The research of the effect of cooking together experience on social bonds for professionals and non-professionals

This study aimed to observe the similarities and differences between the social bonds that chefs establish while cooking with their colleagues in a professional kitchen environment and the social bonds that couples establish while cooking with their spouses in a home environment, on social sustainability. For this purpose, face-to-face, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with eight chefs with three to twenty years of experience in professional kitchens and ten people who cook with their spouses during their relationships. In these interviews, where open-ended questions were asked, the basics and codes were extracted according to the frequency and content of the answers. As a result of this study, it was seen that strong social bonds in the work environment are safe, supportive, fair, relatively more productive, where individuals can express themselves freely, where work and labor are appreciated with the right division of labor, a sense of equality is created, creativity is encouraged, and at the same time, solidarity is developed by increasing the awareness of being a team in crises. It was noted that this situation creates a relationship based on equal participation, fair role distribution, respect, and equality in couples, which affects both the personal development of individuals and increases their psychological resilience. Although both chefs and couples stated that they were more creative when they were alone, it was observed that, unlike couples, cooking together as professionals provided indirect but effective creativity. All these effects, both in the work environment and within the family, contribute to social sustainability by encouraging individuals not to break away from their roots, to establish healthy and balanced relationships, and to take more active roles in social solidarity. This study showed that the social bonds formed while cooking together highly affect social sustainability for both chefs and couples.