Hellobee Boards

By watching and helping my parents

Watching my mom cook. She also supervised us and we helped her once we were old enough to. I'm the oldest of four. My sister and I have been cooking since we were about 7 and 8.

Watching my mom and grandmas. But lots of it has just been trial and error. I don't know how to do anything fancy, but I enjoy it.

When I was young it was my chore to make the salad every night. I hated it (and never make salad now) but I guess I learned to cook by watching my mom cook while I made the salad. I don't remember learning but when I got to college I already knew.

I taught myself as an adult. I love to cook, and am excited about teaching the kids how to cook.

I learned from an ex boyfriend and cookbooks and blogs. My parent's weren't really into cooking and we ate a lot of processed/premade/convenience items foods.

By following a recipe. My mom can't cook, but my dad is an amazing chef. He cooks by taste, and I can't do that at all. MIL is the same way, and she's also a great cook. I try and try and try, but I just can't ever identify the missing ingredient/taste! DH can't either. Sucks I can't replicate their recipes to a T since something is always missing.

My parents never taught me how to cook, and I didn't have a traditional kitchen to work with either (restaurant with big woks to be specific). I learned mostly from blogs and cookbooks.

I learned from my roommate in college, as my mother rarely cooked, and when she did it was hamburger helper, or something she could just defrost in the microwave.

I basically hated food and ate about 4 things until my roommate taught me to enjoy food, eat it slowly, and cook from taste using basic ingredients -- garlic, onion, herbs, etc. Living in Paris for a year deepened my appreciation for food as a pleasurable experience. It made me want to cook more!

Eventually, I took a one-week boot camp at the Culinary Institute of America. That gave me the confidence to make several basic sauces, and to identify good cooking methods for a wide range of proteins and vegetables, so that if I found a great cut of meat at the market, I would know to braise it, fry it, whatever without needing a recipe.

IMO, cooking with recipes is a pain and takes the joy out of it. I'm amazed by the number of people who follow a recipe and never taste the dish at any point before it goes to table to make sure it's delicious. It's like driving with your eyes closed. I want to teach my daughter how to cook using her own senses, judgement and appreciation for what's fresh and good in season.

I taught myself when I moved out with DH into our first place. This is not to say my mom (my poor, poor mom) or my home economics teachers didn't try to teach me- I just couldn't be bothered with it for whatever reason until I NEEDED to cook. Now I spend weekends making curries and forming gnocchi for soups (I'm currently drying some jerky in the dehydrator! haha)- I love to cook, I love to eat...Jillian Michaels would likely not approve

I taught myself with trial and error once I moved in with DH. My mom taught me a couple of basics, but in high school I was rarely home in the evenings at dinner time because I was either at work, soccer practice, or a game. I'm not a big recipe person. I started with lots of boxed items and worked my way up to cooking from scratch.