The Joy (and Despair) of Cooking In "Pollan Cooks!" (column, April 18), Mark Bittman urges us all to cook from scratch and leave prepared foods on the store shelf. Late in my life, I've learned to do that, with tremendous personal satisfaction. As a retiree, I have time. I had to get over fear of cooking (burning, overseasoning, menu timing). But what about the many who feel too tired or too pressed? You should start small. Master an easy recipe that you like, and cook it once a week till habits form and confidence builds. Add another recipe involving different techniques; master that. Begin to substitute ingredients in the recipes you've practiced. As you take small risks and observe altered outcomes, you'll be enjoying the rewards of kitchen creativity. You'll decide to cook more regularly. You'll buy a decent knife and a cast-iron skillet! You could end up with a joyous hobby. And live longer. Michael Pollan is right. Mark Bittman is right. I know that they're right, and yet I will not cook. Even though I know I should, I will not cook, beyond the intermittent grilled cheese or the odd lasagna (both bitterly resented for the brief time I spend preparing them). Why won't I cook? Because I hate cooking. I have always felt that people who like to cook genuinely cannot understand people who hate to cook, who would rather be doing anything else; they always qualify our professed dislike, as Mr. Bittman does when he writes that people "say" that "they just don't like it." I don't care how easy it is. I'm not claiming merely to not like cooking; I honestly can't stand it. For me and for many people like me, it's not a matter of economics or time management or gender or education. It's a choice, and like so many other choices that people make, it may be wrong, it may be harmful, I may be doing myself and my children a disservice. But I still won't cook, and I'm really tired of the moralizing legions of cooking enthusiasts telling me that I must. Mark Bittman quotes the author Michael Pollan as saying we need to "rebuild a culture of cooking," and "we need to bring back home ec, but a gender-neutral home ec." Children are not learning how to cook at home or at school. The schools have forgotten to teach the basics. With the teaching of home ec must come an understanding of basic nutrition and why it is important to learn to eat and cook healthful foods, and maybe to learn what a portion size really is. Perhaps now could be the time to encourage families and schools to teach children the most basic of skills: to be able to provide their own healthful, home-cooked meals for a lifetime. The writer is a registered dietitian. Mark Bittman writes that big food companies have alienated us from the beauty, fun and health benefits of home cooking. But as a home cook (I love to cook and make virtually everything my family eats from scratch), I don't recognize myself in Mr. Bittman's definition of some iconic home cook. I bake my own bread, but it's often white, not whole grain. I rarely buy organic (too expensive). And while Mr. Bittman says home cooks aren't going to choose to make their own French fries (too much trouble), that's my family's favorite dish. Please, give us home cooks a break. Home cooking has many benefits - it's lower cost, generally more healthful and tastes better - but a mystical, organic, locally sourced experience isn't one of them. Not in my house anyway. The writer is the author of "Angels at the Table: A Practical Guide to Celebrating Shabbat." If we Americans have strayed so far from fundamentals as to need a reminder about the benefits of home cooking, I'd add that kitchen work, even at the simplest level, is full of life lessons that transcend the food. Cooking rewards planning, punctuality, stick-to-itiveness and, when one is caught short, ingenuity; it promotes satisfaction in a job well done and instills forbearance when things don't go as planned. Those are among the building blocks of good character. As a former copy chief at Saveur and Bon Appétit magazines, I've been fortunate to work with food editors and test-kitchen staffers. I've found that crowd ranks high in equanimity, perhaps because their food-related tasks are a link with the essential practicalities of life. Put in full context, the savings and good nutrition that come with home cooking almost amount to gravy.