What you have learned from the chef has not been of benefit to you, because you are not practicing it. You have to cook to enjoy the meal, and that is the practice. To experience the qualities, the wisdom and knowledge, that grow within ourselves, to enjoy them, we have to actually meditate, we have to actually practice. Now, many people think that meditation is only for beginners. They think that once you are in the advanced level you may not need the meditation.
Meditation is necessary for both beginners and advanced beings.
It is an essential part of the spiritual quest. Meditation has been misrepresented in the Western world. The term alone causes many people to get discouraged. Their understanding of meditation is that they must do it in a completely isolated place, under a tree or in a cave, and starve to death. With that conception in mind, the term meditation simple scares the wits out of them.