Cooking has become a very recent interest of mine, of course, I’m cooking nowhere near as much as you, I spend a lot of time learning about recipes online so I can cook them and test them on my grandmother haha. While I’m cooking I’m also tasting my food a lot, but I won’t swallow anything, I’ll keep a glass of water handy and get it straight into the sink haha. That can be really difficult. I know what you mean about cooking and then not eating any of it, but surely you can sit around and not join the meal, or perhaps you can just go somewhere else instead. I’m not sure if you’re fasting solely for medical reasons or for weight loss too, but it sounds pretty important to you, sometimes you gotta take care of yourself first so you can take care of others
I cook for my family 7 days a week. I used to make myself a cup of black tea and drink that at dinner time so that I could join them without eating. But, if I have to join them on occasions, I schedule my fasting to eat my one meal of the day with them and I also make a special carb replacement option for myself, like cauliflower rice, shirataki noodles etc which are better at keeping insulin spikes lower.
Once a week I fast 24 hours and I tack in an extra 8 - 12 hours to that by delaying the meal of the day after fasting.
Don’t lie. I would cook for my kids while on extended fasts, and over time, before tasting anything, would stop and ask myself “am I fasting?” Another safety value can be to make things to freeze - the joy of cooking without the joy of eating. I made dozens of breakfast burritos on my last 21-day fast.