Cooking and the husband

Why is a woman's character, judged by her ability to cook?
I have lost count of how many times,my grandmother,seemingly distant aunts, and some relative I would have heard of for the first time, won't refrain from asking me, what can I cook, how do I cook, how often do I cook and what recipe do I use. The rest of the questions follow only if the first question is answered in the affirmative.

And what happens if just to incite them, I say 'no I cant cook'. They look at me as if I just started an avalanche. This is almost always what anyone, by that I mean any woman after puberty, would get if she said she did'nt know how to cook." We know you are educated and modern, but a woman still cooks food for her husband. What will you do if your husband asks you for chapati, and what if they aren't round... even if you stay alone you have to cook. Every woman should know cooking,if the cook doesn't come the house cant go hungry!."

Why am I groomed to keep a guy happy, someone I may not figure out before I have 2 kids with him, someone I may, not even meet before i get married...
Why do we learn to cook just to satisfy the mystic creature called the husband?