I spent a few minutes trying to coax the search engine to lead me to a discussion we had on this subject, perhaps a year ago or so. It was a pretty good give-and-take that involved a lot of our members. As I recall, the preponderance of opinion was that there are always alternatives to cooking in your vestibule and the risks weren't worth it. It wasn't unanimous, though.

Some of the risks mentioned were:

- fire!!!
- attracting animals in general
- attracting bears in particular, who should never associate a tent with yummy food
- fire!!!

Some of the alternatives mentioned were:

- waiting for the rain to stop
- substituting a no-cook meal (usually a lunch)
- if rain seems likely from the forecast, bring something you can rig up as a roof over a separate kitchen area
- looking for a naturally sheltered area where you can cook and eat