How did you learn to cook?

Starrystarrynight

My mam didn't like cooking, so I never had the opportunity to learn from her, and I always thought I was pretty useless. I ended up learning with a neighbour who helped to look after me after a fairly big surgery. She taught me some basic dishes & techniques, and I kept going from there, using books & magazines for inspiration, along with watching the cooking channels on telly, and following recipe blogs etc.

I've learned a lot on this forum, too! Thanks, all.

moneyistooshorttomention

Basically self-taught from books. The odd few little snippets from Cookery lessons at school surface (prior to them I couldn't have cooked a thing literally). I am the person who, in that cookery class, asked the teacher why my scrambled eggs on toast weren't cooking and she came over and switched the hotplate on. Duh!

One or two people have taught me odd snippets over the years, eg I learnt to cook a traditional English breakfast from the family I was au-pairing for abroad:rotfl:.

I can safely say I barely had the foggiest idea until my early 20s, but have been teaching myself since.

Alphamare

I very rarely cook English food. I cook food from all over the world. From America to Europe to parts of Africa.

marleyboy

I learned to cook at an early age as my Mother is blind. I was cooking the main meals from the age of 13, passed down experience from my elder Sister and my Father.

I learned to cook Bread when I was 7 and just got into the fun of cooking from that moment onward.

Bella56

No cooking class at school, but my mum threw me in the deep end when I was around 13 - made me look thru cookbooks, find recipes, write a list of ingredients to buy, and cook for our family of 6 every day for a summer. It was HARD! We used tinned spaghetti sauce in spaghetti and lasagne, which I thought was the norm until I met DH. He has taught me how to bake bread and cook more from scratch.

Cally_Smart

I think I was born wanting to cook.When I was about 7 I can remember praying that Father Christmas would bring me that toy oven I wanted.I was convinced I would be making beautiful cakes in it sadly it only had a light in it that got only ever so slightly warm so I had to wait till I was older for the real thing! I was brought up with my mother & Grandmother living in the same house.They had been through the war years & rationing so were used to making food & left overs work for them.Things like bubble & squeak and shepherds pie with the left over roast lamb from Sundays. I remember watching when they were cooking so I guess I picked up a lot then. Like other people have said spaghetti came in a tin & was served on toast for tea when we came home from school. Our idea of ambitious cooking was a Vesta box of chow mein on a Saturday night. I was fascinated how the crispy noodles instantly tripled in size & puffed up as they were lowered into the bubbling cooking oil! Winning first prize for my Queen Cakes in the village show was a confidence booster at the age of 10 (I've still got the certificate!) & at our local Comprehensive school we had an incredible Domestic Science teacher (Thank you Mrs Talbot)who said in my report I had an aptitude for it & I got married at 18(the first time) so I've had a lot of practise since!

dogcat_2

Trial and error.....but hey ho.....no one complains!

calicocat

Self taught due to being a total foodie , and not into processed foods.

Don't really do any baking though as not into sweet stuff or bread that much. However , love cooking savoury dishes. Do all my own cooking from scratch , and wouldn't have it any other way.

trailingspouse

It's amazing how we all get there in the end!!

I remember Vesta packet meals - the height of sophistication.

I also remember a neighbour passing my mum a recipe for pizza, which she attempted to follow (but never having actually eaten pizza I have to assume she didn't have a clue what it was supposed to look like). It turned out like a flan, and was mostly sardines. Very odd. This was 1972.

By 14 I was expected to be able to make a quiche without the recipe in front of me ('you've done it often enough, you should be able to remember'), and by 16 I was cooking the evening meal for my parents (who were both working), as I was the first one in.

Are celebrity chef cookery programmes any use? They seem to find it impossible to do anything without including at least one ingredient I've never heard of, and the camera is so busy looking at their faces you don't get to see much of what they're actually doing. It seems to be more a case of 'Look how brilliant I am' than 'Let me show you what I'm doing'.

Poddly

My Mum was a very good cook, and I picked up a lot from her, although she didn't ever 'teach' me as such. She always said anyone who can read a recipe can cook, but I think you do need a certain amount of confidence/experience to have a go.

I did some cookery at school, things like rock cakes, victoria sandwich. The cookery teacher didn't like me much as she also taught needlework, which I was terrible at...

I guess it was when I first had a house age 19 at University, that I started cooking properly, lots of trial and error, but ready meals were not in the budget and nobody lived off them then. I really enjoy baking, and enjoy cooking for special occasions although sometimes get stuck in a rut with everyday family cooking. I love reading cookery books and learn a lot from them.

Now I have two teenage boys. My youngest is 13 and he loves cooking. He regularly bakes all kinds of cakes, makes sausage rolls from scratch with flaky pastry, pizza from scratch with dough from breadmaker, I can ring him up if I am running late and he can start dinner for me. The eldest is 16 and he shows no interest in the kitchen whatsoever, he gets his brother to make his lunch! I just hope some of the know-how rubs off somehow.