These 10 cities have the most ‘clueless cooks’ in the US (sorry, Ohio)

When it comes to putting food to flame, certain regions are a few blades short of a Cuisinart.

One city in Ohio has the highest rate of culinary illiteracy in the country — and the Buckeye State got burned overall.

The 10 cities with the highest numbers of “clueless cooks” in the US have been revealed, and Cleveland tops the list, according to “ Clueless Cooks: The 2024 Report ” from Indiana wholesaler Meats by Linz.

With a population of slightly more than 351,000, Cleveland logged a staggering 10,258 Google searches related to rudimentary kitchen skills.

In fact, the seventh-largest state is home to the highest number of air-head fryers in the country, per search volume analysis, with a record four urban areas on the list. The other three are Cincinnati in 16th place, Toledo in 17th and Columbus in 29th.

It appears that love-it-or-loathe-it Cincinnati chili and Columbus native Guy Fieri weren’t enough to save the seventh-largest state from this culinary Razzie award.

“Whether due to a lack of confidence, time, skills, or simply kitchen intimidation, many Americans fall short when it comes to cooking abilities,” the protein purveyor wrote on its site.

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To gauge gastronomic proficiency by region, Linz surveyed 2,010 people from across the nation on their experiences with “cooking and their cooking skills.”

The poll analyzed Google search volume to determine search interest for basic cooking skills — focusing on terms about cooking dishes, preheating an oven, utensils and more — across 50 states, as well as cities with a population of at least 250,000.

They then calculated the average monthly searches per 100,000 people in each state and city and listed the 50 cities with the highest number of confused home chefs.

The steel city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, came in a close second overall, boasting 10,020 of the embarrassing Google searches.

Third place went to Seattle, Washington, with 9,156 searches. One might think that Seatown’s bounty of high-caliber restaurants — including Lark , by James Beard Award winner John Sundstrom — precludes its citizens from needing to become proficient in the kitchen.

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Rounding out the top five for culinary Luddites per capita were Madison, Wisconsin (7,658), in fourth and Lubbock, Texas (7,388), in fifth.

• Cleveland, Ohio
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Seattle, Washington
• Madison, Wisconsin
• Lubbock, Texas
• Portland, Oregon
• Austin, Texas
• Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Atlanta, Georgia
• Nashville, Tennessee

Also worth noting is that New York City, where citizens are known for going out to eat rather than cooking, placed only 39th out of 50 cities surveyed.

Unfortunately, this plethora of food Philistines isn’t limited to a few cities.

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The Linz survey found that more than half of Americans (54%) admitted to not being proficient in the kitchen, while one in five respondents described themselves as beginner cooks.

Meanwhile, more than a quarter of Americans (28%) were embarrassed by their cooking skills, and three out of four admitted to failing “miserably” at preparing a meal.

Twenty-four percent have even avoided hosting dinner parties out of embarrassment, presumably hoping to keep their shortcomings in the kitchen confidential.

When it came to married respondents, 31% declared their spouse a poor cook — although 57% humorously claimed they’d never admit that to their spouse.

Somewhat depressingly, 35% said they wouldn’t even try to up their game in the kitchen.

Respondents cited lack of time, motivation, skills, confidence and experience, as well as limited kitchen resources, as the biggest hurdles to becoming a good cook.

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