South Koreans cook the least and Italians love food the most: report

South Koreans cook the least, Indians and Ukrainians spend the most time pottering in the kitchen, and Italians are the most passionate about food and cooking.

Those are among some of the interesting findings out of a new global report from market research firm Gfk that looked at how the world cooks.

In a wide-sweeping poll that asked more than 27,000 people across 22 countries how many hours they spend in the kitchen per week, India and the Ukraine topped the charts, spending an average of about 13 hours peeling, chopping, dicing and stirring.

At the other end of the spectrum comes South Korea, where respondents averaged less than four hours (3.7) a week cooking for themselves.

One possible reason? A plethora of accessible and affordable food options that includes street food stalls, an endless range of ready-made-foods, and supermarkets that offer virtual buffets with the amount of samples handed out to shoppers.

The global cooking average is just under 6.5 hours a week.

Interestingly, France -- considered a bastion of food and gastronomy -- also placed fifth from the bottom, preferring to leave the cooking to their corner bistros, Michelin-starred chefs and microwaves: Frozen, pre-prepared food brand Picard enjoys widespread popularity within busy households.

In the survey, French respondents averaged 5.5 hours a week cooking in the kitchen.

Moreover, less than a quarter (24 percent) of French people expressed “passion” for food, scoring lower than Americans (37 percent) and Brits (26 percent).

Italy, it seems, boasts the most zealous foodies, with nearly half (43 percent) characterizing food as a personal passion, followed by South Africa (42 percent) and Indonesia and Mexico (40 percent).

The countries in which food is a passing thought and lost art?

Poland, Sweden, Belgium, Russia and South Korea, which again landed at the bottom of the heap with just 13 percent citing food as a personal interest.

And when it comes to know-how, South Africa and India emerged the most confident in their cooking skills, with half of the respondents (50 and 48 percent respectively) claiming to be knowledgeable and experienced with food.

South Korea and Belgium pled the most ignorance.