Frankly, it only takes that long if you're really bad or really inexperienced at cooking. I frequently have dinner on the table (spaghetti and meatballs, Japan

Frankly, it only takes that long if you're really bad or really inexperienced at cooking. I frequently have dinner on the table (spaghetti and meatballs, Japanese curry, flank steak or chicken tacos) for my family of six with 30-40 minutes of total time invested, prep to cleanup. Even my most elaborate recipes (bibimbap and baked ziti) require about an hour of total time investment. My simpler recipes (instant pot carnitas, slow cooker shaker steak) take less than 20 minutes, usually because a kitchen device is doing the hard or time consuming work. There were times in my life when these meals would have required twice as much time to execute, but repetition and experience (and necessity, given the busy evening schedule during my kids' soccer season) have led to these timings.