Who Taught You to Cook?

[marco25]

Who taught you the most about cooking? What was the first dish you prepared? First entire meal? What's the most significant lesson you've learned about food and/or cooking?

[Diamond Downs]

My mom was the first to teach me anything about cooking and she is a very good cook. My stepmom talk me a lot more. She's like a chef and taught me how to cook almost anything without a recipe. I learned a lot of little "secrets" from her. The most important thing she taught me was to keep it simple, the most delicious things I make are very simple but my mom calls them "gourmet".

I have no idea what the first thing I ever cooked was, I have a great memory but that's going back too far! http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/eek.gif I do remember the first Thanksgiving dinner I cooked by myself and it turned out amazingly well but I did have my stepmom backing me up. The hardest thing to learn was timing, getting it all done at the same time is a trick!

[woman from Europe]

I learned in school. My mother wouldn't let me in the kitchen, she was tired after work.

I remember I made my first pizza. And I remember my first Christmas Meal. I did not fix the timing and the potatoes were not finish 5 o'clock. It was terrible. Nearly everybody serve the meal excacly 5 o'clock Christmas Eve with a choir sings the Christmas in, in tv and radio. I cried and my mother laughed. The choir singing "silent night" and the meal was not on the table http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/confused.gif

Now I can laugh, but that time.....

TH 12 incomplete 12-12-69.

[SCI-Nurse]

Both my mother and my maternal grandmother taught me to cook at a very early age. I was making the side dishes (salads, veggies, desserts) for our dinners by 3rd grade, and cooking whole meals by age 11 (when my mother had surgery). We did a lot of baking (homemade bread, cookies, lots at Christmas) too.

Until recently, my dad only barbecued (his only cooking) and I did learn that from him.

I also was a Girl Scout and learned outdoor cooking from Brownies on (my mother was my troop leader through 6th grade).

(KLD)

[metronycguy]

Originally posted by martha2:

Who taught you the most about cooking? What was the first dish you prepared? First entire meal? What's the most significant lesson you've learned about food and/or cooking?

that your supposed to steam or boil shrimp or somehow cook shrimp before eating.
i taught myself, progressed in military to c rats and lrrps.
now one pot pressure cooker doer!

[Hunker]

I taught myself to cook. The first meal I ever made was when a friend and I were on total campsite (primitive camping) at school and I made macaroni & cheese. I shaved a pine stick to stir it and made Turpentine Mac. My friend was not amused http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/eek.gif.

[marco25]

Jewel, you were fortunate, and she's right about keeping it simple. Flavor really shines through then.

WFE, your experience reminds me of the time I tried to prepare Sunday dinner for a room full of waiting, hungry family members. Disaster. That's all I'll say. I cried, and my parents ordered Popeyes Fried Chicken instead. http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/frown.gif

K, my father was the same way--grilling, barbecue and smoking--and he taught me a lot too. Now in his 70s he makes a killer gumbo. What a guy! http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

Metro ... of course you're the undisputed pressure cooker king around here. http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif Know what c rats are but what is an llrps?

Hunker, well, hmmm, uh, at least you showed some initiative! http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

When I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to cook. I used to make up recipes (pretty awful stuff) and make my brothers eat it. Could explain their issues today. http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif As we got older, Mom (who could stretch a dollar from here to China), figured instead of buying us cookies and crap, she'd let make bake them. Those Jiffy box mixes were 10 cents back then and she'd spend a grand total of $2. So we were eating homemade cakes all day for a week. Also, we were all learning how to cook, kept us out of trouble and from fighting with each other. http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

Mom taught me the most, along with a couple of home ec classes in high school. (Do they even teach that anymore?) I had a boyfriend who was the classic Cajun man. He was a crawfish farmer, fisherman, hunter. Often a date with him was fishing all day in the Basin. He made me bait my own hooks http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/frown.gif but I got over that pretty quick. Then we'd clean and cook the fish. Talk about good! He taught me SO much about food and cooking. Fresh, fresh, fresh is always best.

Scott's mom taught me a lot too because she knew how Scott likes his food--and he was very particular and outspoken when it wasn't just so. One time when we were first married he looked at something I'd prepared and all he said was, "Throw it away." Then he rolled away from the table. http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/frown.gif

That was incentive to learn how to do it right ... or at least his way.

My sister and I have what we call the "mating call meal" http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif For both of us, it was the first entire meal we pulled together, so it was what we served boyfriends when we'd cook for them. It was lasagna, salad, homemade garlic bread, and a special ice cream dessert/cake. Then wine or ice tea with it. The guys seemed to like it. http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

[lynnifer]

Embarressed to report an ex-boyfriend taught me more about cooking than anyone. sheesh

[teesieme]

I learned to cook a little bit from my mother, a little bit from Home-Ec class and a lot of it from Betty Crocker! http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/wink.gif