The article is devoted to identifying derivational features of complex words in the denotative sphere “Cooking”. The ideographic classification of composite words is informative for studying the language worldview: derived lexical units formed by the method of addition show how a certain reality was perceived by the Russian language consciousness, through reference to which motivating objects, actions and qualities it was understood. The results of the ideographic classification of composites allow to draw conclusions about the specifics of categorization.