“If you can read, you can cook”
“If you can read, you can cook” (or, “You can cook if you can read”) implies that cooking is as simple as reading a recipe from a cookbook. “If You Can Read, You Can Cook” was a chapter title in Lucy Mary Maltby’s book, It’s Fun to Cook (1938). You Can Cook If You Can Read was the title of a book published in 1946.
Google Books
It’s Fun to Cook
By Lucy Mary Maltby
Philadelphia, PA: The John C. Winston Company
1938
Pg. 17:
IF YOU CAN READ, YOU CAN COOK
OCLC WorldCat record
You Can Cook If You Can Read
Author: Muriel Fitzsimmons; Cortland Fitzsimmons
Publisher: New York : Viking, 1946.
Google Books
Youth: the years from ten to sixteen
By Arnold Gesell
New York, NY: Harper
1956
Pg. 259:
And, as one girl remarked, “If you can read, you can cook. But,” she added, “there also has to be a little oomph behind it.”
Google News Archive
9 October 1957, Fredericksburg (VA) Free Lance-Star, “Woman Runs Major Race Track,” pg. 5, col. 3:
“Can I cook?” She seemed genuinely surprised by the question. “If you can read you can cook these days. And I can darn socks, too.”
(Ann Murphy Clare of Saratoga Springs race track—ed.)
Google Books
Your Teens and Mine
By Eleanor Roosevelt with Helen Ferris
Garden City, NY: Doubleday
1961
Pg. 106:
If you can read, you can cook— with a good cookbook. But the fact remains that if you master the basic principles of cooking before you are twenty, you will have a much easier time of it when later on you stand in front of your own stove and face the necessity of preparing meals.
Google News Archive
8 January 1965, Sumter (SC) Daily Item, “Artistry In The Kitchen,” pg. 6, col. 1:
A lovely young singing star of motion pictures and television made a statement the other day that can’t help but interest housewives—and homemakers, too.
(...)
“I don’t feel cooking is a challenge. If you can read and follow directions, you can cook.”
OCLC WorldCat record
The hungry as a Bear Creek cookbook : if you can read, you can cook
Author: Linda Overholser
Publisher: Boulder, Colo. : Once-Upon-A-Time Pub. : Printed by Boulder Valley Public Schools, ©1983.
Edition/Format: Book : English
OCLC WorldCat record
Seriously simple : if you can read—you can cook
Author: Bidi Jones
Publisher: Leicester : Matador, ©2005.
Edition/Format: Book : English