Someone cooking for you is love in its most practical form. Say thank you while they’re still at the stove.

Somebody standing at a stove for forty minutes on your behalf has spent money, attention and a chunk of their evening on whether you are fed. It is affection in a form that does not announce itself, which is why it goes unremarked for years in most houses. The cooking is the sentence. Eating it without noticing is how the sentence gets missed.

Say something while the pan is still on the heat. Not a speech, just name what they made and that you noticed. Then offer to do the washing up before being asked twice.