What is the umbrella term for baking , cooking, etc.?

Cooking covers all of it.

I would call baking a subset of cooking. Or what @canidmajor just said.

Generally speaking do people get a mental picture of someone stirring something (stove top activity) only, when they hear “cooking”?

No. Generally speaking, they get an image of someone preparing food to eat.

…not that that changes anything, if ’‘cooking’’ is the umbrella term, in fact.

Culinary arts ====> in which culinary means “related to cooking”, are the arts of preparation, cooking, and presentation of food, usually in the form of meals.

Home economics. Domestic skills.

Crafting.

I’m with @Tropical_Willie on this one. Culinary arts covers it all.

According to Merriam-Webster, cook means “to prepare food for eating, especially by means of heat”.

By this definition, broiling, barbecuing, grilling, frying, baking, boiling, steaming, etc. are all forms of cooking.

It could be that we’re just more focused on the specific forms of cooking, when we consider our individual food preferences and how they’re prepared.

E.g., if we’re looking for a BBQ restaurant, we look for it by that type, and not just an eatery advertising that it has cooked meat.

I think an even broader umbrella term to dispel any confusion, would be food preparation.

Cuisine.

Used to be called domestic science when I was at school.

‘Food preparation’ is the term used by government regulators.

If someone says “I’m baking”, it’s clear that it’s not making stew, bbq, etc. People think of bread and pie (not roasting chicken etc) I don’t know why? or if I’m correct or not.
If you want to make it clear you’re making stew and similar (on the stove top things), what do you say?

To edit the above:
...“People think of bread and pie, and the like, (i.e they’re not incuding roasting chicken etc).

“Cookery” is the “art, process, work, or place of cooking.” -from Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 1960 ed.

“Food preparation”

I don’t know how explicit the OP meant to be, but the question asked for a single word.

@kritiper Thank you. I’m looking for “I am…ing.”

Feeding? Cooking? Nourishing?

The closest thing I can come up with that’s one word and can end in “ing” is “cuisining.” Not a real word that I can find anywhere, but it fits the bill. Better than “cookerying!”

Cookery?

Food preparation.

@kritiper _ I don’t know how explicit the OP meant to be, but the question asked for a single word_

I focused on the part about “umbrella term.”

I usually hear food preparation used to refer to washing, peeling chopping…, everything that happens before (or after?) the heat source.

Prep work is a term for the before cooking but “food preparation” covers it all – prepping and cooking.

I don’t think so. You always prepare the x for dish y. Or you make a dish which involves preapring, as well as the following step/s.

…“Prep” and “preparation” are the same the same way “prof” and “professor” are the same.

Whatever

…Oops I meant the subsequent steps, not the following steps.