@kiradarkstar Good grief! That's rather frustrating. So my next question is whether or not you have any mods or CC in your game. If so, try moving the mods folder to your desktop, delete the localthumbcache.package, and repair the game again.
If that's not it, then I'm at a loss. Hopefully @puzzlezaddict won't mind the tag. They're bloody brilliant and always very helpful.
@JonaO703 I'm flattered, but my knowledge and ability to help pretty much end where Sims 4 gameplay begins. Other than the very basics, I tend to avoid questions like this because I don't have anything helpful to add.
Having said that, @kiradarkstar if the above doesn't pan out, I'd try a factory reset. How to do one is explained here:
It would also be useful to know whether this happened to other sims within the same save, or just the one.
@kiradarkstar I'm really sorry for failing you here. I could not replicate the issue in my game. The only two times my sim could not cook gourmet meals were when electricity was unavailable; power out from unpaid bills, "off the grid" lot. In both cases, I couldn't even open the gourmet cooking menu because that requires electricity. If the issue isn't caused by mods or cc and repairing doesn't help, then I'm really not sure what it could be. The only other thing I can suggest is maybe a full clearing of the cache files. There are several posts / articles about how to do this but I like this one on Carl's Guide.
The Sims 4: Clear Cache, Manage Saves & Fixing Broken Games (carls-sims-4-guide.com)
That one also has links to other potentially useful tips, including how to do the factory reset / reinstall.
I was just having this same issue. And when you mentioned bills not being paid, I checked to see if my sims bills were paid. Turns out they weren’t. Thankfully the menu popped up right away after paying the bills. And this is with having simple living on.
