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How did you learn to cook?

N

nanette1985

Diamond Member
There are some deep threads here about cooking. So, how did you dudes learn your mad skills?

I grew up on a farm and spent a good proportion of my time with the other females in the kitchen. I can cook, clean, wash dishes and all those other female type things too.

Cooking school anyone? Working your way up in a restaurant? Learning from cool you-tube videos?

Of course i'm hungry. What's the best thing you cook?
 
My parents cooked and involved me.

I have always like food and experimentation so no one had to talk me into it when I became older.

I am absolutely amazed that people can't cook. There's people that can't put a skillet on the stove and cook an egg.
 
I learned how to cook by treating it like a science. Then Alton Brown came along and my cooking got even tastier. Only Todd Wilbur of Top Secret Recipes is better at reverse engineering food.
 
I learned to cook by not wanting to starve to death or go broke eating out everyday. 😛
There has been some really good food and some really really bad food that has come out of it.

As few the last question not even close to the best thing I cooked but what others liked the most would have just been some pasta sauce. 🙁
It was really simple sauce to but most of the people I know don't like foods with spices in them, or being "spicy".
 
I wasn't a big fan of cooking in general...but past year or 2 I'm really enjoying it. I learned myself (some help from internet) and mostly thru trial and error.

Mostly use Charcoal grill and Cast Irons.....for whatever reason anything else just doesn't spark my cooking interests (I know it's weird).

Today I did Grilled Salmon on Cedar plank with Grilled sweet potatoes.....it was BANGING.

It's also really nice to take the load off the wife.....making 3 meals a day for 6 people isn't easy.
 
Observing, cookbooks, and experimentation. I have the ability to cook better than I do. I don't enjoy it much, and don't enjoy food that much. I much prefer simple things that are easy to make, and easy to cleanup after. My best food is probably grilled cheese :^D
 
Watching a lot of food network. Watching shows like Good Eats, you really pick up on concepts and techniques, which are far more valuable than individual recipes.

Also, cooking with my mother and/or grandmother and learning some of their dishes.
 
Good Eats is a fantastic show. They should make kids watch it in school and cook the food as labs.

Instead we make kids do pointless shit.
 
Parents taught me when I was young so that I wouldn't have to survive on take out and crap when they weren't home to cook. Then when I need a job my buddy got me a job as a dishwasher at the restaurant he worked at and within a month I was cooking and about a half a year later was running the kitchen till I quit.
 
My mom is a great person, but an awful cook. Or maybe it's just that my father was a horrible eater and liked everything cooked until it was like shoe leather. If I wanted to eat anything good, I had to learn to prepare it myself. A little reading and a little trial and error goes a long way. It might take a lot of training and years of practice to be able to create the stuff found in a Michelin star restaurant, but it's actually pretty damn easy to learn to cook delicious food. Learn a few simple techniques, figure out how to fry, roast, braise, stew, steam, boil and saute and when/why to choose one method over the other, learn a few simple sauces to build on, learn the effects of a dozen or so spices and from there it's pretty easy. You can take pieces of recipes and add/subtract/combine to make entirely new dishes. Just go by your palate. Start with what sounds like it tastes good, make it once, evaluate and change little things here and there to make it better. Start small and go from there. It's really not a very big leap from a simple beginners pot roast and mashed potatoes to something higher-end like braised short ribs with a white bean puree.
 
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KaOTiK said:
Parents taught me when I was young so that I wouldn't have to survive on take out and crap when they weren't home to cook. Then when I need a job my buddy got me a job as a dishwasher at the restaurant he worked at and within a month I was cooking and about a half a year later was running the kitchen till I quit.
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Although I enjoy cooking here and there, just like working on cars....I would NEVER want to do it for living.
 
I have an inherent interest in science ad cooking is an extension of that. Cooking is like a science experiment. Take these raw ingredients, apply heat in the presence of spices and you have an end result. Guys like Alton Brown are one of my favorite chefs.

I come from an Italian family so cooking is in our blood. Every woman in my family cooks excellently and my dad and uncles run an Italian restaurant. I've been exposed to food since I was born and seen it from 2 angles: home cooking and from professional chefs.

My curiosity with food has led me to other culinary topics. I've successfully grown a garden, done food canning, made fruit preserves and BBQ (smoking). I'm going to try meat curing and sausage making this summer/fall. Sometime in the next 5 years I'd like to try butchering and raising an animal(s) of some kind; either rabbits, chicken or a pig.

Part of the reason why I enjoy cooking and all of these other food related pursuits is because when I'm cooking/raising/growing/preparing it, I know what I am eating and can control what I put into my body.
 
My father went to culinary school and I worked at his restaurant, as a dishwasher. About 5 years later, I lived on a WWOOF farm,and if you didn't cook, you didn't eat well. After eating lots of boring raw veggies, I learned from others, as well as trial and error, on how to cook them. Learning what pairs well and the flavors all came during that experimentation time. Plus I really like knives.
 
My Mom was my primary source of cooking knowledge/skill. Then my own love of food drove it home. I love watching Food TV and that gives me alot of inspiration. I really enjoy a wide range of cooking from grilling meat to baking cakes. I think my best recipe right now is a crab cake recipe which I mostly came up with myself.
 
Captain Howdy said:
My father went to culinary school and I worked at his restaurant, as a dishwasher. About 5 years later, I lived on a WWOOF farm,and if you didn't cook, you didn't eat well. After eating lots of boring raw veggies, I learned from others, as well as trial and error, on how to cook them. Learning what pairs well and the flavors all came during that experimentation time. Plus I really like knives.
Click to expand...

Just looked up what a WWOOF was, that's pretty neat.

I learned to cook from trial and error on countless recipes. Over the years I've developed the skill and now consider myself to be a good cook.
 
Started cooking, mostly desserts (because like most young kids I had a sweet tooth), based on recipes from a Betty Crocker cookbook when I was 8 years old. That was 46 years ago. Been cooking ever since, except I rarely ever make desserts today and don't care for sweets.
 
Trial & error
Youtube & websites
Alton Brown

I didn't come from much of a cooking background. Never grilled or anything like that growing up. Love cooking now, especially since I have crazy food allergies and can only eat out at like 3 places haha.
 
Watching and helping my parents prepare meals when I was younger, cooking my own stuff in college (if you can read and have some intuition about how stuff works, you can cook), and picking up a few things here and there (occasional cooking show, internet recipes, etc...)
 
UglyCasanova said:
Just looked up what a WWOOF was, that's pretty neat.

I learned to cook from trial and error on countless recipes. Over the years I've developed the skill and now consider myself to be a good cook.
Click to expand...

Yeah, between the 4 farms I went to and my Americorps experience, I learned a great deal about living on the fringe in various locations.

I think it is safe to say the whole art of cooking is a trial and error experience, and I am not one to follow recipes too closely. My formula is usually start with garlic and onion, and see what leftover in the fridge to fill it out. Fresh ingredients can stilt even the most mediocre cook. That and not putting too much heat on things.
 
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