No Stupid Questions

I don't think it's cooking unless you are applying heat to cause a chemical reaction. So, making a grilled cheese sandwich counts as cooking, but a BP&J does not.

No, I would call that "preparing". Cooking is the act of using heat to prepare food for consumption.

No, it's food preparation but nothing is being cooked.

Cooking (in the English I was taught) involves the application of heat - frying, baking, roasting, boiling etc are the names for specific ways to do this. A sandwich would be made or prepared.

No one ever says "I'm cooking a sandwich"

IMO, assembling a sandwich from ready-to-eat ingredients without using a stove, oven, microwave, etc. is meal prep, not cooking. If you roast, saute, toast, smoke, or even zap any part of it, now you're cookin'. (Though zapping might just be reheating something that was cooked previously. Ugh, this is more complicated than it should be. English can be frustrating.)

The word cooking, to me, means using heat with a stove. Baking is for the oven. Grilling, is outside on a grill. But a sandwich is only ever "made" in my house. "Will you make me a sandwich?", "I'm making a sandwich"

Good question though. Never thought about it.

The specific language you speak has significant impact here. For some, "to make food* is used to refer to cooking. Where as in English it's not so clear. I prefer the use in terms of survival. IMO, if you can make any food enough to survive you can cook, because in English there is not a better colloquial verb. Though i wouldn't call you 'a cook' or 'a chef' if you can't apply heat to produce edible food from raw.

Depends on the sandwich. If you're constructing a sandwich without using heat, I would consider that "making lunch" or "making dinner" but not explicitly cooking. I'm not sure that the difference matters in any significant situations, though. Why are you asking?

Nope. In English, if it doesn't involve the application of heat, you ain't cooking, you're preparing, making, or other terminology.

If you cook it, like a grilled cheese, then yes. Otherwise, it’s sandwich arts.

It's only cooking if it's done in the Cooke region governed by the Earle of Sandwich. Anything else is sparkling food preparation.

I guess that it depends on context? Typically I wouldn't call it cooking, as it doesn't involve applying heat to the food. But if I were to teach a kid how to cook, then I'd consider it cooking - as teaching them how to prepare a sandwich would be a good start.

"Cooking" to me, requires the combination of ingredients AND heating them to create a new thing. Making a grilled cheese is basic, but cooking. Slapping meat, cheese and veg on bread is not cooking.

If someone told me they "cooked themselves a BLT", I'd assume they meant they'd baked the bread, fried the bacon, and emulsified the mayonnaise themselves and the slicing and assembly were just the final parts of the process.

I guess it would depend on the type of sandwich

. Peanut butter and jelly? No

A simple cheese sandwich? No

Grilled cheese sandwich? Yes

The question is inadequatly phrased. You must describe what kind of sandwich we are speaking of. Unless op is speaking about cold sandwiches exclusively, many sandwiches require cooking.

Croque Monsieur

Grilled Cheese

Cubano

Monte Cristo

Panini

These are just a few that I came up with off the top of my head. I'm sure there are many more.

By that logic, salads and sushi aren't cooking.

Put butter on the outside, throw it in a hot pan and grill it. Even go further and get a sandwich press. NOW YOU'RE COOKIN!

Preparing food and cooking food are two different things.

I wouldn't even say making a grilled cheese would be cooking. I don't think heat has anything to do with it. I mean, am I cooking if I'm microwaving a frozen dinner? Are the "cooks" at an Applebee's cooking if all they do is warm up bags of premade food and microwave steaks?

I would say cooking requires you to prepare ingredients, combine them, and cook them.

Only if you say sudo.