'', couldn't be bothered to learn, while Sasami chose to follow their ''grandmother'' Seto who is the best chef in the whole damn Galaxy. Which is ironic, because [[MagnificentBitch Se]][[TheAce to]] is probably even a greater ActionGirl than Misaki and still finds the time to teach her cooking to everyone who asks, despite being busy with [[TheManBehindTheMan running the empire]] and upholding her "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Demon Princess Of Jurai]]" nickname and screwing with everyone around.

* ''Manga/CookingPapa'': Araiwa's wife is a reporter without the time (or skills) to cook her family's meals. Fortunately her husband's workplace is at only five minutes from home.
* Referenced in ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex''. After Touma nearly kills himself helping Mikoto [[spoiler:and the Sisters clones]], she buys him some cookies as thanks. He protests that the reward would usually be homemade cookies, and Mikoto (a textbook tomboy) demands to know exactly what kind of girl he thinks she is. ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'', however, shows that she afterward ''did'' bake him some cookies herself (with Saten's help), but was too embarrassed to give them to him.
* [[YamatoNadeshiko Miya]] from ''Manga/{{Sekirei}}'' is an interesting example. Her cooking is noted to be incredible, and she seems to be the very ideal of a housewife. However, it turns out that [[ButtMonkey Seo]] was the one who taught her everything she knows about cooking and keeping house. When she first married, she was horrible at anything related to keeping house -- ruining clothes, breaking the panels out of the shoji screens, and cooking food so horrific that her husband couldn't even swallow it while trying to insist it wasn't that bad.

* GenderBender mangas ''Manga/{{Maomarimo}}'' and ''Manga/SekainohateDeAimashou'' both use this trope as partial justification for the ThirdLawOfGenderBending, which carries the rather… [[UnfortunateImplications unfortunate implication]] that a boy with a feminine interest is not manly enough and is better off as a girl.
* In ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', Dawn was good at baking Poffins and Serena is an excellent patisserie. May subverts it despite her coordinator status by being a LethalChef.
* In ''Anime/FatePrototype'', the very girlish-looking [[http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130712150129/typemoon/images/a/aa/Manakasilver1.jpg Manaka Sajyou]] took care of the housework after her and Ayaka's mother either died or disappeared. That certainly included handling the family kitchen.
* Invoked in ''Manga/ICantUnderstandWhatMyHusbandIsSaying'' when Kaoru goes to her father ([[LikeFatherUnlikeSon who is a professional chef]]) to learn how to cook so she can be a better wife. Although her husband is perfectly fine with her burnt-rice-with-chunks-of-raw-carrot.
* In ''Manga/GourmetGirlGraffiti'', Ryou's grandmother taught Ryou to cook exactly for this reason. This is why Ryou wondered if she'll become a bad housewife at the beginning of the series as she found she hasn't been ''tasting'' as food lately (which is more because of loneliness than [[SupremeChef her cooking skills]]).
* ''Manga/BlueExorcist'' [[AvertedTrope averts]] this completely, as ''no woman'' of the main cast is shown capable of cooking. Shiemi certainly tries, but it always tastes awful and is stuffed full of herbs [[spoiler: though that comes in handy once]], and the one time Izumo is seen about to cook she looks incredibly lost. The one person who can cook? The resident AntiAntiChrist [[SuperStrength Rin]], who, admittedly, is a fairly [[InTouchWithHisFeminineSide girly]] guy (or rather gender-neutral), who, to add insult to injury to any poor girl around trying to attract his twin brother [[ChickMagnet Yukio]] via ThroughHisStomach, is also a SupremeChef with a [[WordOfGod 100% success rate]].
* Miia in ''Manga/MonsterMusume'' believes this trope and keeps trying to prove her suitability to be the girl Kimihito marries. Unfortunately, between being a [[SnakePeople lamia]] meaning that she has only 1/25th to 1/50th the taste buds of a human and her tendency to simply add ingredients to a dish because they look or sound like what's being made (for example, when trying to make white rice gruel she added white onions and white fish because they're all white), she's an exceptionally skilled LethalChef.
* In ''Manga/{{Otomen}}'', one's cooking skill is apparently correlated to femininity. {{Tomboy}} Ryo is a LethalChef, but when she briefly turned feminine due to a HeroicBSOD, she suddenly becomes a good cook. She loses her skills once she pulled herself together.

* The protagonist Ryousuke in ''Manga/BlueWars'' plays with this trope in an interesting way because he is a heavily muscled marital artist with the heart of a maiden in love and the feminine interests to match. His cooking skills (good enough to get a compliment from his crush) are evidence of how he fits this trope to a T--except for the fact that he isn't actually a feminine woman, [[ItMakesSenseInContext he just really badly wants to be one.]]
* Thoroughly played with in ''Manga/FoodWars'' whenever the topic comes up.
** First, it's subverted in an omake when girls try to appeal to guys by making them food, only for Nikumi's tsundere 'I just made too much' excuse to fall flat when she sees that everyone in the Polar Star Dorm really ''did'' make too much food because they cook constantly and are having trouble getting through it all. Then we see two fangirls of the Aldinis try to share lunches with them, only for Takumi and Isami's food to be much better, leaving all three girls depressed. Then it's inverted when the extremely masculine and popular Jouichirou had female classmates begging for his failure dishes, showing lovestruck eyes after a BDSM-themed foodgasm. His food still makes pretty girls swoon even in the present.
** More seriously, it's acknowledged at multiple points that the field of professional cooking is dominated by men and that women only rarely manage to reach great success and acknowledgement. For example, at least one student feels she needs the prestige of the First Seat to be acknowledged at her family's restaurant by the sexist male staff and we have yet to see a single female student who either has or has had the position of First Seat of the Elite Ten at Tootsuki.
** Particularly played with when it comes to Megumi. She's extremely feminine and supportive in a 'girl next door' sort of way, which has great influence on her cooking. Rather than emphasize technical perfection or ingenuity like her male or more aggressive female counterparts, she prefers to use simple ingredients with painstaking care put into thinking about who is going to eat it. However, while this does make her the most girly girl in the cast, it's also nearly gotten her expelled on at least three different points throughout the story and also causes her to be overlooked in favor of students like Alice or Miyoko, even if she actually scores higher than the latter and makes much more enjoyable and comfortable food than the former.

* A running gag in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' is that Marge buys into this a lot, but is in fact a pretty bland cook. She claims her secret ingredient is "salt" and is flummoxed at the idea that a spice rack could hold as "many" as 8 spices, claiming some must be doubles and having never heard of Oregano before.