Everyone bagging on the concept of hotel room cooking is missing the most important driving factor for attempting such things: BOREDOM

Until you've been stuck on a business trip, possibly in a foreign country with limited visitor amenities and even fewer people who speak your language, and maybe even you've finished the last book you brought, you've probably not been bored enough to try stuff like this.

Occasionally I've been sent to support a prototype run at a factory somewhere in Asia (doesn't matter where - the "industrial park" cities outside of Hsinchu, Taiwan look pretty much the same as those outside of Masan, South Korea) and when that happens, you're on the FACTORY schedule. They start when they start, and they stop when they stop, and the rest of the time you're left to fend for yourself for entertainment.

During the right seasons there's the night markets, etc., but unless you're company is willing to foot the bill for an expensive cab into one of the cities where people actually live and do stuff (versus the artificial "cities" that grow up around the mega factories), there is a lot of time where it's really hard to find something to do. The western-friendly hotel your company booked will likely have one or two restaurants or buffets, but those get old quick. The TV will get, at most, a single channel in English, and often not that.

If you like to cook at home, if you see creating a meal from scratch as entertaining as well as a way to get a decent meal, then finding ways to MacGyver up a meal in a hotel room is just another way to keep yourself occupied. I've done some pretty amazing things with hot water from the coffee machine and the iron as a hot-plate using ingredients from the previous meal at the hotel buffet or whatever I could identify and bargain for with hand signs at the night market or buy from a bodega/convenience shop in a package.