Cannot do/complete Spying on the Cuisine (Two expacs)

it could be  due to a corrupt work outfit take your sim to the dresser and give them a new work outfit  If the sim already has more than one delete the extra ones instead

edit to add does the sim have any special seeds in their inventory as that has caused some issues too with sims not been able to complete certain tasks once the seeds were removed from the inventory they were able to complete the task