If I want eating-at-people's-houses events to happen in general, I can subsidize the best cook in my social circle instead of cooking myself.

You know, this seems socially naive to me, in a way characteristic of ideallistic young introverts. People do not usually respond well if you offer to pay for stuff they would otherwise enjoy doing for free, under the right circumstances (such as reciprocal dinner invites).

But I may be wrong, give it a try and report on the results, one of us will probably learn something.