How did you learn to cook?

[mksims]

Originally Posted by the_state

Honestly the food network helps a ton. Learn basic techniques, listen and learn the cooks' advice on simple concepts like cooking stovetop dishes w/ the heat on medium/low instead of high, etc.

Spot on. I agree cooking is a mix of simple concepts and basic techniques, and once you master them, you can pretty go anywhere. BTW I learnt cooking observing my mum

 

[Wess]

Google. And Trial and Error. Lots of errors.

 

[SField]

Watching my french nanny. By 10 she was having me julienne and brunnoise and chewing me out for being too slow/sloppy/uneven.

I also had to prepare my own eggs (poach)... she would throw out whatever I messed up and if she was feeling charitable, make me walk to the west side to get eggs to replace the ones I wasted. I wasn't allowed to eat until the egg was good enough for her standards.

My mom thought this was absolutely hilarious. Sometimes she also made me eat the waste. I remember I once had to eat like 3 pieces of skate that ******** up.

 

[Harold falcon]

I took a Home-Ec class as an elective back in the day. I figured it would be a great way to meet chicks, which is wasn't, but I did learn how to make a delicious crab bisque, so it wasn't a total loss.

 

[Manton]

1) Mother/grandmother

2) Books

3) Practice

4) School

In that order, for me.

 

[XenoX101]

I've just realized that even though I make a reasonable meal once in a blue moon, I have no real clue on how to really cook

. I blame laziness. Though what I DID learn I guess comes from personal experience, but it is a slow and rocky road with more mistakes than successes, and with how long it takes you to cook a single meal (particularly since you're inexperienced) I wouldn't really recommend going gung ho with a recipe book until you know 'the basics' if there is such a thing.

 

[joei]

While in college, the threat of starvation taught me how to cook ;[ Trial and error. I can make a mean meal off of $20

 

[L.R.]

I cooked my meals growing up as a child, and picked up more recipes as life went on.

 

[editdesoja]

Well, Another thing I recommend is to look around the recipes and adapt them to your taste. There are many things that are a kind of basics that most of the dishes with this recipe to share. Once you understand how past income, you can start taking the generic ideas and add your own character.

 

[globetrotter]

I found myself alone as a teenager, and I liked to eat, so I needed to learn to cook. In parallel, worked in a fast food place, so that helped me have an idea, but I needed to take the cheapest possible stuff - vegetables, rice, cheap meat, and turn it into food.

 

[Zachgranstrom]

Trial and error mostly, but sometimes I did get help from my mother/grandmother.

 

[LanceW]

Things are only difficult when we have not yet practiced enough.