Cooking is different than using a washing machine. A washing machine is basically a “microwave that cleans your clothes”… as mean as in “put the stuff inside, press some buttons, and wait”, well with just one extra step of adding detergent but yea the point is you dont have to actively monitor it through the whole process, and have some leeway after its “ready” (cuz food just gets cold, and your clothes dont start rotting unless you leave it in there for like 5 hours or something)

As for “where I’m from” oh yea kinda reminds me, my parents are from China and I think Chinese cruisine is just complicated as hell, cuz like one time I tried like stir-fry some beef dish already marinated and ready to cook, and like I try to do it from memory of watching dad cook, but it ended up like tasting a bit “off” vs how he normally cooks. And yeah I have no clue how the marinating works, they just put a bunch of weird sauces and its done too fast I cant even remember which bottles of sauces and I was standing too far away to see the label on them.

I could roughly make a Tofu dish thingy but its like barely 50% of how my dad made it, then I think he got older and in like a few years, food quality started to deteriorate too, I lowkey think he was just like omg why is my son so stupid, eh I dont even feel like cooking and so less effort got put into it cuz he was tired, tired of having kids lolol 💀

I think Asian households just creates a “distance” that makes it hard to be like “omg dad teach me how to cook” cuz if you mess up they’re gonna have the Tiger Parent Death Stare.