| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 11/5/2007 2:06:32 AM | I started learning when I was about 5 and realized I could make better tasting cookies than mom. From then on it was all for self defense. Then the summer I moved out of the house I took to go through the joy of cooking cookbook, 3 dishes a day from all over the book for 3 months. Not to learn to make food but to learn the techniques behind the food. Several years passed, then I met and married a vegan. I had to learn a whole new skill set. That didn't work out, I started eating meat again, and had to retrain my palate. Now I can cook nearly anything given a list of ingredients and spices. It might not end up as authentic cuisine but it will taste good.
My sister and I handle all the family gathering meals, since we managed to be the only 2 who could cook things that didn't come from a can or the freezer. In fact the extended family is so bad that of the 29 grandchildren, grandma pretty much only shows up if my sis or I are cooking. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 11/5/2007 2:47:01 AM | My first memory of cooking is carrying the trays of ravioli from the kitchen to lay them out on the tablecloth in the dining room and dusting with flour
cooking was part of everyday
fetching carrying stirring tasting:)
then as I grew up and developed my love of cooking I just devoured all the cooking books I could find
I very rarely follow a recipe but somehow all that reading and watching and tasting has infiltrated my brain and just comes on when I put a pan on the stove. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 11/5/2007 11:51:59 PM | | my grandma taught me most of evreything, i now have gone off to more gourmet, where as her style was always very "country cooking" well call it...you know like comfort food? | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 11/6/2007 2:41:30 AM | I learned to cook mostly by following directions. I asked questions of a few people I know. I still ask questions on the forums.
I learn something, then I experiment until I get it "right." | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 11/6/2007 2:57:49 PM | When our mom got married, she barely could cook and had to learn "on the fly".
She decided to make sure all of us kids had beyong basic cooking skills.
Add to that, ears of being single and wanting to eat better food than you get in a sack passed out some window taught me pretty well. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 11/29/2007 5:46:59 PM | | Out of desperation! My mom couldn't really make anything other than green bean casserole, and chocolate chip cookies. Anything else and you were risking your life! So rather than heating up tv dinners in the microwave I started cooking and never really stopped. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 11/29/2007 6:03:45 PM | After landing myself in the ER for food poisoning after I mistakenly tried to kill myself with a salad. Death Thru Vegetables.........
Eeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuwwwww!
WD | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 11/29/2007 9:00:54 PM | I have pretty much taught myself what I know to date.
Not that I am a fancy cook or anything like that! lol
Mom was never really into cooking so I was left to my own! | |
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GSGSGS
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Joined: 9/27/2007
Msg: 134 | |
| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 11/30/2007 4:58:30 PM | Southern style from my Mom.
Northern style from my first husband who was a chef from Philly.
The way I'm happy-from myself...experiment and try anything once...lol
I always cook and add ingredients according to taste...
Also living in SC NJ Md Pa Ga and being a waitress/bartender for years helped. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 11/30/2007 5:17:18 PM | i learned to cook from boy scouts...and...the instructions on tv dinners...   | |
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GSGSGS
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Joined: 9/27/2007
Msg: 137 | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 11/30/2007 9:06:03 PM | | I had my mom teach me and it was in the beginning following the receipe. I still like to try to learn how to cook new things, and my mom is still amazing cook, no wonder all the kids love to eat over there.... | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/3/2007 8:30:30 PM | | I learned to cook through my Mom, she tought me everything and I learned other techniques/variations by watching cooking shows (Food Network)... | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/4/2007 2:44:16 AM | I pieced it together... mostly from the writing on sugar packets.
Seriously though, it's a continuing process. I learned at an age where I learned a lot of complex stuff before I learned the basics. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/4/2007 3:19:09 AM | It started for me as a job to pay the bills (the restaurant industry) when I was 18, just bussing tables to "get me through" until I got my act together and went off to college for Computer Programming.
Then it became something that seemed magical to me in a way, cooking in a restaurant, and before I knew it I was cooking shortly after I turned 19, but still with the idea of shortly going to college for Programming.
I'm not sure when I decided cooking became a career choice for me vs a job and when I decided to go to culinary school, but it's what I'm currently working towards at the moment. =\
I never knew much about food until I started cooking in restaurants, so I guess I could say I learned to cook through work, school, and a mixture of reading and television. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/4/2007 6:08:40 AM | | My first memory of "cooking" was when I was 4 years old. I woke up early and tried to make breakfast in bed for my parents. I had to use a chair to reach the kitchen counter. I made cinnamon toast, but forgot the sugar. My parent's were good sports and ate my well intentioned offering. It must have been awful. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 9/6/2008 5:21:04 AM | I really love this thread and it wasn't too deep in, which is strange, considering the post date. Also, I have never seen it before, but here is my story...
Some on here have been shocked and amazed, not able to believe people saying they first cooked a meal on their own at 4 or 5, but I am here to tell you it can be true, because I was MAYBE 5, possibly 4.
I woke up and everyone in the house was still asleep. I remember my brother wasn't born yet and he is 5 yrs younger than me. I do not remember if my mom was pregnant. I was hungry and I figured everyone else would be up soon and hungry too, so without giving a thought to whether anyone would care, I just decided to cook for everyone.
I put on my mom's apron and pushed a chair up to the stove and one to the sink. I planned what to make and got out the pans and the food from the fridge. I organized everything and then started to cook. It all just came naturally. I suppose I had seen it so many times in all of my relatives homes. My mom was a terrible cook, but she did cook.
I made oatmeal for my younger sisters because I knew that is all they would eat, plus toast. For my mom, dad and myself I made toast, bacon and fried eggs and coffee for my parents. We had a stove-top percolator then. I set the table with all the needed dishes and was pouring orange juice for us kids when my parents came in.
My dad was thrilled and praised me, my mom wanted to spank me and was angry because it was dangerous, but it turned out good and we all sat down to eat. I never stopped cooking and by 12, my mom hardly ever entered the kitchen, especially for Holidays, which she hated cooking the most. I had total control of the menu and cooking.
My very first Christmas that I was given zero input from parents I was 12 and made
Beef roast in a pastry crust with a red wine gravy
Crab stuffed chicken breasts with a champagne gruyere sauce
Veal and mushroom stew with marsala
Roasted Fan Potatoes
Roasted carrots, parsnips and celery
Artichokes
Asparagus with Hollandaise from scratch
Spiced Beets
Cloverleaf rolls from scratch
Hazelnut Pecan Pie
Mascarpone Cheesecake with tangerine sauce
and we had champagne
There was no looking back after that
My dad had passed by then, but his love of cooking and food was a big inspiration on me, as well my grandmother and all of my aunts were marvelous cooks and I always watched Julia Childs on TV. My dad learned from the family cook. He came from a wealthy family and was the only boy with 5 sisters. He was always the odd man out, so he spent his time in the kitchen with the cook. Also, I have to say, The old Betty Crocker cookbook that my mom got for her wedding gift, red and white design book, taught me all of the basics and classic recipes. That book was written to specifically teach young women to cook, complete with step-by-step pictured instructions.
You know, children are great little imitators and watch you very carefully. I had close large families on all sides that centered all of our social time on cooking and eating together. Children can do whatever they are NOT told they cannot so, they just aren't always properly coordinated for some tasks. Children never get enough credit. They used to work as hard as the parents at a very young age, like 5, 6 and 7 before child labor laws. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 9/6/2008 10:34:19 AM | I started out cooking breakfast. My Mom always woke everybody up and had a hot breakfast waiting at the table. She started in at about 5:30 AM for Daddy and finished with the last of us at about 8:30. On weekends she got to sleep in as late as she wanted, so I'd make breakfast. I also have fond memories of that red and white checkered Betty Crocker cookbook.
I'd make waffles from scratch and follow all the steps -whip the egg whites and fold in, cook fruit for a topping instead of syrup, toss in a little cinnamon, just really get into it. I got lots of kudos from Daddy, so got into it more and more. I'd spend two hours making breakfast.
The first dinner I learned to make was at my Grandma's house - fried chicken, mashed potatoes and cream gravy. That's still one of the things I do best - fried meat and cream gravy, although I only make it a couple of times a year anymore. She was one of those who could dip her hand into the flour canister and come out with exactly one cup and she taught me a lot.
When I did what's been referred to by members of my family as my "hippie hillbilly" days and raised everything we ate, it was all about what was being harvested - 1000 ways to eat zuchinni or spinach, how many things can you make out of eggs when the chickens are laying good, the best way to cook the tough birds. I had a book about how to ID and cook wild foods - "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" or something like that. I used that and hit up the locals to learn how to find morel mushrooms, cooked dandylions several ways, sauteed cattail sprouts, fiddleheads. A neighbor who was a retired baker taught me to bake bread and I'd stuff all kinds of things into a bread packet and bake it before I ever heard of a calzone.
Then I ended up back in the mainstream and still wanted to make most of what I ate and eat healthier, but I was buying from the grocery store and the flavor is just not the same, so I got more adventurous. I was in So. Cal, so I discovered avocados and sprouts and artichokes and could grill all year long. I discovered tri tip and bought fish and shrimp right off the dock. There was a Mexican store right down the street where I found stuff I'd never heard of and they'd tell me how to cook anything I saw. Ditto a Chinese store.
I got my sense of adventure from Mom. I love to make marinades and soup using whatever strikes my fancy. I have made more than one very good soup and never been able to duplicate it. I've experimented with meals I've had at restaurants and come up with some favorites. I've learned to make some of my favorite things healthier.
I love to cook, I have fun with it, it's creative and nurturing and good for you in so many ways. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 9/6/2008 10:34:28 PM | Oh goodness Lihut, I just love you and your story. I have several of those stalking the wild "whatever" books still LOL Not by that name, but same thing. I always bought my fish directly at the fishing boats before I moved to Michigan, whether it be in Galveston, California, or Virginia.
My Betty Crocker cookbook was not the checkered one though. Mine, my moms, was from the 50's and it had that sort of Moorish scrolly white design on a red background. In the 50's and 60's I think all BC cookbooks were red and white. I love all of those memories. I still have a very French base to a lot of my cooking because of Ms. Childs. I really loved that woman. I sat to watch her reruns for years after she passed. I loved the way she and Graham Kerr got together and giggled because they were so plastered LOL She always cut her finger. I did that for years and swore it was because I had seen her do it too often. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 9/6/2008 11:47:42 PM | im a people pleaser and i like to be thought of as a good cook
so if i make food for someone and they absolutely finger licking love it ,
its a big reward for me
i also watch cooking shows to learn tips
i also smell and taste herbs so i know what to put in it
i even do research to what herbs go good with wat
it is also not hard to follow directions , so i usually browse recipes online | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 9/8/2008 6:16:26 PM | | I learned from my grandma and grandpa. I started about 8 but didn't get very good until I got married. My son made me breakfast in bed one morning at age 5. If your little darling makes you eggs and they taste funny, ask what he put in em!!! He used motor oil and it made me deathly ill. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 9/8/2008 6:43:00 PM | I get asked this all the time..... I guess I like to cook at a young age, thinking 8. I did take a cooking class in High School, but that wasn't true cooking, was more like passing time to get a passing grade. I love to Cook, and love to cook for my partner, just can't cook for one.. its like an artist painting a picture, and no one ever looking at it.
I love to try new things to, always up for a challenge. | |
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