The desire for good food is changing gender roles in the only country where men cook more than women

Across the world, women cook more meals per week than men, but in Italy, already globally recognized for its cuisine, men are bucking this trend. It is the only country in the world where men perform better than women.

Cooking is a big part of the culture and family life in the European nation. Dinner rarely comes from a drive-thru or box, with locals preferring freshly prepared meals.

“I started cooking when I was a kid,” says electrical engineer Ilario Tito. “I learned from my grandmother, from my grandfather, to cook, and also to buy good food. And I love food.”

Sociologist Emiliana De Blasio of LUISS University in Rome told CBS on Saturday morning that for Italians, time spent cooking is akin to “religion.” It also provides a way for families and loved ones to come together. As more women enter the workforce and the desire for good, home-cooked meals continues, the country’s male identity is “changing,” de Blasio said.

“That includes tradition, culture, love, and the potential to create a group and a family,” de Blasio said. “And so men probably also want all this power to create a group and family and continue the legacy of the past until now.”

Eataly, a luxury food emporium in Rome, offers cooking classes that cover a variety of topics. When “CBS Saturday Morning” attended a class, most of the other students were men. One student, Roberto, said he came after his wife enrolled him in the class as a gift.

“It’s just to say, ‘Why don’t you cook at night too?’” he said. “Because we argue a lot.”

Meanwhile, another student, Riccardo, does most of the cooking in the house he shares with his fiancée Chiara. She works late, so he cooks. He loves the time he spends preparing a meal, and the look on his fiancée’s face when she comes home to a set table.

“I enjoy that moment. I’m very happy to do it (for her),” Riccardo said.

But gender roles have not changed everywhere. De Blasio joked that when it comes to washing dishes, women usually pick up the slack.

“Usually the men don’t clean the kitchen,” she said. “But this is a problem we can work on. We can solve it.”