Any help is appreciated.

I have an NPC who is a Chef... I want the NPC to walk around a kitchen and use cooking pots, etc. I don't mind if she occasionally sits, etc.

What I'm finding though is that once she hits an idle marker, she never willingly gets off it.

So for example if she hits a cooking pot, she cooks indefinitely unless I interrupt her to use the pot. At which point she sandboxes until hitting another furniture marker, then hits that indefinitely... for example, if she finds a bench she sits... tries to get up... then instantly sits again, repeat and repeat.

Any thoughts?

I think I may be hitting the same issue, also with a chef, oddly enough. I thought it was just because I'd given him a 300s patrol time though and hadn't sat and watched long enough to see it happen.

What's your MinWanderDistance and AllowWandering setting?

FYI: May or may not be relevant, but I changed my housecarls' AI to be of the "wander in cell" type rather than the "wander distance from editor location" type, because I noticed, that otherwise they could not use stairs to find their beds. I also allowed them to use special furniture, but labeled all "my toys" such as alchemy and enchanting equipment as being owned by the playerbedownership faction (or whatever it is called) to exclude them. As a result, my housecarls now happily use all the relevant furniture in my homes, and also participate in cooking at times, and don't get stuck with any particular activity.