Please use this thread going forward: Sims stop cooking | EA Forums - 12059106
I'm having the same problem. I just launched my game after a six month hiatus, so because I updated to the current patch, I removed all my mods and CC before starting a new game. (I didn't want to go through the effort of figuring out what mods needed updating.) Had a problem with Bob Pancakes, in his default house. (He has PLENTY of counters. Not the issue.) After each cooking step he would simply drop the queue and stop cooking. I could then resume cooking by clicking the cutting board, but after each step I had to resume his cooking. Eventually he completed the dish, but I had to resume after each step was completed. It's almost as though he had the Dazed moodlet and kept forgetting what he's doing, but he actually had the Inspired moodlet.
Can't say when this bug started, because I haven't played in several months. Since no one else has reported it, my guess is that it's from the latest patch, which was only a few days ago. It's a brand new game, with no Sims other than the default families.
I have no idea if any other kind of crafting has this problem as well. I didn't play long enough to find out, and I'm not really inclined to at this point.
