how old when you learned to cook

misspenny

i was astounded to find out how many of my friends cannot cook im in my 20s living with dp and have 2nd baby on the way and half of my friends are still living at home and can just about manage to pop i few holes in the lid of a ping dinner and shove it in the microwave. at wrok the other day i can accoss a 18 yr old who didnt know he needed a pan to fry an egg (though i do work with brain injured people so he may be excused), while i was at uni so mamy of my classmate had no idea who to cook even basic things and as a result ate rubbish and had terriable immune systems (prob due to malnutrition)

i know that by the age of 10 i was baking cakes on my own and making things like scrambled eggs for brother and me for saturday breakfast befor my parents got out of bed. and they where happy and confident that i could do this without hurting myself or burning the house down.

how old where you when you learned to cook?

Browntoa

was cooking full dinners by the age of 11

rosalie-lavender

I started to learn to cook as soon as I was old enough to roll out the scraps of pastry whilst my Mum cooked. I have done the same with my children. My three can all manage the basics and make cakes. Needless to say they all would rather make cakes than cook a meal. It never entered my head not to teach my children to cook.

My three are all lucky that they go to a school that still has cookery lessons. There is a limit to what can be prepared, cooked and cleared up in 50 minutes but it is better than nothing. The school started a cookery club after school but it was abandoned because so few children attended. My son was quite disappointed when they stopped it.

fifi63

I can'not remember a time when i could not cook. When I was in the Brownies I did my cookery badge and I too was making cakes etc from about 10. I think my mum always encouraged my sisters and me to bake, etc. I also have always had a great love of cookery books and my godmother gave me my first one when I was about 9.

My 18 year old son is now a very good cook and in his first year at uni was able to have a very healthy and varied diet most of which he cooked himself.

DrFluffy

I could "bake" at 7 or 8. Would say I didn't cook properly until school, so 11/12, in home economics.

Hardup_Hester

I was 25 when I learnt to cook, my mum didn't cook so didn't teach me

[Deleted User]

I could easily cook a meal for 9 people at 11 and that includes a Stew in a pressure cooker. I went to a grammar school at 11 and the cookery class involved making tea and toast!!!! So boring

No choice re cooking for me as the eldest of 7. I was also a dab hand with a sewing machine and knitted myself a dress at 14 and could do a family wash, starting with soaking everything in a cold bath overnight

I became a scientist, as far way from cookery lessons as I could get but the frugal skills always stayed with me and the rewards are now, at pension age, when we can enjoy the fruits of second nature frugality

Poppy9

My DD who is 14 used to cook and bake with me when she was younger. Now she has absolutely no interest and begrudgingly and very slowly peels veg for me. She can make herself toast, tuna pasta and a cuppa but she has no interest in making anything else. She loathes cookery in school and the teacher obliges her by chopping her tomato or peeling her potatoes when DD asks "what do I do with this?".

She is like my OH who also has no interest in cooking. He will make toasted sandwiches, egg or beans on toast and cook bacon and that's it.

VeganClaire

I could cook basic meals by about 9/10 (pasta, toast etc), I was trusted to cook by myself too. I learnt to cook just by helping my Mum and Nan in the kitchen. When I first went to uni I had trouble making food for one as had always cooked family meals!

huston_kw

I taught myself to cook, I cook as a young one, home E at school, helping out but don't recall anyone telling me how to do it from home.

My passion for HM stuff comes from - being given 50p a day too buy sweets & crisp for tea, as mam looked after my nana, I remember saving the 50p up and buying my mam an apron and over gloves as a hint (I was approx 9-10ish, believe me even at this age I craved a HM meal) it never worked but she laughs about it now, and when I had kids I thought I'd rather die than them doing what I did so I cook everything from scratch and according to my DD I'm the best mam in the world as I know how to make bread buns & biscuits:jmy older sister thinks I'm too mumsy and I need to get a life, but I have one and I love it!

BritRael

In the case of my OH, she was almost 40! She still says I'm the better cook (I didn't have much to beat!) but she practices a lot now. I couldn't believe how bad she was when we first met around ten years ago. She only knew how to 'cook' a pre-made pizza (and she would burn that!) or throw something into the microwave. Women huh? You can't beat 'em. Pity!!