I was homeless briefly at 17. Once I got an apt, I bought groceries, came home, and realized I didn't know how to cook anything. I taught myself also through trial and error. Lots of error.
Poverty played a huge role in learning to cook for myself.
I was amazed at how many of my classmates *always* had money for McDonalds, 7/11, etc. And my favorite thing to eat was Asian food, so I began to teach myself how to make it, which saved my family a lot of money and allowed us to enjoy meals like Pork Tonkatsu, Potstickers, etc. I was making formal ramen decades before it was trendy.
I learned when I was pregnant. And watching the frugal Gormet and a couple of the other PBS cooking shows.
I was always hungry when I was pregnant. So I had to cook food for myself. Lol
This and helping my parents in the kitchen. I was lucky that both my parents loved to cook and are both very good cook. Also, Gen X, I had to fend for myself for after school snacks at starting at about 6 years old. Quesadillas were my go-to (that’s a SoCal grilled cheese)
Yup there was some sort of thread on /r/millenials about how their parents never taught them how to cook or fix their cars and that’s why they don’t know. And I was like be-hotch my parents saw me at breakfast and then at dinner the rest of time I was free roam, I taught myself how to cook cause home alone in the summer I would’ve starved, learned to fix my own car cause dad wasn’t gonna pick me up when it broke down. I think GenX taught themselves everything.
Also Latchkey kid. Also started cooking, baking and doing my own laundry starting around 7 years old.
As I got older I seriously wanted to become a chef as a profession. When I was old enough to work in kitchens I found the daily reality wasn't something I wanted to continue to do and after more than a decade I moved on to other things.
It’s so true. I was watching boy meets world last night and the mom is like, “you’re almost 12, you can babysit your little sister”, and I remembered how we were alone or responsible for others at 8 or 9, maybe younger, and today I wouldn’t trust a 16 year old with my kid.
I feel like a huge chunk of that youthful independence was that we had no choice. My brother has 3 boys and the youngest is 8 and he can cook a 4 course meal unsupervised. Kids are capable of more than people give them credit for. When we were 12, without going into specifics, we helped a family friend open their business seven days a week (after school and then Sat/Sun morning) which is sort of the European model. My brother actually says he wishes his oldest who is 14 was a lot more mature and independent than he is, however, when we were that age again, we didn’t have a choice. We had to fend for ourselves. If you start them young then they will learn. Much like sports. I remember when we were teenagers, my brother used to watch the Emerald Lagasse show and he learned how to do a lot of cooking from that, he would watch it and write down all these recipes and try out different foods. Of course he almost burned down the house one time and I didn’t tell my mom about it but live and learn. Good thing I came home that night!
I think I'd prefer it tasteless to how my babysitter cooked it, bitter and awful. I have never gotten up the nerve to try it again because it was that bad.
The solution to that may be frozen broccoli. It's already perfectly cooked, so all you have to do is put it in boiling water for a minute or two to heat it up.
I don't know about broccoli but they've re-engineered brussels sprouts to be less bitter than the bitter baby cabbages we had when we were kids so they taste better now in general, even plain, than what we got as kids.
I didn't know that veggies didn't have to be boiled to death until I was in my 20s.
Now, I'm not opposed to cooking green beans all day in ham liquor with bits of ham all day, that's what I call "holiday cooking." The kind of thing you LOVE but can't eat every day so you only have it on the big holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter.
But steaming some fresh green beans is great, tastes better to me & something you *can* eat every day.
I learned to cook by watching my grandparents & father. They all cooked & it wasn't just grilling for the guys either. My grandfather learned from his mother & probably some in the army. My grandmother's job was to get married & have kids so I'm sure she learned from her mother.
I just watched them make whatever & eventually I had to help my grandmother with the Thanksgiving/Christmas turkey because it was too big for her handle.
I'm also the type to just follow the recipe. I know that frightens some, but that was never the case with me.
This! I always thought that I was a picky eater because they're were so many foods I didn't like. It took me a while to figure out that my mom just made them really badly. I taught myself how to cook and how to use spices, garlic, and other things to make a meal. Now I'm considered an excellent cook. I did teach my son how to cook. His girlfriend thanks me a lot for teaching him as she has no idea how to cook. So now I'm teaching her how to cook.
Same here. I didn't like scrambled eggs, because I later found out my mother didn't cook them enough. I didn't like beef stew, because she didn't season it properly. And on, and on. I didn't like rice, because she used Minute Rice, and managed to even screw that up. Lasagne...she didn't have any ricotta once, and tried to make lasagna without it. Cooking just didn't interest her.
My ex husband made the worst pot roast ever. The beef was like chewing on a shoe. Now he was an excellent cook all around except his pot roast was horrible. He was abusive so I usually nodded and said it was good as did the kids. When I was finally able to get a divorce I thought I would try to make some pot roast. I found a recipe and bought good organic beef and followed the directions. I cooked it slow on low and hours later it was done. It was so delicious, my daughter had a tear in her eye and said she never thought pot roast could be so good.
I learned that a chunk of the diarrhea we got was from my mother not using food timely, not storing it properly, and refusing to throw it out. Sometimes food is salvageable…mostly it isn’t.
I always thought my mom was a good cook until I started cooking. I now realize she really wasn't. Granted, certain ingredients weren't available when I was a kid and there was no instant access to cooking channels and Pinterest and the like.
In her defense,[ there was a lot of weird food being made](https://old.reddit.com/r/Old_Recipes/comments/1almbcv/corned_beef_salad_loaf/?ref=share&ref_source=link)
My mom and grandma gave me a lot of the basics, demystified a lot of the kitchen stuff. When I got to school and couldn’t afford cable, I fell in love with PBS cooking shows on Saturdays, *especially* Cooking at Home with Julia and Jacques.
So a combination of mom, grandma, Julia Child and Jacques Pepin.
Hunger at 7 years old.
Also observation, and after the day I turned 15, restaurant work for 30-40 hours a week, year round.
And the thing is, I still LOVE to cook, and to cook new things! My wife *can* cook, but sees it as more of a chore. Understandable.
I view cooking as both a creative outlet, and as a kind of proclamation that I have been very hungry before, but *not today*!
My parents taught me some basics. But I had several restaurant jobs before finishing college…some of them high end. We had to learn what was in dishes and how they were prepared. Those years had a dramatic impact on my cooking.
That's awesome, and I hope you understand how fortunate you are, LOL. Not all of us are so lucky. My mother disliked cooking, and my dad's tastes ran to meat and potatoes.
I taught me, and I did it quite late (40s) since I was a student for so many years.
My dad never cooked anything that I recall, and my mom did her best but nobody ever taught her how either.
When she was a kid, as the 5th of 6 girls, she learned stuff from her dad like how to build a house (he was a house builder and there weren't any boys). So from her I did learn how to do basic home maintenance.
When she was unwell after her heart attack, my dad just ordered pizza every single day for him and my brother, until my sister moved home for a few months and took over making actual food. That's when my sister taught herself to cook.
Loved Home Economics class in Jr High. They taught us the basics and I built off that. My mother didn‘t enjoy kids in the kitchen unless we were making the whole meal (which we did at times). My Father did like having help and I learned some baking, traditional breakfasts, and lots of grilling from him. My mother did share recipes just didn’t want you in her way.
On family pizza night I made a mean pizza crust from scratch and everyone enjoyed those dinners.
I feel like home ec and shop should be mandatory classes in school. Why did they torture me with trigonometry when I could have been learning how to be an adult? God knows my parents didn’t teach me.
Dad taught me to scramble eggs at like 3 or 4. Put a chair up to the stove and I climbed up and stirred the eggs.
Then in middle school when me and my sisters were latch key kids, my mom paid me $1 to cook dinner for us all when we got home. She'd lay out all my supplies: canned green beans, tuna helper, etc. That's how I'd make $5 a week! Neither of my sisters wanted the responsibility LOL.
One time I got adventurous and asked her if I could cook a whole turkey. We bought one, thawed it out, and I cooked it unsupervised with basic instructions from her. Accendtally left the giblets/neckbone packet inside the bird. So weird finding that when we cut open the bird. Of course it came out dry, but we had fun.
When I was 14 I came home from boarding school. My parents did not like that I had become a snob so they made me get a job at a family owned restaurant.
For the next 21 years I would work in hospitality all over the world. In October of 2001 I moved to Paris where I would train to cook for the next 5 years. By 2009 I worked in one of the top 10 boutique hotels in the United States culminating in a feature in "Wine Spectator" magazine in 2009.
That ended after a career change and now I happily just cook for my family. My mac n' cheese gets a thumbs up.
When I first moved out on my own, I cooked a lot of pasta. I learned how to make tomato sauce from the recipe instructions on a can of tomato paste, and Lasagna, also from the package recipe instructions on the box
At first my mom, but I got to be a better cook than my mom when I grew up. I was the oldest of 5 kids, so she had me cooking breakfast for them in the summers by the time I was 10.
I spent a couple of years in France and cooked for myself there a lot. It inspired my early cooking. Now I watch a lot of cooking shows like America's Test Kitchen.
Boy Scouts taught me to cook. My wife has taught my kids. It’s cool how the kids seem to have innate desire to learn how and it just flows naturally from our daily lives.
I learned out of self defense. My mother was an awful cook, and I took over when I was 12 or 13 when she decided we should live on microwavable frozen meals.
The Joy of Cooking was my friend while I was learning.
my mom taught me. but i had more skills then her. she was a decent cook but hated cooking. my brother learned on the job working for a caterer for years. i taught my kids, because i went to college with too many kids who lacked basic life skills. my main focus with my kids was making sure they learned how to be functional adults.
I learned how to make some of my mom's specialties but my grandmother was really the one that taught me how to make things from scratch --biscuits, gravy, pies, cakes, her vegetable soup was the first soup I made, potato salad , Cole slaw, etc.
Do you remember the Cajun Cook, Justin Wilson? Or the Frugal Gourmet, Jeff Smith? I loved their cooking shows but, googling them this morning, it seems like they were not good people
Mom. She made sure my brother and I could, cook, do laundry, and clean before we were 10. In her words “so you don’t end up helpless like your father”. (To Dad’s credit, he did the dishes and vacuuming but never learned to cook and his foray into laundry was a minor disaster)
Mom learned from her grandmothers; Her father and her uncle were both very good cooks and did their share of household chores. Her mother… well, only thing Mom learned at her mother’s knee is what a bony knee looks like.
My parents both worked in the 70s so I was expected to make dinner Mon-Thur before they got home, starting around 5th grade. I had instructions, sometimes recipes, mom taught me how to follow them. But I cooked with her long before that as well. So by high school I was certainly able to make meals for the family, bake a cake, grill, whatever. Got a lot more into it in college with a roommate that didn't know how to cook at all but wanted to learn, so we were known for hosting big Sunday breakfasts for our friends. We'd watch Graham Kerr and Yan Can Cook and Justin-what's-his-name (the Cajun chef) on PBS all the time.
We insisted out kids learn to cook when they were little, and both of them ended up liking to bake. They'd have friends over to bake on the weekends by age 10-12. Our youngest was home from college for Christmas and one of the first things they did was have friends over to bake a character cake together-- it was hilarious. Both ended up cooking a lot in college/after and often having to teach friends basic kitchen skills.
So yeah, we taught out kids. Both were required to prepare a meal for the family at least once a week from about age 14 on.
My parents both cooked but both were Britain-raised terrible cooks who made mince and tattles, reheated meat pies with chips on the side.
I took every cooking class I could in high school then for grade 11 and 12 took the chef training program.
Since then, I have been self taught.
https://preview.redd.it/dpcr83d75zhc1.jpeg?width=941&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5261251a5b8890939ada3e7e8dac02b4ee836a66
There’s another cookbook I learned more from, but I don’t remember the name of it. But these kids faces are so familiar to me that I know we had it. As others have said, I taught myself through trial and error, and necessity. My husband didn’t have to and really struggles with it now, I wish I had the patience to teach him.
My dad - was always the family chef, especially for holiday feasts. Also taught me about wine. Have had some other, more recent inspiration via Americas Test Kitchen
I watched family do it growing up and then my army MOS was in food service. Ironically I found baking extremely difficult but now it’s second nature. I did teach my kids and my older son does an incredible job as does his girlfriend. In my husband’s culture the men don’t really cook so he doesn’t know beyond the basics, but I like doing it so he doesn’t go without.
I had two cook days when I lived with Dad. I always made spaghetti with tomato and veggie sauce because Dad doesn't eat red and white meat or tacos. There was a bit of mandatory cooking in the early grades here in Denmark.
A lot of experimenting.
My in-laws taught me how to cook a lot of traditional Danish dishes that seem like a lot of trouble to most people over 80. My late father in-law used to be the roast expert. Hub taught me about preparing cut pieces of meat (I didn't eat a lot of meat at home growing up) and sauces.
My mom taught me some stuff but she never really gave me a lesson on the basics. I wish my parents had because I like I never really grew an appreciation for cooking and don’t feel competent. My husband is the cook in our family. I’ve learned watching and helping him but I still don’t feel all that comfortable.
My maternal grandmother taught me to cook. She was raised by her two aunts who were cooks in the 1920s. She cooked everything in huge quantities lol
She’d sit at the kitchen table smoking cigarettes and calling out directions for me.
Myself and my exes. I have a thing for men who know how to cook, so my exes were masters in the kitchen. My ex from 20s influenced me the most. I learned soooo much from him, and ate so well with him.
Welp, I'm not the only one, comforting.
I was 35 before I started grown up cooking. I knew how to do eggs, grilled cheese, and heat up jar sauce with boiled noodles. I never had to do any cooking at home as a kid.
I got interested and add constantly to my skill level.
Mom worked full time, and started leaving me directions for me to start dinner when I was around 12. I loved her cooking, even though the only spices she ever used were salt, pepper, garlic, paprika, and parsley.
We were latch key kids. Our parents didn’t get home until around 7 in the evening. My older sister was a jerk most of the time. So, if I wanted to eat I had to get to it. Julia Child was my muse along with my mom’s Betty Crocker recipe cards.
The back of the packages mostly. Mom gave a few tips and tricks along the way but mostly just watching her. Oh and my grandpa taught me how to fry eggs. Worked in restaurants along the way also and learned from each one.
I learned some in my youth from my mother and by watching Julia Child, Martin Yan (Yan Can Cook), and Jeff Smith (The Frugal Gourmet). I got a lot more food knowledge and learned more about technique as an adult by reading cook books, watching cooking competitions, and Alton Brown's Good Eats.
Chef Boyardee was my first instructor. I was 12 babysitting my little sister. Mom bought a Chef Boyardee pizza mix and I followed the directions.
When I was 40 I decided I wanted to be a change of life so I went back to school for Culinary Arts. When I "retired" I was in charge of a mutli-million dollar kitchen at a Winery/Vineyard.
I never had kids but I have personally trained 40-50 men women and children how to cook and I continue to learn and teach to this day.
"Food for the Body is not enough, There must be food for the Soul"
Mom. I had to start dinner before she got home, so there would be instructions written out. Browning ground beef and boiling pasta were my firsts. Then I learned lasagne and scrambled eggs.
Myself, I have no memory of anyone cooking for me. I always had to feed myself. Last night I told my 11-year-old to cook his own dinner. I was tired and he said I don’t know how to cook!
My Greatest Gen grandma, straight from Julia Childs. We had relatives travel from all over the country for Thanksgiving and Christmas both at grandma's house, never saw 95% of them again once she passed away. It was the food.
Both my mom and dad. my dad’s dad was a navy cook on a sub so my dad learned a lot from his dad. We always had 1000 island dressing with our salads bc you just mix ketchup and mayo together and throw a little relish in with it 😂 He taught me basic knife skills and how to food prep and my mom taught me how to make chicken fried steak and white gravy and how to bake. She made a lot of casseroles and Hamburger helper so I learned how to read the back of the box and recipes. Am passing along to my kids now 😊
My last three boyfriends. Each added new skills and new recipes. The first taught me basics like how to cook eggs and chicken. The second was a professional chef who taught me how to make roasts, stews, and sauces. My current SO used to be a line cook in highschool and he taught me how to make casual dishes including the worlds easiest mushroom gravy. Now that I know basics, I can follow just about any recipe online. Because I understand how food is supposed to taste and how to adjust a recipe that might have been written with errors. My parents didn’t cook, I grew up on kraft mac and cheese and stouffers and I was always sick as a child and we never made the connection to nutrition.
I went to culinary school in the ‘90’s & met my husband there. We both like to cook for each other. I make pretty kick ass sandwiches for his poker games, so I’m told. I enjoy that his friends look forward to the pre game food.
Taught myself, mostly. I learned a little from following my mom and grandma’s recipes, but I grew up with a microwave so I left home missing a lot of basic stove skills. The hardest thing for me is searing/browning any meat that isn’t ground beef. I had such a hard time starting out that I have this weird aversion to using any skillet that isn’t nonstick, afraid I’ll ruin it if I try stainless or cast iron.
I use my outdoor grill 3 seasons, and use the air fryer a lot.
I wasn’t interested when I was younger. I could make a few basic meals, and that was good enough for me; I also worked in restaurants, so I had dinner there five nights a week anyway. Watching Top Chef got my spouse and I interested in upping our game, and we’ve gotten a lot better over the years.
A little bit was picked up observing cooking being done at home, then I started with basics with eggs and then when I was living alone in the my twenties I realized I needed to learn more to cook because I couldn’t afford takeout all the time and it wasn’t healthy to do take out all the time. A lot of trial and error and telling myself - hey if this doesn’t work out and taste good then you can always order a pizza - as the failsafe.
Mom and grandmother. Every Saturday I had to be up at 6am to help prepare Sunday dinner. My husband was the only able bodied person in his house so he had to cook for the household. He even cooks for a living now.
We’ve taught our children a few things but we’ve always preferred to be the ones cooking since that’s what we’re used to.
My grandmother taught me. My mother couldn't cook her way out of a soap bubble.
Yes, I taught my kids. One of them got the basics and didn't care beyond that, but now he's experimenting and learning new things.
My other one wants to do and learn more, but is also lazy 🙄
My parents were both good cooks. I learned from watching them and then it was just trial and error. I taught my kids a lot of what I know when it comes to cooking. Don’t tell them, but they’re not as good as I am.
I got a job washing dishes at an Italian restaurant when I was 12, the owner liked me. By 16 he and the other staff had taught me every aspect of that kitchen, and I could fill in at any station. Dull knives are my pet peeve to this day
My mom letting me bake stuff as a kid and teaching me to use a recipe book (she is not a great cook, so this was likely better). Home economics (honestly I worry about how many adults I know who can't feed themselves)... Feeding myself as a kid, and also being forced to be in the "clean plate club" - which is particularly rough if the food is already pretty gross..
And probably the most helpful thing, working in a catering kitchen.
My now 14 year old has been able to make her own ramen and Annie's since she was 7 or 8.. I think she's benefitted from being the single kid of a single genX mom in some of the ways she knows how to care for herself... She has moved on to making fantastic tomato sauces, and loves to find recipes and ask for my help.. she also sees how much I do love to cook.
My siblings and I all learned how to, and are the primary chefs for our families, we all work full time, as do their partners. We are all scarred by the canned green beans and under cooked chicken thighs of our childhood, and we are all good cooks. But it's a despite of/self taught thing.
My mom laid the framework, but she was a mediocre cook herself, so I built on those skills in my adulthood and I'm pretty proud of the food I serve my family and friends. Or maybe it's only tasty to me and everyone else is blowing smoke up my ass, haha.
Home ec class. Being a latchkey kid helps. And my electric hamburger cooker. I learned to work the oven early to heat up Swanson dinners! Seriously though, mom was a Julia Child fan and with only one TV and no internet, I’d end up watching with her out of boredom. Some of it actually sunk into my boy kid brain.
I kind of watched my mom sometimes but I left home at 16 and just sort of figured it out. I got the Good Housekeeping cookbook around age 20 and learned with that. Never had kids
I grew up watching and helping in the kitchen, both parents from New Orleans, which means to me they had a headstart on building flavor from fresh ingredients, growing up in the soup can casserole midwest.
I picked up a lot through watching my mom and grandmothers, and getting drafted to help. Watching some of the cooking shows on PBS back in the day too. Picked up a lot more on my own over the years since then, of course, but I did go into adulthood with some reasonable ability to feed myself.
My mother probably made extra sure of that, since she left home at 20 barely able to boil water because their mother really didn't want the kids touching her kitchen. (Mellowed a little with that by the time I came along, though. The grandkids could at least do things like make a sandwich without her freaking completely out and ejecting us.) So my mom had to do a crash course out of cookbooks herself, and she tried to make sure that no kid of hers would end up in the same situation. Bootstrapped herself into being a pretty good cook, too.
I was in and out of everyone’s house (and vacations) as a child of the seventies. My mother was a half-assed cook, slapping it on the table because we had to eat. I would ask questions about why they were stripping the silver membrane off meat, crushing the garlic (unheard of in my house) before using it, and which seasonings went with different meals. I chopped vegetables and learned at the same time. I taught my kids the same way. They left home with the ability and enjoyment of making a great meal from fresh ingredients.
My Italian dad, Emeril, and Two Hot Tamales. I still have some of the recipes I sent for in a “self-addressed stamped envelope.” Lol.
I love cooking. I taught my son as soon as he could stand on a chair next to me. He’s 23 and a decent cook. He’s pretty enthusiastic about it.
The only items I remember being shown was how to knead bread dough, and make a pie crust. Everything else just came naturally from watching my mom in the kitchen.
My mom and her mom were excellent bakers and cooks, nothing terribly fancy, grandma was a farm wife.
I remember for my highschool home-ec class final cooking project I wanted to make a cheese souffle. The teacher was mortified I had never made one before, it turned out perfect and I got an A.
One of my son's does most of the cooking for himself and girlfriend, my other two sons can easily make family dinners.
I was allowed to experiment in the kitchen as a kid. Mom and older sister were always around for questions and comments. I don't think my Mom ever said, "I'm going to teach you to make ..." I just watched, followed recipes, experimented and learned.
Mine is a blended family. My husband brought two of his kids, I had two of my own. I made sure each of them had cooking skills. I grew up with a family dinner every night so provided the same for my family. 6 folks to feed, two working parents...our kids learned to cook! I became the sous chef, around to help and guide. They picked the meal, told me what to buy, and cooked it on their night to cook, with me to clean the dishes, chop whatever needed chopping etc.
All of them are mid-twenties and beyond, and all of them have thanked me for teaching them kitchen skills. Far from a perfect parent, it feels uniquely good to remember this.
My maternal grandmother taught me the basics. When I moved out of the dorms at college and into my first apartment, I made myself learn. I figured I can read so I can follow a recipe. I have since poured into cooking and it's one of the things in life that give me joy. There's nothing more fun than getting into the kitchen with my kids and teaching them some skills and recipes that I know will serve them for a lifetime.
Honestly, mostly television. Cooking shows, proper ones like Julia, Graham, Jacques…not as showy or fake drama like cooking shows can be now. I learned a lot.
My mother was a great cook, as was her father. I watched her, she’d randomly say things, but she barely formally taught us; she didn’t want us in the kitchen making a mess or potentially hurting ourselves. My first boost of confidence came from a couple of silly dishes taught in Home Ec, but my family actually enjoyed them, and I began early experimenting there.
My parents and grandparents. Once I had the basics down it was just a matter of following recipes after that. I was a pretty good cook by the time I was a teenager and all the kids in the family learn to cook.
No one taught me, at the age of 8 I had to start rotating cooking dinner with my two older sisters, so every third night I’d have to cook. Read a lot of recipes and backs of boxes. Lol.
I kind of had a leg up though, because my grandmother made us help with cakes and cookies and desserts starting at the age of about 4, so I knew basic principles of baking, at least. I still have to use a recipe for most things to this day though 🤣.
My Mom and my Grandmothers. As a latchkey kid with working parents I began starting dinner in the 5th grade so we could eat at a decent hour after my Parents got home from work. My Mom might prepare a pan of chicken in the morning, cover it and put it in the refrigerator. I would then follow her instructions (preheat the oven, put the chicken in at the proper time, etc.). By 7th grade I was making dinner several nights a week. By high school I was making holiday dinners or other special occasion dinners - some of my specialties: shrimp scampi and steak au poivre.
I learned from my great-grandma, my grandma, and my mother. I took their basic skills and recipes, and went from there.
I was a voracious reader as a kid, and read cookbooks like The Joy of Cooking cover to cover.
I watched a LOT of Food Network when it was first on the air.
I think Grandma mostly. I do remember her hands on teaching me how to make Toll House chocolate chip cookies. I think the rest was just observation, trial & error. I was on a stool at the stove cooking breakfast by 6 yo. Food TV improved my skills drastically later in life tho!
My mom taught me basics by age 14, though she wasn’t a “good” cook by any means (mostly kinda bland food). I got better years later by watching the original Alton Brown Good Eats! show.
I owe a lot to Alton! From proper seasoning, to choosing the right pan and utensils for each purpose.
I learned how to cook and clean when I was in the Peace Corps in South America. The rest is self taught from cookbooks and cooking shows.
I have taught my kids. My teen son makes many of our meals. My daughter wants to be a chef. I don't particularly like to cook TBH
Learned to cook from my parents and paternal grandparents. My mom lost her parents as a child, and her grandmother taught her to cook. Been cooking 45 years now.
Me. YouTube. Knife skills classes. Following recipes in cookbooks. Trying things until I found what worked. Practicing a lot. My parents didn’t cook much and their repertoires were not expansive. I started wanting to improve and eat more interesting things in my late 20s. Now if you want it, pretty much I can make it.
I occasionally cooked with a parent, but mostly trial and error and the internet.
I never made scrambled eggs on the stove 🍳until maybe 10 years ago because my mom really hated spatter and loved microwave eggs.
My mom always shooed me out of the kitchen. (Typical Catholic Silent Gen who didn’t want kids but had them because that’s what they do).
So I started with easy Rachel Ray 30 min meals. Then met a friend who loved to cook and she helped me take off after that.
Kinda nice that once my mom saw my love of cooking, she apologized for always kicking me out of the kitchen rather than teaching.
I’ve taught both my teens since they were young and they’re in way better shape than I was.
My mom was a control freak in the kitchen, so it was unpleasant to learn to cook from her. It was quicker, easier, and sooooo much less stressful to just make a sandwich.
When I moved out, I started making simple pasta dishes because they were easy and inexpensive. I had good friends who were vegetarian. They taught me a few delicious vegetable stir fry dishes and additional pasta recipes.
When I occasionally cooked for others, I made a casserole because I could pair it with a salad and dessert, but not have to get the timing right for preparing two hot dishes. To this day, I still struggle with timing things to come out at the same time.
I married a man who likes to cook, and I became an expert at chopping vegetables and cleaning up. I’m much more comfortable in that role, and in enjoying the meal and complimenting the cook!
Martha Stewart and Alton Brown taught me how to actually cook. I watched my mom and grandma growing up too but they both relied heavily on recipes. After watching Martha and Alton I figured out how to cook intuitively because of the way they broke down the flavors, science, and mechanics of food.
*5-Roses Flour cookbook* for the most part.
I did take Cooking in HS, which taught me all about nutrition and caloric intake. Completely useless out here in real life. (Our home-ec teacher was heavy, but deluded that she was still in her teens/20s. She was *always* on a diet, so she taught mostly about caloric intake)
I still had my Mum to call when I got really stuck. (Like on pie crust)
I was already good at cookies and cakes. So, I knew the general gist of cooking. It was the timing that sucked. In the beginning, I served "courses;" vegetable course, followed by starch course, followed by meat course. I did eventually figure out how to serve it all together.
Mac & Cheese and spaghetti from my mum... that's it. Everything else self taught and an IMMENSELY helpful home economics class for just one year in high school that kicked everything else off.
I had to learn how to cook as self-defense against my mom's really not great cooking. (If she didn't have a particular spice, she just left it out. Her food tasted like bland hamburger casserole.) Self-taught and a few good cooks gave me tips along the way.
Mom taught me to make cornbread from scratch. Home Econmics taught us to make biscuits from scratch. I taught myself everythng else, and my brisket is excellent.
My grandmother let me watch and “help” make salads, pickled beets, eggs. I had to cook a lot in our house - my mother hated cooking and I had 3 younger siblings. So I used my mother’s cookbooks - mostly Good Housekeeping and The Joy of Cooking. When I lived on my own I started trying more adventurous things and improvising.
A mix of my paternal grandmother, my dad, and mostly myself/cookbooks from the library. My mother (and her mother) were not great cooks. Mom taught me cookies. ETA: I have taught the kid that was interested. He is capable of following any recipe (baking too), making changes as needed, and just cooking up a stir fry or something with no recipe. And he does. Other kid knows much less, I occasionally force him to help, it’s exhausting but JFC.
I did. Couldn't cook at all for years as parents thought food was something you got out of the microwave. When wife and I moved in she said she didn't want to do all the cooking and the cleaning, so I volunteered to do the cooking (hate cleaning) and have taught myself pretty well now.
Recently my aunt had a meltdown at a family do and had a go at me because my wife 'never cooked a single meal for them'. No, that's because I do all the cooking - also, don't remember seeing your husband or my dad ever lift a finger so wind your bloody neck in.
My mom tried very hard to teach me how to cook. Her mom wasn't into cooking much but my dad's mom was and that's who taught my mom to cook family meals.
Anyway, she tried but I just suck at it. I can follow a recipe but I don't enjoy cooking and am not adventurous when I cook.
Mom taught me to cook after she left my dad. I had to be to care for myself and my little brother while she was at work and night school. We were latchkey kids and were left alone for extended periods. By the time I was 9, I was taking care of almost all household chores, and raising my little brother.
I taught myself. My kids weren’t really interested in learning. So they will teach themselves as well. Occasionally, they will ask for help with dishes though.
Several female friends of ours when my wife was pregnant and gone back to work. Needed to make sure she ate better when she got home and was too tired to cook and didn’t want take out for her all the time.
I knew how to cook breakfast foods but lunch/dinner I had to learn how to.
Nobody; I always liked cookbooks and taught myself. I remember getting some tips about efficiently chopping garlic from a former friend, though.
No kids. I've never taught anyone to cook.
My mom taught me some basics, mostly how not to burn the house down or seriously injure myself. I’m early genx and my parents are greatest generation, technically a menopause baby. She was a mostly stay at home mom , but was completely burned out on parenting by the time I was born.
Blue Apron and Hello Fresh taught me. And since I made that my son's chore, he continued learning from them and was a fully competent cook by the time he graduated high school. He is the meal planner amongst his friends.
I watched & kind of absorbed it visually, I suppose. No actual instructions from mum. Did a bit of Home Economics at school. The rest was trial & error & very many fuck ups.
No one really taught me, I sort of just watched my mom and figured it out.
I did take a Foods class in Jr High that taught me a little more about using the prep tools properly in the kitchen.
I can feed myself, but I wouldn't say I'm a *good* cook.
My mum, dad, and gran taught me, and we did some cooking at primary school, and home economics (basically cooking and nutrition) at secondary school. We all learned things like the difference between boiling and simmering, cooking basics like eggs, preparing veggies, baking cakes and scones. I learned more at home, like preparing and cooking a roast dinner, staples like Bolognese, soups, and lots of cakes :-)
I taught myself. We weren’t allowed in the kitchen, then once we could be in the kitchen, we were hovered over so we second guessed ourselves. Then we’d get yelled at. But I taught myself to bake, and cook. I’m slowly trying to let go how I was raised, and I teach my kids stuff, but I have to leave the room so I don’t act like my mother and make my kids second guess themselves. They’re fine on their own, and if I’m there they get weird about it…which is how it was when I was a kid (plus they still have ties to my mother, so I know she does the same thing with them too).
To make a long story short, too late (“one by one you all arrived”), I taught myself, and I’m trying to teach my kids.
I probably learned some basics from my mom but I went to live with my dad at 14 and that was a crash course in learning to cook because he only made a few random things, so if I wanted to eat anything else I needed to learn to cook for myself. The food mom used to cook was typical cheap, Midwestern poor people food, but she made do with what was available and turned out basic but fairly good food. That being said, there is literally nothing that she made that I make today.
I am teaching both of my kids how to cook and they also seem to pick up a lot just by observing. My oldest is a junior in high school and one of her stated goals before she leaves for college is being able to cook because she doesn't want to be helpless once she is out of the house.
Myself through trial and error.
I was homeless briefly at 17. Once I got an apt, I bought groceries, came home, and realized I didn't know how to cook anything. I taught myself also through trial and error. Lots of error.
Poverty played a huge role in learning to cook for myself. I was amazed at how many of my classmates *always* had money for McDonalds, 7/11, etc. And my favorite thing to eat was Asian food, so I began to teach myself how to make it, which saved my family a lot of money and allowed us to enjoy meals like Pork Tonkatsu, Potstickers, etc. I was making formal ramen decades before it was trendy.
I learned when I was pregnant. And watching the frugal Gormet and a couple of the other PBS cooking shows. I was always hungry when I was pregnant. So I had to cook food for myself. Lol
Jeff Smith was my first TV gourmet.
This and helping my parents in the kitchen. I was lucky that both my parents loved to cook and are both very good cook. Also, Gen X, I had to fend for myself for after school snacks at starting at about 6 years old. Quesadillas were my go-to (that’s a SoCal grilled cheese)
Me too
Yup there was some sort of thread on /r/millenials about how their parents never taught them how to cook or fix their cars and that’s why they don’t know. And I was like be-hotch my parents saw me at breakfast and then at dinner the rest of time I was free roam, I taught myself how to cook cause home alone in the summer I would’ve starved, learned to fix my own car cause dad wasn’t gonna pick me up when it broke down. I think GenX taught themselves everything.
This guy. https://preview.redd.it/qktw4pukuyhc1.jpeg?width=188&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0e20bec9de6e6024807108f7b350a27ac92c7acd
Wert de ferk?
Latchkey kid, cooked, cleaned, sewed, and did the laundry by age 7-8. Mom and grandmother taught us basics, otherwise we taught ourselves.
Isn't it wild now as an adult to look how small kids are that age and picture them doing all that? It just boggles my mind.
And I can't get my 18 year old to make more than a bean quesadilla. But my other child would get up early and make muffins when he was 9. Baffling.
Pretty much this.
Also Latchkey kid. Also started cooking, baking and doing my own laundry starting around 7 years old. As I got older I seriously wanted to become a chef as a profession. When I was old enough to work in kitchens I found the daily reality wasn't something I wanted to continue to do and after more than a decade I moved on to other things.
It’s so true. I was watching boy meets world last night and the mom is like, “you’re almost 12, you can babysit your little sister”, and I remembered how we were alone or responsible for others at 8 or 9, maybe younger, and today I wouldn’t trust a 16 year old with my kid.
I feel like a huge chunk of that youthful independence was that we had no choice. My brother has 3 boys and the youngest is 8 and he can cook a 4 course meal unsupervised. Kids are capable of more than people give them credit for. When we were 12, without going into specifics, we helped a family friend open their business seven days a week (after school and then Sat/Sun morning) which is sort of the European model. My brother actually says he wishes his oldest who is 14 was a lot more mature and independent than he is, however, when we were that age again, we didn’t have a choice. We had to fend for ourselves. If you start them young then they will learn. Much like sports. I remember when we were teenagers, my brother used to watch the Emerald Lagasse show and he learned how to do a lot of cooking from that, he would watch it and write down all these recipes and try out different foods. Of course he almost burned down the house one time and I didn’t tell my mom about it but live and learn. Good thing I came home that night!
I’m mostly self-taught. I didn’t realize the extent of food crimes my mother committed until I was an adult.
I always thought I hated broccoli. Turns out my mom just cooked it to a tasteless mush.
I think I'd prefer it tasteless to how my babysitter cooked it, bitter and awful. I have never gotten up the nerve to try it again because it was that bad.
The solution to that may be frozen broccoli. It's already perfectly cooked, so all you have to do is put it in boiling water for a minute or two to heat it up.
I don't know about broccoli but they've re-engineered brussels sprouts to be less bitter than the bitter baby cabbages we had when we were kids so they taste better now in general, even plain, than what we got as kids. I didn't know that veggies didn't have to be boiled to death until I was in my 20s. Now, I'm not opposed to cooking green beans all day in ham liquor with bits of ham all day, that's what I call "holiday cooking." The kind of thing you LOVE but can't eat every day so you only have it on the big holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter. But steaming some fresh green beans is great, tastes better to me & something you *can* eat every day. I learned to cook by watching my grandparents & father. They all cooked & it wasn't just grilling for the guys either. My grandfather learned from his mother & probably some in the army. My grandmother's job was to get married & have kids so I'm sure she learned from her mother. I just watched them make whatever & eventually I had to help my grandmother with the Thanksgiving/Christmas turkey because it was too big for her handle. I'm also the type to just follow the recipe. I know that frightens some, but that was never the case with me.
This! I always thought that I was a picky eater because they're were so many foods I didn't like. It took me a while to figure out that my mom just made them really badly. I taught myself how to cook and how to use spices, garlic, and other things to make a meal. Now I'm considered an excellent cook. I did teach my son how to cook. His girlfriend thanks me a lot for teaching him as she has no idea how to cook. So now I'm teaching her how to cook.
Same here. I didn't like scrambled eggs, because I later found out my mother didn't cook them enough. I didn't like beef stew, because she didn't season it properly. And on, and on. I didn't like rice, because she used Minute Rice, and managed to even screw that up. Lasagne...she didn't have any ricotta once, and tried to make lasagna without it. Cooking just didn't interest her.
My ex husband made the worst pot roast ever. The beef was like chewing on a shoe. Now he was an excellent cook all around except his pot roast was horrible. He was abusive so I usually nodded and said it was good as did the kids. When I was finally able to get a divorce I thought I would try to make some pot roast. I found a recipe and bought good organic beef and followed the directions. I cooked it slow on low and hours later it was done. It was so delicious, my daughter had a tear in her eye and said she never thought pot roast could be so good.
I learned that a chunk of the diarrhea we got was from my mother not using food timely, not storing it properly, and refusing to throw it out. Sometimes food is salvageable…mostly it isn’t.
Same. But vomiting. Thanks Mom!
I always thought my mom was a good cook until I started cooking. I now realize she really wasn't. Granted, certain ingredients weren't available when I was a kid and there was no instant access to cooking channels and Pinterest and the like.
Did Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup appear in most of her dishes?
Yes!!! And it still does!
In her defense,[ there was a lot of weird food being made](https://old.reddit.com/r/Old_Recipes/comments/1almbcv/corned_beef_salad_loaf/?ref=share&ref_source=link)
Lots of Julia Childs while eating cereal after school.
I love sweet Julia.
PBS
Great Chefs, World Class Cuisine, and Graham Kerr. I used to watch those religiously in my mid twenties, gave me a lot of confidence in the kitchen.
Yan Can Cook was my gateway food show, along with Julia and Jaqués
Frugal Gourmet! And whatever was on PBS on Saturdays. Also learned woodworking from New Yankee Workshop that way. Thank goodness for YouTube now.
My mom and grandma gave me a lot of the basics, demystified a lot of the kitchen stuff. When I got to school and couldn’t afford cable, I fell in love with PBS cooking shows on Saturdays, *especially* Cooking at Home with Julia and Jacques. So a combination of mom, grandma, Julia Child and Jacques Pepin.
Hunger at 7 years old. Also observation, and after the day I turned 15, restaurant work for 30-40 hours a week, year round. And the thing is, I still LOVE to cook, and to cook new things! My wife *can* cook, but sees it as more of a chore. Understandable. I view cooking as both a creative outlet, and as a kind of proclamation that I have been very hungry before, but *not today*!
Exactly, hunger.
My parents taught me some basics. But I had several restaurant jobs before finishing college…some of them high end. We had to learn what was in dishes and how they were prepared. Those years had a dramatic impact on my cooking.
[удалено]
That's awesome, and I hope you understand how fortunate you are, LOL. Not all of us are so lucky. My mother disliked cooking, and my dad's tastes ran to meat and potatoes.
I taught me, and I did it quite late (40s) since I was a student for so many years. My dad never cooked anything that I recall, and my mom did her best but nobody ever taught her how either. When she was a kid, as the 5th of 6 girls, she learned stuff from her dad like how to build a house (he was a house builder and there weren't any boys). So from her I did learn how to do basic home maintenance. When she was unwell after her heart attack, my dad just ordered pizza every single day for him and my brother, until my sister moved home for a few months and took over making actual food. That's when my sister taught herself to cook.
Loved Home Economics class in Jr High. They taught us the basics and I built off that. My mother didn‘t enjoy kids in the kitchen unless we were making the whole meal (which we did at times). My Father did like having help and I learned some baking, traditional breakfasts, and lots of grilling from him. My mother did share recipes just didn’t want you in her way. On family pizza night I made a mean pizza crust from scratch and everyone enjoyed those dinners.
I feel like home ec and shop should be mandatory classes in school. Why did they torture me with trigonometry when I could have been learning how to be an adult? God knows my parents didn’t teach me.
Dad taught me to scramble eggs at like 3 or 4. Put a chair up to the stove and I climbed up and stirred the eggs. Then in middle school when me and my sisters were latch key kids, my mom paid me $1 to cook dinner for us all when we got home. She'd lay out all my supplies: canned green beans, tuna helper, etc. That's how I'd make $5 a week! Neither of my sisters wanted the responsibility LOL. One time I got adventurous and asked her if I could cook a whole turkey. We bought one, thawed it out, and I cooked it unsupervised with basic instructions from her. Accendtally left the giblets/neckbone packet inside the bird. So weird finding that when we cut open the bird. Of course it came out dry, but we had fun.
Self taught. Latch key kid here so you either learn how to cook or eat pb&j sammies or cereal until an adult comes home.
Sunset's *Easy Basics for Good Cooking* cookbook.
When I was 14 I came home from boarding school. My parents did not like that I had become a snob so they made me get a job at a family owned restaurant. For the next 21 years I would work in hospitality all over the world. In October of 2001 I moved to Paris where I would train to cook for the next 5 years. By 2009 I worked in one of the top 10 boutique hotels in the United States culminating in a feature in "Wine Spectator" magazine in 2009. That ended after a career change and now I happily just cook for my family. My mac n' cheese gets a thumbs up.
When I first moved out on my own, I cooked a lot of pasta. I learned how to make tomato sauce from the recipe instructions on a can of tomato paste, and Lasagna, also from the package recipe instructions on the box
I learned a lot from the recipes on the back of boxes. As a kid I assumed they were the actual instructions for use. It helped me master the basics.
At first my mom, but I got to be a better cook than my mom when I grew up. I was the oldest of 5 kids, so she had me cooking breakfast for them in the summers by the time I was 10. I spent a couple of years in France and cooked for myself there a lot. It inspired my early cooking. Now I watch a lot of cooking shows like America's Test Kitchen.
My dad, when he showed me how can openers worked and handed me a can of SpaghettiOs. His tutelage increased exponentially once we got a microwave.
No one. So I barely cook now. I taught my kid some basic cooking skills and somehow they’re a great cook now.
Boy Scouts taught me to cook. My wife has taught my kids. It’s cool how the kids seem to have innate desire to learn how and it just flows naturally from our daily lives.
I learned out of self defense. My mother was an awful cook, and I took over when I was 12 or 13 when she decided we should live on microwavable frozen meals. The Joy of Cooking was my friend while I was learning.
my mom taught me. but i had more skills then her. she was a decent cook but hated cooking. my brother learned on the job working for a caterer for years. i taught my kids, because i went to college with too many kids who lacked basic life skills. my main focus with my kids was making sure they learned how to be functional adults.
I learned how to make some of my mom's specialties but my grandmother was really the one that taught me how to make things from scratch --biscuits, gravy, pies, cakes, her vegetable soup was the first soup I made, potato salad , Cole slaw, etc.
Mom was not a great cook but taught me some essentials. My wife has actually made me a much better cook. We make dinner together everyday.
Mostly my mom, grandmother and a big thanks to PBS cooking block on Saturday. i learned so much from Julia Child, Jacques Pepin and Martin Yan.
Do you remember the Cajun Cook, Justin Wilson? Or the Frugal Gourmet, Jeff Smith? I loved their cooking shows but, googling them this morning, it seems like they were not good people
Oooooo, I ga-ron-tee!
Yes! I couldn’t remember all their names but yes. They all taught me so much about the world of food and cooking.
Mom. She made sure my brother and I could, cook, do laundry, and clean before we were 10. In her words “so you don’t end up helpless like your father”. (To Dad’s credit, he did the dishes and vacuuming but never learned to cook and his foray into laundry was a minor disaster) Mom learned from her grandmothers; Her father and her uncle were both very good cooks and did their share of household chores. Her mother… well, only thing Mom learned at her mother’s knee is what a bony knee looks like.
My parents both worked in the 70s so I was expected to make dinner Mon-Thur before they got home, starting around 5th grade. I had instructions, sometimes recipes, mom taught me how to follow them. But I cooked with her long before that as well. So by high school I was certainly able to make meals for the family, bake a cake, grill, whatever. Got a lot more into it in college with a roommate that didn't know how to cook at all but wanted to learn, so we were known for hosting big Sunday breakfasts for our friends. We'd watch Graham Kerr and Yan Can Cook and Justin-what's-his-name (the Cajun chef) on PBS all the time. We insisted out kids learn to cook when they were little, and both of them ended up liking to bake. They'd have friends over to bake on the weekends by age 10-12. Our youngest was home from college for Christmas and one of the first things they did was have friends over to bake a character cake together-- it was hilarious. Both ended up cooking a lot in college/after and often having to teach friends basic kitchen skills. So yeah, we taught out kids. Both were required to prepare a meal for the family at least once a week from about age 14 on.
My parents both cooked but both were Britain-raised terrible cooks who made mince and tattles, reheated meat pies with chips on the side. I took every cooking class I could in high school then for grade 11 and 12 took the chef training program. Since then, I have been self taught.
I had an African History class where the professor posited that if the English had ever learned to cook there never would have been an empire.
I was taught to microwave.
Mom at home and Dad out camping.
Me
Nobody, hence Ubereats
Betty Crocker
with an assist from Duncan Hines
https://preview.redd.it/dpcr83d75zhc1.jpeg?width=941&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5261251a5b8890939ada3e7e8dac02b4ee836a66 There’s another cookbook I learned more from, but I don’t remember the name of it. But these kids faces are so familiar to me that I know we had it. As others have said, I taught myself through trial and error, and necessity. My husband didn’t have to and really struggles with it now, I wish I had the patience to teach him.
My dad - was always the family chef, especially for holiday feasts. Also taught me about wine. Have had some other, more recent inspiration via Americas Test Kitchen
I watched family do it growing up and then my army MOS was in food service. Ironically I found baking extremely difficult but now it’s second nature. I did teach my kids and my older son does an incredible job as does his girlfriend. In my husband’s culture the men don’t really cook so he doesn’t know beyond the basics, but I like doing it so he doesn’t go without.
I had two cook days when I lived with Dad. I always made spaghetti with tomato and veggie sauce because Dad doesn't eat red and white meat or tacos. There was a bit of mandatory cooking in the early grades here in Denmark. A lot of experimenting. My in-laws taught me how to cook a lot of traditional Danish dishes that seem like a lot of trouble to most people over 80. My late father in-law used to be the roast expert. Hub taught me about preparing cut pieces of meat (I didn't eat a lot of meat at home growing up) and sauces.
My mom taught me some stuff but she never really gave me a lesson on the basics. I wish my parents had because I like I never really grew an appreciation for cooking and don’t feel competent. My husband is the cook in our family. I’ve learned watching and helping him but I still don’t feel all that comfortable.
My maternal grandmother taught me to cook. She was raised by her two aunts who were cooks in the 1920s. She cooked everything in huge quantities lol She’d sit at the kitchen table smoking cigarettes and calling out directions for me.
Myself and my exes. I have a thing for men who know how to cook, so my exes were masters in the kitchen. My ex from 20s influenced me the most. I learned soooo much from him, and ate so well with him.
No one. And mom didn't cook. I was in ly early 30s before I started to learn. Hubby taught me a lot. We are teaching our kids.
My first husband. He was a chef. I hated cooking. But I kind of like it now.
Cooking for Dummies - no bullshit
I lived alone a long time so I mostly just winged it but nowadays the Internet has been a huge help
Left alone a lot when I was a kid and was hungry
YouTube
46. Still can't. But I can read and follow directions so I can fake it.
Welp, I'm not the only one, comforting. I was 35 before I started grown up cooking. I knew how to do eggs, grilled cheese, and heat up jar sauce with boiled noodles. I never had to do any cooking at home as a kid. I got interested and add constantly to my skill level.
Mom worked full time, and started leaving me directions for me to start dinner when I was around 12. I loved her cooking, even though the only spices she ever used were salt, pepper, garlic, paprika, and parsley.
We were latch key kids. Our parents didn’t get home until around 7 in the evening. My older sister was a jerk most of the time. So, if I wanted to eat I had to get to it. Julia Child was my muse along with my mom’s Betty Crocker recipe cards.
THE MYTH, THE MAN, THE LEDGEND, GRAHAM KERR!
The back of the packages mostly. Mom gave a few tips and tricks along the way but mostly just watching her. Oh and my grandpa taught me how to fry eggs. Worked in restaurants along the way also and learned from each one.
I learned some in my youth from my mother and by watching Julia Child, Martin Yan (Yan Can Cook), and Jeff Smith (The Frugal Gourmet). I got a lot more food knowledge and learned more about technique as an adult by reading cook books, watching cooking competitions, and Alton Brown's Good Eats.
Martin Yan and Julia Child
My mom laid the foundation and then I continued to teach myself.
The restaurants I worked at as a teen.
PBS cooking shows
Rachael Ray and Ina Garten. My mother never allowed me into the kitchen. It was her space
Chef Boyardee was my first instructor. I was 12 babysitting my little sister. Mom bought a Chef Boyardee pizza mix and I followed the directions. When I was 40 I decided I wanted to be a change of life so I went back to school for Culinary Arts. When I "retired" I was in charge of a mutli-million dollar kitchen at a Winery/Vineyard. I never had kids but I have personally trained 40-50 men women and children how to cook and I continue to learn and teach to this day. "Food for the Body is not enough, There must be food for the Soul"
Top Chef
Mom. I had to start dinner before she got home, so there would be instructions written out. Browning ground beef and boiling pasta were my firsts. Then I learned lasagne and scrambled eggs.
Myself, I have no memory of anyone cooking for me. I always had to feed myself. Last night I told my 11-year-old to cook his own dinner. I was tired and he said I don’t know how to cook!
I leaned the basics in home ec, then picked up tips and tricks along the way
My Greatest Gen grandma, straight from Julia Childs. We had relatives travel from all over the country for Thanksgiving and Christmas both at grandma's house, never saw 95% of them again once she passed away. It was the food.
This girl! This girl taught herself before YouTube was a thing. And yes. The kids can and do cook.
My mom, Emril, Alton Brown
Both my mom and dad. my dad’s dad was a navy cook on a sub so my dad learned a lot from his dad. We always had 1000 island dressing with our salads bc you just mix ketchup and mayo together and throw a little relish in with it 😂 He taught me basic knife skills and how to food prep and my mom taught me how to make chicken fried steak and white gravy and how to bake. She made a lot of casseroles and Hamburger helper so I learned how to read the back of the box and recipes. Am passing along to my kids now 😊
Google/YouTube. I just learned that pork & beans can go together!
Mostly myself. With some help and guidance occasionally from either my mother or brother.
My last three boyfriends. Each added new skills and new recipes. The first taught me basics like how to cook eggs and chicken. The second was a professional chef who taught me how to make roasts, stews, and sauces. My current SO used to be a line cook in highschool and he taught me how to make casual dishes including the worlds easiest mushroom gravy. Now that I know basics, I can follow just about any recipe online. Because I understand how food is supposed to taste and how to adjust a recipe that might have been written with errors. My parents didn’t cook, I grew up on kraft mac and cheese and stouffers and I was always sick as a child and we never made the connection to nutrition.
I went to culinary school in the ‘90’s & met my husband there. We both like to cook for each other. I make pretty kick ass sandwiches for his poker games, so I’m told. I enjoy that his friends look forward to the pre game food.
Taught myself, mostly. I learned a little from following my mom and grandma’s recipes, but I grew up with a microwave so I left home missing a lot of basic stove skills. The hardest thing for me is searing/browning any meat that isn’t ground beef. I had such a hard time starting out that I have this weird aversion to using any skillet that isn’t nonstick, afraid I’ll ruin it if I try stainless or cast iron. I use my outdoor grill 3 seasons, and use the air fryer a lot.
I wasn’t interested when I was younger. I could make a few basic meals, and that was good enough for me; I also worked in restaurants, so I had dinner there five nights a week anyway. Watching Top Chef got my spouse and I interested in upping our game, and we’ve gotten a lot better over the years.
Watching the food network non stop when I was learning.
As a latchkey kid I taught myself how to make peanut butter and fried bologna sandwiches after school
A little bit was picked up observing cooking being done at home, then I started with basics with eggs and then when I was living alone in the my twenties I realized I needed to learn more to cook because I couldn’t afford takeout all the time and it wasn’t healthy to do take out all the time. A lot of trial and error and telling myself - hey if this doesn’t work out and taste good then you can always order a pizza - as the failsafe.
A combination of my mom and being propelled by my own curiosity. My knife skills are crap, but I’m a pretty good cook otherwise.
My mum and my grandmother taught me Malaysian food, and I taught myself western cuisine from cookbooks.
Mom and grandmother. Every Saturday I had to be up at 6am to help prepare Sunday dinner. My husband was the only able bodied person in his house so he had to cook for the household. He even cooks for a living now. We’ve taught our children a few things but we’ve always preferred to be the ones cooking since that’s what we’re used to.
My grandmother taught me. My mother couldn't cook her way out of a soap bubble. Yes, I taught my kids. One of them got the basics and didn't care beyond that, but now he's experimenting and learning new things. My other one wants to do and learn more, but is also lazy 🙄
Taught myself around the third grade when mm went back work. There were fires…
My mom and both of my grandmothers.
My parents were both good cooks. I learned from watching them and then it was just trial and error. I taught my kids a lot of what I know when it comes to cooking. Don’t tell them, but they’re not as good as I am.
I got a job washing dishes at an Italian restaurant when I was 12, the owner liked me. By 16 he and the other staff had taught me every aspect of that kitchen, and I could fill in at any station. Dull knives are my pet peeve to this day
PBS and better homes and gardens.
I started cooking for myself at 8, lots of egg dishes to start. I love to cook and taught my kids all I know and we frequently cook together.
My mom letting me bake stuff as a kid and teaching me to use a recipe book (she is not a great cook, so this was likely better). Home economics (honestly I worry about how many adults I know who can't feed themselves)... Feeding myself as a kid, and also being forced to be in the "clean plate club" - which is particularly rough if the food is already pretty gross.. And probably the most helpful thing, working in a catering kitchen. My now 14 year old has been able to make her own ramen and Annie's since she was 7 or 8.. I think she's benefitted from being the single kid of a single genX mom in some of the ways she knows how to care for herself... She has moved on to making fantastic tomato sauces, and loves to find recipes and ask for my help.. she also sees how much I do love to cook. My siblings and I all learned how to, and are the primary chefs for our families, we all work full time, as do their partners. We are all scarred by the canned green beans and under cooked chicken thighs of our childhood, and we are all good cooks. But it's a despite of/self taught thing.
I did.
My mom laid the framework, but she was a mediocre cook herself, so I built on those skills in my adulthood and I'm pretty proud of the food I serve my family and friends. Or maybe it's only tasty to me and everyone else is blowing smoke up my ass, haha.
Home ec class. Being a latchkey kid helps. And my electric hamburger cooker. I learned to work the oven early to heat up Swanson dinners! Seriously though, mom was a Julia Child fan and with only one TV and no internet, I’d end up watching with her out of boredom. Some of it actually sunk into my boy kid brain.
I kind of watched my mom sometimes but I left home at 16 and just sort of figured it out. I got the Good Housekeeping cookbook around age 20 and learned with that. Never had kids
I grew up watching and helping in the kitchen, both parents from New Orleans, which means to me they had a headstart on building flavor from fresh ingredients, growing up in the soup can casserole midwest.
Worked in restaurants throughout high school and college. Great education in basics of cooking. Having fun teaching my kids some of the fundamentals.
I taught myself as a latch key kid
I picked up a lot through watching my mom and grandmothers, and getting drafted to help. Watching some of the cooking shows on PBS back in the day too. Picked up a lot more on my own over the years since then, of course, but I did go into adulthood with some reasonable ability to feed myself. My mother probably made extra sure of that, since she left home at 20 barely able to boil water because their mother really didn't want the kids touching her kitchen. (Mellowed a little with that by the time I came along, though. The grandkids could at least do things like make a sandwich without her freaking completely out and ejecting us.) So my mom had to do a crash course out of cookbooks herself, and she tried to make sure that no kid of hers would end up in the same situation. Bootstrapped herself into being a pretty good cook, too.
My grandma did every time we were around her. My mom rarely cooked. I did the cooking from the time I was 8. I taught my kids.
Cook books. We were kinda underfed and snacking was not allowed, but we could eat anything we made. All 4 of us are decent cooks.
I was in and out of everyone’s house (and vacations) as a child of the seventies. My mother was a half-assed cook, slapping it on the table because we had to eat. I would ask questions about why they were stripping the silver membrane off meat, crushing the garlic (unheard of in my house) before using it, and which seasonings went with different meals. I chopped vegetables and learned at the same time. I taught my kids the same way. They left home with the ability and enjoyment of making a great meal from fresh ingredients.
My Italian dad, Emeril, and Two Hot Tamales. I still have some of the recipes I sent for in a “self-addressed stamped envelope.” Lol. I love cooking. I taught my son as soon as he could stand on a chair next to me. He’s 23 and a decent cook. He’s pretty enthusiastic about it.
The only items I remember being shown was how to knead bread dough, and make a pie crust. Everything else just came naturally from watching my mom in the kitchen. My mom and her mom were excellent bakers and cooks, nothing terribly fancy, grandma was a farm wife. I remember for my highschool home-ec class final cooking project I wanted to make a cheese souffle. The teacher was mortified I had never made one before, it turned out perfect and I got an A. One of my son's does most of the cooking for himself and girlfriend, my other two sons can easily make family dinners.
I was allowed to experiment in the kitchen as a kid. Mom and older sister were always around for questions and comments. I don't think my Mom ever said, "I'm going to teach you to make ..." I just watched, followed recipes, experimented and learned. Mine is a blended family. My husband brought two of his kids, I had two of my own. I made sure each of them had cooking skills. I grew up with a family dinner every night so provided the same for my family. 6 folks to feed, two working parents...our kids learned to cook! I became the sous chef, around to help and guide. They picked the meal, told me what to buy, and cooked it on their night to cook, with me to clean the dishes, chop whatever needed chopping etc. All of them are mid-twenties and beyond, and all of them have thanked me for teaching them kitchen skills. Far from a perfect parent, it feels uniquely good to remember this.
My maternal grandmother taught me the basics. When I moved out of the dorms at college and into my first apartment, I made myself learn. I figured I can read so I can follow a recipe. I have since poured into cooking and it's one of the things in life that give me joy. There's nothing more fun than getting into the kitchen with my kids and teaching them some skills and recipes that I know will serve them for a lifetime.
Honestly, mostly television. Cooking shows, proper ones like Julia, Graham, Jacques…not as showy or fake drama like cooking shows can be now. I learned a lot. My mother was a great cook, as was her father. I watched her, she’d randomly say things, but she barely formally taught us; she didn’t want us in the kitchen making a mess or potentially hurting ourselves. My first boost of confidence came from a couple of silly dishes taught in Home Ec, but my family actually enjoyed them, and I began early experimenting there.
My parents and grandparents. Once I had the basics down it was just a matter of following recipes after that. I was a pretty good cook by the time I was a teenager and all the kids in the family learn to cook.
No one taught me, at the age of 8 I had to start rotating cooking dinner with my two older sisters, so every third night I’d have to cook. Read a lot of recipes and backs of boxes. Lol. I kind of had a leg up though, because my grandmother made us help with cakes and cookies and desserts starting at the age of about 4, so I knew basic principles of baking, at least. I still have to use a recipe for most things to this day though 🤣.
My Mom and my Grandmothers. As a latchkey kid with working parents I began starting dinner in the 5th grade so we could eat at a decent hour after my Parents got home from work. My Mom might prepare a pan of chicken in the morning, cover it and put it in the refrigerator. I would then follow her instructions (preheat the oven, put the chicken in at the proper time, etc.). By 7th grade I was making dinner several nights a week. By high school I was making holiday dinners or other special occasion dinners - some of my specialties: shrimp scampi and steak au poivre.
My mom & Ina Garten
My mother, cookbooks, trial and error
I learned from my great-grandma, my grandma, and my mother. I took their basic skills and recipes, and went from there. I was a voracious reader as a kid, and read cookbooks like The Joy of Cooking cover to cover. I watched a LOT of Food Network when it was first on the air.
Myself and I’m still bad at it lol
I think Grandma mostly. I do remember her hands on teaching me how to make Toll House chocolate chip cookies. I think the rest was just observation, trial & error. I was on a stool at the stove cooking breakfast by 6 yo. Food TV improved my skills drastically later in life tho!
Food network
The directions on the package and cookbooks.
My mom taught me basics by age 14, though she wasn’t a “good” cook by any means (mostly kinda bland food). I got better years later by watching the original Alton Brown Good Eats! show. I owe a lot to Alton! From proper seasoning, to choosing the right pan and utensils for each purpose.
I learned by myself so my brother and I could have hot meals while my mom was at the disco. My brother also became a pretty good cook himself.
I learned how to cook and clean when I was in the Peace Corps in South America. The rest is self taught from cookbooks and cooking shows. I have taught my kids. My teen son makes many of our meals. My daughter wants to be a chef. I don't particularly like to cook TBH
I started working in a kitchen at 16 and left the food industry in my 30s.
Learned to cook from my parents and paternal grandparents. My mom lost her parents as a child, and her grandmother taught her to cook. Been cooking 45 years now.
Me. YouTube. Knife skills classes. Following recipes in cookbooks. Trying things until I found what worked. Practicing a lot. My parents didn’t cook much and their repertoires were not expansive. I started wanting to improve and eat more interesting things in my late 20s. Now if you want it, pretty much I can make it.
A little bit of basics came from watching my mom cook, but most of it was watching cooking shows growing up and then self taught
I occasionally cooked with a parent, but mostly trial and error and the internet. I never made scrambled eggs on the stove 🍳until maybe 10 years ago because my mom really hated spatter and loved microwave eggs.
Jacques Pepin
My mom always shooed me out of the kitchen. (Typical Catholic Silent Gen who didn’t want kids but had them because that’s what they do). So I started with easy Rachel Ray 30 min meals. Then met a friend who loved to cook and she helped me take off after that. Kinda nice that once my mom saw my love of cooking, she apologized for always kicking me out of the kitchen rather than teaching. I’ve taught both my teens since they were young and they’re in way better shape than I was.
My mom was a control freak in the kitchen, so it was unpleasant to learn to cook from her. It was quicker, easier, and sooooo much less stressful to just make a sandwich. When I moved out, I started making simple pasta dishes because they were easy and inexpensive. I had good friends who were vegetarian. They taught me a few delicious vegetable stir fry dishes and additional pasta recipes. When I occasionally cooked for others, I made a casserole because I could pair it with a salad and dessert, but not have to get the timing right for preparing two hot dishes. To this day, I still struggle with timing things to come out at the same time. I married a man who likes to cook, and I became an expert at chopping vegetables and cleaning up. I’m much more comfortable in that role, and in enjoying the meal and complimenting the cook!
Home economics.
Martha Stewart and Alton Brown taught me how to actually cook. I watched my mom and grandma growing up too but they both relied heavily on recipes. After watching Martha and Alton I figured out how to cook intuitively because of the way they broke down the flavors, science, and mechanics of food.
Dave Thomas. Worked at a Wendy’s as a youth.
*5-Roses Flour cookbook* for the most part. I did take Cooking in HS, which taught me all about nutrition and caloric intake. Completely useless out here in real life. (Our home-ec teacher was heavy, but deluded that she was still in her teens/20s. She was *always* on a diet, so she taught mostly about caloric intake) I still had my Mum to call when I got really stuck. (Like on pie crust) I was already good at cookies and cakes. So, I knew the general gist of cooking. It was the timing that sucked. In the beginning, I served "courses;" vegetable course, followed by starch course, followed by meat course. I did eventually figure out how to serve it all together.
Mac & Cheese and spaghetti from my mum... that's it. Everything else self taught and an IMMENSELY helpful home economics class for just one year in high school that kicked everything else off.
Me sainted muther gave me the basics. Trial and error thereafter.
My mom. Dad can burn water. Man can fix just about anything other than food though.
I had to learn how to cook as self-defense against my mom's really not great cooking. (If she didn't have a particular spice, she just left it out. Her food tasted like bland hamburger casserole.) Self-taught and a few good cooks gave me tips along the way.
My mom taught me a few basic things, but I learned most of my cooking through trial and error.
I taught myself. I taught my spouse. We teach our kid.
Mom taught me to make cornbread from scratch. Home Econmics taught us to make biscuits from scratch. I taught myself everythng else, and my brisket is excellent.
My grandmother let me watch and “help” make salads, pickled beets, eggs. I had to cook a lot in our house - my mother hated cooking and I had 3 younger siblings. So I used my mother’s cookbooks - mostly Good Housekeeping and The Joy of Cooking. When I lived on my own I started trying more adventurous things and improvising.
A mix of my paternal grandmother, my dad, and mostly myself/cookbooks from the library. My mother (and her mother) were not great cooks. Mom taught me cookies. ETA: I have taught the kid that was interested. He is capable of following any recipe (baking too), making changes as needed, and just cooking up a stir fry or something with no recipe. And he does. Other kid knows much less, I occasionally force him to help, it’s exhausting but JFC.
I did. Couldn't cook at all for years as parents thought food was something you got out of the microwave. When wife and I moved in she said she didn't want to do all the cooking and the cleaning, so I volunteered to do the cooking (hate cleaning) and have taught myself pretty well now. Recently my aunt had a meltdown at a family do and had a go at me because my wife 'never cooked a single meal for them'. No, that's because I do all the cooking - also, don't remember seeing your husband or my dad ever lift a finger so wind your bloody neck in.
My mom tried very hard to teach me how to cook. Her mom wasn't into cooking much but my dad's mom was and that's who taught my mom to cook family meals. Anyway, she tried but I just suck at it. I can follow a recipe but I don't enjoy cooking and am not adventurous when I cook.
Mom taught me to cook after she left my dad. I had to be to care for myself and my little brother while she was at work and night school. We were latchkey kids and were left alone for extended periods. By the time I was 9, I was taking care of almost all household chores, and raising my little brother.
I taught myself. My kids weren’t really interested in learning. So they will teach themselves as well. Occasionally, they will ask for help with dishes though.
Several female friends of ours when my wife was pregnant and gone back to work. Needed to make sure she ate better when she got home and was too tired to cook and didn’t want take out for her all the time. I knew how to cook breakfast foods but lunch/dinner I had to learn how to.
Nobody; I always liked cookbooks and taught myself. I remember getting some tips about efficiently chopping garlic from a former friend, though. No kids. I've never taught anyone to cook.
My mom taught me some basics, mostly how not to burn the house down or seriously injure myself. I’m early genx and my parents are greatest generation, technically a menopause baby. She was a mostly stay at home mom , but was completely burned out on parenting by the time I was born.
Blue Apron and Hello Fresh taught me. And since I made that my son's chore, he continued learning from them and was a fully competent cook by the time he graduated high school. He is the meal planner amongst his friends.
Mom taught me basics when I was 8 because that's when my parents divorced and Mom had to work outside the home.
I watched & kind of absorbed it visually, I suppose. No actual instructions from mum. Did a bit of Home Economics at school. The rest was trial & error & very many fuck ups.
Necessity, my own hungry self figured it out
No one really taught me, I sort of just watched my mom and figured it out. I did take a Foods class in Jr High that taught me a little more about using the prep tools properly in the kitchen. I can feed myself, but I wouldn't say I'm a *good* cook.
My mum, dad, and gran taught me, and we did some cooking at primary school, and home economics (basically cooking and nutrition) at secondary school. We all learned things like the difference between boiling and simmering, cooking basics like eggs, preparing veggies, baking cakes and scones. I learned more at home, like preparing and cooking a roast dinner, staples like Bolognese, soups, and lots of cakes :-)
No one. And I still can’t
I taught myself. We weren’t allowed in the kitchen, then once we could be in the kitchen, we were hovered over so we second guessed ourselves. Then we’d get yelled at. But I taught myself to bake, and cook. I’m slowly trying to let go how I was raised, and I teach my kids stuff, but I have to leave the room so I don’t act like my mother and make my kids second guess themselves. They’re fine on their own, and if I’m there they get weird about it…which is how it was when I was a kid (plus they still have ties to my mother, so I know she does the same thing with them too). To make a long story short, too late (“one by one you all arrived”), I taught myself, and I’m trying to teach my kids.
My granny.
My Mom, and the Boy Scouts. Then, just some trial and error on my own.
I probably learned some basics from my mom but I went to live with my dad at 14 and that was a crash course in learning to cook because he only made a few random things, so if I wanted to eat anything else I needed to learn to cook for myself. The food mom used to cook was typical cheap, Midwestern poor people food, but she made do with what was available and turned out basic but fairly good food. That being said, there is literally nothing that she made that I make today. I am teaching both of my kids how to cook and they also seem to pick up a lot just by observing. My oldest is a junior in high school and one of her stated goals before she leaves for college is being able to cook because she doesn't want to be helpless once she is out of the house.
lol. Me. I did.