Koreans ranked lowest in all three categories -- hours spent cooking per week, knowledge and experience of cooking, and passion for cooking -- in a survey of 27,000 people in 22 countries published by market researcher GfK on Wednesday.

Koreans take the least interest in cooking among the nations of the world despite the popularity of TV cooking shows and cooking classes here, a survey says.

Koreans spend an average of 3.7 hours per week cooking, or about 30 minutes per day. The average cooking hours in the 22 countries were 6.5 hours, almost double.

Indians topped the list with 13.2 hours per week, while the French spend a surprisingly paltry 5.5 hours per week. Americans and Britons spend 5.9 hours.

Korea and Turkey are the only countries where people spend less than five hours.

The main reason Koreans do not cook much is that they eat out a lot due to long working hours. Convenient food delivery is available almost anytime.

"The countries where people say they spend the least time cooking are Brazil (slightly more than five hours), Turkey (slightly less than five hours) and [Korea], which is trailing well behind at less than four hours, possibly due to the popularity of its inexpensive street food carts," GfK said.

Italians topped the list in terms of passion for cooking with 43 percent, followed by South Africans (42 percent), Mexicans and Indonesians (40 percent), and Indians (39 percent). A mere 13 percent of Koreans said they are passionate about cooking. The overall average was 32 percent in the 22 countries.

And only 13 percent of Koreans said they have enough experience and knowledge of cooking and food, far short of the overall average of 29 percent in the 22 countries.

