I found the article interesting. I've been the baker in my family. I fond it interesting that they compared bakers to engineers. My Dad was an electrical engineer. My Mom was always found of chemistry. My sister has her PhD in biophysics. So was baking the "outlet" for my science and engineering side, since my sister outwardly dominated that field? Nothing like psychoanalyzing yourself at 8:00 am in the morning! LOL!

The baking personality of being more of a loner than going with the pack fits me to a T!

Interesting article (and I'm surprised it's Susan Reimer who's writing it! or was this her weekly column...I sometimes miss my work-related SUN.) I am left brained big time, but in the kitchen my right brain functions. It's taken me a long time to realize this but this is where my creative side comes out...I make food collages and hate to stick to a recipe.

I am always saying to my engineer husband who is stymied when he is missing something he wants to add to his morning eggs..Just improvise! That sounds like Swahili to him...

I like it all. I've always been the baker, but have been getting in to the cooking more as time goes on...partly because I feel guilty eating the baking...

The baking personality fits me pretty well.

Nancy

Very interesting reading. I started baking as a young child & continue to be known as the family baker, I'm also a good cook, put I prefer baking hands down.

I never thought of myself as an engineer, but funny as it is when we're doing a home project & get stumped, I can come up w/the most unusual procedures to resolve the issue at hand.

Lucy

I've always considered myself a baker not a cook. But then I do have a BFA and was a showing artist for some time.

But there's always one that just does not fit the mold! ;)

Michelle

Not surprisingly, I am the cook rather than the baker.
However...I find bread the way I do it fits the right brained mold and also pies, fruit pies.
However I think that cooking can use both sides of the brain....you wing something and create....but on other occasions you have to figure out how much to make and the best use of your oven space.
Linda C

I think I'm more of a baker, too, as is my middle daughter. She hates to cook. My other daughter doesn't do either, and my son is a very good cook - go figure.

Now I don't feel so bad not doing a good job cooking. I've always beaten myself up for not cooking as good as I bake.

I do a decent job cooking, I don't poison anyone, but I really enjoy baking. I also like to sew, which I think has the same principles as baking.

This was very interesting. I am a neurologist by profession but baking is my love. I am left brained big time. I don't have a creative bone in my body. I also like to cook but I have to follow a recipe. I can't improvise. I am a decent cook because I find good recipes and am compulsive about following the directions- so I think I cook in a left brain way!

As for sewing- I must have missed out on that gene.

I'm not sure which I am, right or left brain. I love cooking but I also love baking. Breads, Pies, etc. But I've never been interested in fancy cake decorating.

Ann

Ann...you are our ZenMaster bread guru.

Well, according to the article, I'm a freakin' genius.

Funny, this morning I started working on a new painting, while, simultaneously baking an apple tart. Even though I love to cook, sew and paint, baking is my true love. Btw, I could easily relate with this next quote from the article mom47 posted:

"But there is something else going on there. Pastry chefs are cats. They are apt to be lone wolves who like to be off by themselves. Chefs are dogs. They like to work in packs, in teams."

That's me...in a nutshell.

Sol;-Ã

I am a cat. Stay out of my kitchen!
I Bake, sew, quilt, crochet.
D'ya suppose the same tendencies control our choice in pets?

Deanna (owner of 2 cats, no dog)

Good point, I have two cats, as does my daughter the baker. My next door neighbor, the wonderful cook, has a dog.

It drives me crazy when guests come into the kitchen to help. I'm definitely not a pack animal.

If I read the article correctly Bakers are Left Brain, very precise and Cooks are Right Brain, very creative. Recently I took another LB vs RB test and I came out as a LB, which was a big surprise to me and my engineer DH who came out as a RB.

I am a dog (lover) not a cat, but I prefer to bake over cook any day. And by myself not with any help at all. Other people in the kitchen when I am making something just get in the way. I don't like doing anything with a team. Always a loner.

But I like to improvise and change ingredients and like being creative. And I am a artist that makes metal and glass art pieces. I think I am neither a RB or LB but a mixed up brain.

Clare

I'm with you guys - I don't want anyone near me in my kitchen when I'm cooking or actively baking. (While something is in the oven and I'm not working they can come in). My only pets are tropical fish, but that's just because I'm allergic to cats. I enjoy both cooking and baking, but I always like to have baked goods around so I might prefer baking. However, I kind of like to experiment with my baked goods. That isn't always such a good idea - last time I made bread it overflowed and ended up all over the counter! The final product was good, though.

I can vouch for the Marsala Tiramisu recipe attached to that article. I suppose it combines both cooking and baking for me, and it's fun to make. I make it for my husband's birthday every year (the first time was when it showed up in my Mom's Bon Appetit magazine back in the mid 90's - he was my boyfriend then). I always bake something to use in lieu of the store bought champagne biscuits. One year I made homemade lady fingers, which was quite the chore. Now that I have a decent mixer and Silpats, I might try again. I usually end up making a sponge cake and set it up in a springform pan, which makes the tiramisu sliceable like a cake. It is a very yummy recipe, and very good with lots of bittersweet chocolate shavings on top in lieu of the cocoa powder.

47, I love that thoughtful kitty; how do you do that? Haven't had time to read the article but from the comments I've scanned, I'm a thinker, lonely loner (like people but not parties), like to cook or bake from scratch. Gotta rush now.

I guess I am a cat :), whether I am cooking or baking I prefer to be in the kitchen alone. I am also anal about my pots and pans, do not touch ! I will experiment in cooking and baking, flavors and spices that I prefer.

I cook, bake, quilt, mosaic, read ... hmmmm, all solitary activities.

I presently have two cats, two crossed over the bridge.

I really never thought of it in this way. I guess I'm all over the place, in the kitchen, because I love to cook and bake....just not on the same day...LOL!

I am definitely a baker. I love to cook also, but baking is my passion. Last Saturday I made a cherry pie, an apple cake, a double batch of brownies, a peach crisp, and a batch of oatmeal toffee cookies. And I gave it all away!
And I am the loner also.
The engineering part is funny, cause when I had my own business, it did a lot of "engineering." I borrowed a book from my engineer friend so that I could figure a lot of the math stuff cause customers would want me to design stairways and mezzanines for them. I always wondered why I didn't go into engineering instead of literature and psychology and spanish.

Well, I'm a mess LOL. I cook well and, according to my DS, bake like nobody else on the planet (nah, he's not biased). I have a pug and 2 cats, am an artisan who has exhibited in juried shows, can sew a fitted slipcover with no pattern, and am extremely organized, analytical, precise, and anal to a fault. Go figure. My Veal Osso Bucco is nirvana and is requested by dinner guests, and my pumpkin cheesecake would make a grown man cry. I guess I'm just a "freakin' genius", too :o)