I have a theory about kitchens and roommates
Look, I've lived in many houses with many roommates, and kitchens have always been the center of conflict for some reason. People have very specific rituals around food, and those are the first to appear when you move in with someone. Apparently that's what happened to the woman from the story below.
At one point, I stopped cooking entirely because I hated being followed around or interrupted while I was making food. I hated feeling like people were supervising me or judging me. Looking back, I could've confronted my roomie about this, but I just wasn't prepared. You can't just shut the door in most kitchens as you would in your bedroom, so anyone can walk in at any time.
We all have our style and preferences in cooking and food, and people tend to get nosy about them; I don't know why. For that reason, I survived on sandwiches for many years. I think I should talk about this in therapy, but I live alone now, so it doesn't make any sense.
The conflict this specific woman is talking about could be solved very easily; she would simply have to talk about it lightly and say something along the lines of: 'I prefer to be alone when I cook; I'm sorry,' and that would be it. Does she really need a bunch of strangers to tell her that? Is it really that complicated? We can't just expect everyone to guess what we want.
What's happening in the story below might be that the roommate loves cooking and wants to be involved whenever that's happening, and he thinks he is bonding by being in the kitchen with her. Basically, it is a very small misunderstanding that could be fixed with an honest conversation. But I guess genuine conversations are getting harder and harder these days, and we revert to discussing things on Reddit.
