Who taught you to cook?

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Well?

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 10 August 2003 19:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I could always cook passably, but Suzy Shaw taught me to cook like a *mo-fo*.

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 10 August 2003 19:37 (twenty-two years ago)

My mom is an excellent cook and I come by it naturally, not that I ever cook.

― Ally (mlescaut), Sunday, 10 August 2003 19:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I taught myself. New England doesn't really cotton to seasoning very much, so since I like food that tastes like things, I haven't stuck to the family recipes much. I started cooking when I was nine or ten, during the summer when my mother would be out of the house. "Surprise, Mom, I made cookies! I'm not sure why they're purple ..." (True story, and no food coloring was involved, nor anything red, blue, or purple.)

Learned to make chili when I realized I liked spicy food and asked my mother to grow various chiles in the garden.

Ended up cooking more frequently in high school, because I moved and lived next door to the school -- which meant I went home for lunch, or pretty much any other time. Had the apartment to myself my last two years of high school, and did all my cooking, so decided I really ought to be able to do more than catfish, stir fry, chili, hot wings, and burgers.

In college, my then-fiancee had three kids, and I did all the cooking, which -- believe me -- teaches you a hell of a lot and hella quickly.

Etc.

Learning to cook is like graduating high school -- anyone can do it if they put in the time, really.

― Tep (ktepi), Sunday, 10 August 2003 19:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I hate cooking, and eating. I learned how to eat enough to not die by living in house full of drunks once, who'd by necessity learned to feed themselves with the absolute minimum level of conscious thought. Since ordering pizza all the time was out of the question (every stray penny went for BEER), I learned that anything that comes out of a can is potentially edible, even when cold. Campbell's Mushroom Soup is great cold! Like yoghurt, except better. My food aversion is getting even more extreme lately, after the toaster got destroyed it's become a real struggle to get those calories in. Is it possible to live on cigarettes btw? (Genuine scientific question)

― dave q, Sunday, 10 August 2003 19:57 (twenty-two years ago)

"Teaching myself" pretty much = "Hey, this tastes good. I wonder why? I wonder what's in it? I wonder what would happen if you did X instead of Y? Wait, what's this? I haven't had this. What happens if you cook it? What happens if you put peanut butter on it? ... ew, okay, what happens if you put hot sauce on it? There we go. Why's everyone rambling on about the goddamned mother sauces? Ooh, black bean soup is really easy, but people are easily impressed by it. LOOK, I HAVE A TORCH! CREME BRULEE HO!"

x 18 years.

― Tep (ktepi), Sunday, 10 August 2003 19:57 (twenty-two years ago)

i taught myself pretty much, with books

sometimes i ask my mum particular stuff: each time she tells me every single thing she knows, like it was all stuck together — it is hilarious and impressive and amazing w/o being helpful exactly

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 10 August 2003 20:03 (twenty-two years ago)

My ex-wife, to the extent that I can. I can follow a recipe (though I imagine there are tricky specialised moves I wouldn't know) with high efficiency and a pretty perfect success rate.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 10 August 2003 20:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe your Mum has all she knows stored on a cassette tape inside her head, Mark - serial access (no direct) only!

― David. (Cozen), Sunday, 10 August 2003 20:09 (twenty-two years ago)

My dad trained as a chef in his youth, so him (and he's the reason that given a sharp knife I can chop like a proper sous chef), but bits from my mum and both grandmothers and my friends Caroline and Heather and um Nigel Slater.

(also recently, props to Toby and his flatmate C.)

― Anna (Anna), Sunday, 10 August 2003 20:29 (twenty-two years ago)

my mom taught me the basics -- the rest i learned from tv, cookbooks, common sense, and trial and error.

― The Four Singing Beatles (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 10 August 2003 20:31 (twenty-two years ago)

... speaking of teaching myself to cook, here's what I learned today:

When letting a pizza dough rise on a warm stove, if the stove is TOO warm, you wind up with the dough cooking right in the plastic bowl, and it doesn't take long at all. Holy damn.

― Tep (ktepi), Sunday, 10 August 2003 20:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Took some classes from the New School, but that was mostly for knife skills etc.--after that I did it myself, trial-&-error-style.

― Douglas (Douglas), Sunday, 10 August 2003 20:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I taught myself to cook. My mother was a very good (but plain) cook who was great at everyday stuff like traditional English Sunday Lunches but she really didn't enjoy cooking at all so I just sort of took over. I started cooking when I was about ten, and just fell in love with it.

Many British schools teach cookery (or 'Domestic Science' I think they call it) but mine didn't do that. I wish they had - it would have been fun. So I never had a formal cookery lesson until, in my late twenties, I was offered a job as Public Relations Manager for a celebrity chef. He used to write a recipe column for one of the Sunday national newspapers, so part of my role was to spend one day a week in the kitchens devising spectacular new recipes with him.

This invariably involved him shouting and throwing knives around in a temper tantrum (he had a v. artistic nature) while I dodged the cutlery and impressed him by making white sauce that didn't have any lumps in it. I admire him greatly and still think he's one of the best chefs in the world. He taught me lots, for which I am eternally grateful. It's a wonderful feeling when you cook supper for someone and they reward you with an appreciative 'wow'.

― C J (C J), Sunday, 10 August 2003 22:11 (twenty-two years ago)

i learned to cook by watching my grandmother (who makes the best indian food evah!) and also thru lots of experimentation in college (heh)

― geeta (geeta), Sunday, 10 August 2003 22:31 (twenty-two years ago)

haha dave really isn't kidding about the 'not eating' bit -- i'm convinced the only reason he's still alive is because of coca-cola

― geeta (geeta), Sunday, 10 August 2003 22:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I learned techniques from my parents (especially my dad - taught me how to filet a fish perfectly) and from books, though my biggest influence was an uncle who let me help in the kitchen from when I was quite young (6 or 7). I learned a lot from TV shows, especially PBS cooking shows from the early '80s, as well. Other than that I'm self-taught. I've fucked up many a dish and I'm not the sort to say anything I make is good, even if it is and my guests go crazy for it. I just like to see people eating what I've made. Chicks seem to dig it, too! ;-)

― Bryan (Bryan), Sunday, 10 August 2003 22:44 (twenty-two years ago)

First my gramma and books, so I loved cooking.

Working in restaurants as an adult killed the joy by reteaching me in completely shitty fashion and now I refuse to do it. Thanks, I will have another bowl of cereal and a microwave dinner, mm-mmm...

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Sunday, 10 August 2003 22:52 (twenty-two years ago)

myself. which is why i'm so bad at doing it!

― Tad (llamasfur), Sunday, 10 August 2003 22:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Bryan and my mom.

― Jodi (Celerina), Sunday, 10 August 2003 23:32 (twenty-two years ago)

My dad taught me how to make roast dinners with gravy made from pan juices which I still love making. I picked up a lot of basics from watching Keith Floyd, of all people (his Floyd on Food and Floyd on France series were great for standards like bechamel sauce, how to do fish, etc). Cookbooks have filled in some things, and living with an Italian for 4 years whose mum taught me secrets like making gnocci, good pasta sauce and tiramisu was invaluable. I love cooking.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 11 August 2003 01:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I still haven't learnt. I just get into a kitchen and throw stuff at the stove - but I do it with intuitive style, so the result is usually good.

― Kim (Kim), Monday, 11 August 2003 02:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I just sort of bumble along. Most of the things I've learned I've learned from cooking shows.

― Larcole (Nicole), Monday, 11 August 2003 02:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I've stolen most of my mom's technique, though I've not the encyclopedic knowledge that she does. There's something strange and unknowable about what moms do anyway, but cooking kind of compounds it for me.

My dad makes this stuff we call "Garbage Soup" whereby all leftovers in the fridge are included to make a chicken-stock soup with all sorts of what-have-you in it. Veggies, meats, rice of all kinds. It's an ugly process, but the result is usually quite edible, tasty, and presumeably good for you, seeing as how it's chicken soup with rice and broccoli and carrots and peas. I do a variation wherein I use a chicken stock base and empty the freezer of all vegetables.

― ModJ, Monday, 11 August 2003 04:30 (twenty-two years ago)

mom cooked a bit when I was a kid, and my great-grandaunts I stayed weekends with cooked a lot--learned plenty from them, though not enough. I un-learned certain of my mom's habits from working as a restaurant cook for about five years.

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 11 August 2003 04:41 (twenty-two years ago)

myself mainly, and a generation of TV chefs. I did used to pick up tips from the girls I lived with in my first couple of years of college who were all doing catering courses.

― chris (chris), Monday, 11 August 2003 11:32 (twenty-two years ago)

My mother and father who are both great cooks. I also was accepted into culinary school after high school but due to my father being a complete blabbering idiot, i lost my financial aid and never went.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Monday, 11 August 2003 11:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Delia and myself. I'm alright, if I ever bother.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 11 August 2003 11:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not a great cook. The things I make well I have taught myself, but I also know stuff in theory if not in practice from my stepdad (a chef), Matt, best friend Georgie, Delia (with a pinch of salt... literally), Nigel and Jamie. By mutual consent, Matt does most of our cooking.

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 11 August 2003 11:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Latcheky kid + afternoon cooking shows= lots of burnt dough

― Carey (Carey), Monday, 11 August 2003 12:13 (twenty-two years ago)

no-one so i can only do stuff like pasta and scrambled eggs. i do have a great book though, called "how to boil an egg", that's very useful if i need to do something complex like boil potatoes.

― angela (angela), Monday, 11 August 2003 12:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, not my mum cause when I started cooking (about one year ago) she didn't cook that much anymore. So I ordered/bought a few books. I've gone a bit gaga with cooking: try something new at least every other day.

― nathalie (nathalie), Monday, 11 August 2003 12:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I kind of just copied my flatmate and then started working things out for myself.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Monday, 11 August 2003 12:33 (twenty-two years ago)

nath are you forcing yr experiments on others? (cf my coffee-reheat flavoured porridge: HOW COULD SUCH A GREAT IDEA BE SUCH A DISASTER)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 11 August 2003 12:44 (twenty-two years ago)

from my momma

― kephm, Monday, 11 August 2003 17:12 (twenty-two years ago)

my mom taught me the basics -- the rest i learned from tv, cookbooks, common sense, and trial and error

Me too. Except the cookbooks bit. I cannot overemphasise how great Ready Steady Cook is for giving little ideas which I can then try out. I make a fantastic Sunday roast with proper gravy (with the juices of whichever meat I'm using), which is one of the best skills my mum ever taught me. I very rarely resort to tins or ready-made sauces and microwave meals / ready-grated cheese / tinned veg etc are the work of Satan as far as I'm concerned. Cooking is my favouritest thing to do in the world, even after a long day at work, even on holiday. Food rocks. I'm glad I learnt to cook, as I love food so much, it would piss me off immensely if I couldn't do it properly.

― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 11 August 2003 18:49 (twenty-two years ago)

a squat filipino man who loves Elvis. He believed in me, and helped me move on up from dishwasher to prep cook to line cook. But he never let me in on the secret blend of 11 herbs and spices.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 11 August 2003 19:40 (twenty-two years ago)

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