Purpose: This study examines how professional technicians' teaching styles and students' learning readiness affect cooking skills performance in culinary inheritance. Design/methodology/approach: This study constructed a learning performance model from the situated cognition perspective using a sample of students at universities and vocational colleges on a professional technician course. A total of 4,000 questionnaires were mailed to students, of which 2,018 were returned. Findings: Students regard technical professors as teaching experts and expect them to care for their learning, while professional technicians' knowledge sharing significantly increases students' learning performance. The findings provide insight into professional technicians' teaching styles for academics. Originality/value: This study focuses on the situated cognition perspective and its correlation with students' learning performance and discusses professional technicians' knowledge sharing as an important influencing factor.