How did you learn to cook?

[AznAnarchy99]

Trial and error and youtube videos for new recipes.

Love cooking now.

 

[AceHoleGoober]

Foster mother and father taught me the basics of how to cook. Pressure cooked corn beef and cabbage, stew, grits, baked potatoes, cakes, pies, etc...all from scratch. Foster parents were good Southern Folk. Combined with the diversity of the area we lived in proved to be an excellent foundation for me to develop good cooking skills.

I guess I started experimenting a year or two after my foster father passed on. While my foster mother loved the plain and simple, I discovered ways to invoke slight changes to bring the dish out more than it was. Heh, I remember the time she tasted my chicken stew with additions of roasted garlic, celery, a touch of olive oil and green onions for the first time. She was so skeptical about trying the concoction yet she cleaned her first helping and another big ladle full.

I'd be lying if I told everyone that after that point in time she wasn't disappointed in my 'wild creations', as she called them. I can honestly say that she was quite eager to try each of the concoctions presented before her at every meal. If memory serves me right, I only disappointed her twice.

 

[Gooberlx2]

My mom, wife, grandmother, and father-in-law, some roommates and friends, some TV and cookbooks, and a LOT of trial and error.

 

[biostud]

My father did all the cooking, and he's really into food and wine, so I grew up with tasty home cooked food, and now I also really like cooking. I think it's my only creative skill...

 

[bbhaag]

My parents couldn't cook worth a shit so I mostly learned by trial an error like a lot of people. My wife is a great cook though and she loves doing it...most of the time. If it wasn't for her the boys would be getting fast food most nights.

 

[Slew Foot]

Cooking is pretty dang fun. Plus the chicks dig it.

 

[MixMasterTang]

Originally from my mom, home ec, and cooking shows. But eventually I'd say I learned the most from experimenting. I've had to throw a few things away over the years but I'm happy with what the experiences have now taught me!

 

[silverpig]

 

[alkemyst]

so you learned to cook, but can't cook. That's why you need our advice. A good cook never goes hungry.

 

[shortylickens]

parents, and a cooking class in jr. high (which is required for all students).

 

[Ayah]

iron chef america, top chef, various other tv shows.. which I put into practice by trial and error

 

[bigpimpatl]

no votes for americas test kitchen?

 

[kushy26]

I started learning cooking from my mother.Later I cook special dishes seeing from internet.

 

[brainhulk]

i only cook one thing and that's ribeye steak. I learned the recipe from ATOT

 

[yhelothar]

Through being a foodie. I try different foods and get a sense of what I like and I try to make em myself. It takes some trial and error, but usually it's not so difficult to get something edible to not be afraid to make it even once.

 

[Cerb]

parents, and a cooking class in jr. high (which is required for all students).

You're 40+, amiright?

When I was in school, their idea of teaching cooking was following directions on slice and bake cookies. D: IIRC, I didn't get marked down for refusing to take them home.

My earliest memories are of messing up the kitchen, "helping," to make cookies, so that's pretty much that. By the time I was tall enough to handle tools on the stove, I was cooking.

Lately, I've actually regressed a bit, you might say, having found a sort of semi-enlightened view of, "I should be mostly winging it, using what's available and needs eating up; uneven cooking from rough chopping is actually good; and if I can't remember some detail, the recipe was too complicated."

 

[ch33zw1z]

Years in the food service environment. Passed those skills on to my wife. She is now a better cook than me. I call that a win.

 

[Murloc]

I never cook so I have almost no practice, but I like eating and I know the ingredients and procedures more or less, the quantity of ingredients can be found on the internet anyway. My parents are pretty good at cooking. Cakes are the thing I don't even know where to start for, but I have some idea about christmas cookies.
I sometimes cooked pasta or cooked stuff in a pan or the oven so it's not like I'd have to buy take-away food.

 

[JoetheLion]

Well, basically there were few steps:

1. My grandparents from both sides are from Europe and my mother was a stay at home mom so she did a lot of cooking, like REALLY a lot (for example, she used to do more than 30 kinds of cakes and cookies for Christmas), so I've learned the basics for lot of European food from my mother and my grandparents
2. Then I've tried some experimentation with ingredients and cuisines my mother didn't like or just simply didn't cook because my siblings wouldn't like it
3. When I've moved to Toronto, I was in the state of "cooking procrastination". I had no ideas or effort to cook something new, which was basically because I was tired from work and I just didn't know how to push my cooking to the next level. So even though I was skeptic about it, I took some cooking classes and even though there were some things that I found obvious or unnecessary it helped me to broaden my horizons, so I could experiment more. I was surprised that even though Italian or French cuisines are among the basics here, these professionals had some limits when it comes to German, Austrian, Hungarian or the Balkans cuisine. I guess there are more specific classes where you're not learning the basics anymore, but are leaning more on a certain cuisine of your choice. Though I haven't tried that one out. I am happy as it is these days. The great satisfaction comes not only from that I like to eat what I cook, but also that other people like to eat what I cook. (That's the greatest achievement for me).

 

[DigDog]

my mother;

she was an outstanding cook, but when she grew older, she started to put less salt, less flavours, less oil ...

I was still young, and i couldn't do with this food that didn't taste quite as good. So i tried to recreate it; trial and error followed, but eventually i got the hang of it.

(also, 7 years in restaurant work kinda helped the whole process)

 

[Kaido]

I guess I started experimenting a year or two after my foster father passed on. While my foster mother loved the plain and simple, I discovered ways to invoke slight changes to bring the dish out more than it was. Heh, I remember the time she tasted my chicken stew with additions of roasted garlic, celery, a touch of olive oil and green onions for the first time. She was so skeptical about trying the concoction yet she cleaned her first helping and another big ladle full.

I'd be lying if I told everyone that after that point in time she wasn't disappointed in my 'wild creations', as she called them. I can honestly say that she was quite eager to try each of the concoctions presented before her at every meal. If memory serves me right, I only disappointed her twice.

Yeah, my family won't eat my "experiments" anymore. I usually get stuck on a recipe for a couple weeks until I've mastered it, which is when they're willing to try it. Otherwise it either tastes like something from a test lab, or you have to eat it so many times throughout the learning process that you get totally sick of it & never want to eat it again :biggrin:

 

[Fritzo]

I watched my mom, who grew up on a farm and got a large range of "southern" style recipes (she's like a layman's Paula Dean without the racism ). I then went to college for a bit, then took some time off and attended culinary school at Cincinnati's Midwest Culinary Institute and got my chef's certificate.

I worked as a station chef, then a sous chef for a catering company for a few years, then became head chef for 7-8 years. I got tired for the environment (high volume cooking management burns you out after a while), so I moved to my other talent: IT.

So, now I'm a IT Product Manager that knows how to cook

 

[IronWing]

My mom had a very simple philosophy: If a child is tall enough to reach something, the child is old enough to learn to use it. This applied to the washing machine, the vacuum cleaner, as well as the kitchen. I remember cooking stuff when I was eye level to the burners on the stove and reaching up to turn the mixer on and off.

 

[silverpig]

Yeah, my family won't eat my "experiments" anymore. I usually get stuck on a recipe for a couple weeks until I've mastered it, which is when they're willing to try it. Otherwise it either tastes like something from a test lab, or you have to eat it so many times throughout the learning process that you get totally sick of it & never want to eat it again :biggrin:

Once you learn a few techniques and the purpose of certain ingredients, experimenting becomes much less of a risk.

Two days ago I made quinoa as a sort of risotto. I cooked it as you would a risotto, and in a separate pan, I sauted some mushrooms in butter and truffle oil, then chopped up some baby kale and added it to the pan just until it wilted. I stirred that into the quinoa, added a little parmesan cheese, and a little salt. It was pretty fantastic and I basically made it up on the spot.

Next time I might add some shallot, onion, and garlic, but not much.

 

[Fritzo]

Once you learn a few techniques and the purpose of certain ingredients, experimenting becomes much less of a risk.

Two days ago I made quinoa as a sort of risotto. I cooked it as you would a risotto, and in a separate pan, I sauted some mushrooms in butter and truffle oil, then chopped up some baby kale and added it to the pan just until it wilted. I stirred that into the quinoa, added a little parmesan cheese, and a little salt. It was pretty fantastic and I basically made it up on the spot.

Next time I might add some shallot, onion, and garlic, but not much.

I do something similar to that with whole wheat couscous Instead of truffle oil, try frying one strip of bacon and crumble it in. It's a family favorite with fish.