Getting the butler to cook

I can confirm that I had this problem and solved it indefinitely. First, the Butler sometimes cooked just by himself, but not always, and there were long times without food in the fridge or on any of the counters, and he still didn't cook until it was too late. Secondly, I resolved the issue by buying a pure default fridge and a stove, avoiding any custom content, mods, or even fridges and stoves from the expansions that I have installed. When I did this, returned to live mode, and waited a few seconds, I was suddenly able to ask the Butler to Cook Meal, Family Meal, or Party Meal, the options that charge money.

Later on, I can put either the stove or the fridge in the family inventory, then experiment by adding an improved one that uses an expansion or whatever until I can pinpoint what works and what doesn't. For now, though, I know that if I use everything from the default, original game, things work just fine.