Where Did You Learn To Cook?

[DanCole42]

Whenever I cook for my less culinarily-inclined friends for the first time, I'm always asked where I learned how to cook.

So I'm curious. Share your stories. How did YOU learn how to cook?

I suppose I'll get the ball rolling. My dad grew up in an Italian household, and his darling mother is everything a Genovese Italian grandmother should be (i.e. she makes ravioli that, for whatever reason, is unduplicatable until you yourself have a grandchild). He was the only one of his five siblings (again, Italian household) who showed any interest in cooking. The family rolling pin (the closest thing we have to an heirloom) was to be passed to the eldest daughter, who would have hung it on a wall somewhere. What a travesty that would have been! The century-old dowel passed to my father who still uses it the way it was intended.

So through my grandma, my dad acquired some basic non-technical culinary know-how, and he's still at his best in the kitchen when he's working intuitively rather than from a recipe or an established technique.

My mom grew up in a very different, non-culinarily-oriented household. She learned to cook by following recipes on the backs of soup cans, flour sacks, taco spice mixes, etc. She'd always find some way to make the recipes her own, though, and to this day my best steak marinade is derived from what was on the back of some Italian dressing mix that hasn't been on shelves since the 70s.

So I grew up with a father who had an intuitive knack for good food, and a mother who excelled at following recipes and improving upon them.

I learned a few go-to dishes from them, but it wasn't until college that my cooking really took off. I wasn't particularly fit, I was poor, I lacked the ability to form complete sentences when talking to women, but let me tell you - you get a college girl into my kitchen long enough for me to cook for her, and she's all mine.

So once I realized I could turn my apartment into a giant girl-trap with my cooking as bait, I started playing a much more active role in my culinary education. I pressed my parents for more recipes, more techniques. I started reading cookbooks and watching the Food Network.

Before I knew it, I'd snagged a winner, proposed to her, and it was all thanks to my Italian dressing steak marinade.

I continue my education by watching the Food Network. Most of what I cook comes from inside my head, but frequently I'll head over to X cooking website so I don't have to sweat the technical stuff. Like if I have an idea for a really neat biscuit, I'll go look up what the hell goes into a biscuit and how long you're supposed to cook one. Another thing I like to do is to try and duplicate dishes from restaurants - it's a great challenge and learning experience (I'm close to getting the scallops of RTS down), and provides a lot of inspiration for new dishes.

So, the rest of you - where'd you learn YOUR stuff?

[JPW]

Parents divorced when I was 8. Mom got her RN and went to work as a nurse which meant occasionally working the 3-11 shift for two weeks at a stretch.

My choice -- cook or starve.

[dinwiddie]

My father tought me. while my mother is a great cook, he is the one who got me started. In fact my mother says that he taught her how to cook after they got married.

When I was in college my roommate got engaged. His fiance couldn't cook anything except spagetti from a jar. So I made her come over to our house twice a week and we would make something different, teaching her how to cook them. This went on for 10 weeks until she had a basic reporatory of meals she could make.

[Chica Grace]

My grandmother did most of the cooking when I was growing up in our household. She made everything from memory, and it was all awesome. But she was never into baking for some reason. I used to watch my grandmother in the kitchen and ask a lot of questions. However, its funny, she never wanted to teach my how to cook, because she thought that when I grow up, some man would make me cook all the time & that is all I would ever do. She wanted me to experience other things in life, such as travel and a career. So, she refused to teach me. Then I got to college and gained 10 pounds and I missed all the fabulous dishes from home. So, I too started to experiment in my efficiency apartment trying to recreate masterpieces. But my interest really didn't take off until 10 years ago, when I decided that cooking was going to be & still is a huge way to destress after a day at work, or whatever else. So, I try recipes, I look at on-line boards, I go to restaurants and taste, eat, etc. But mostly, I invite friends over for dinner when I'm trying something new, and I have found - that no one EVER turns me down. You know when you go to parties, and maybe you get there a little late, and there is a huge buffet of food served? I realized I was getting better at cooking, when I have parties - THERE IS NO FOOD LEFT. That is a good sign.

[erikv]

Grew up with terrible home cooking by my parents (although my grandmothers were both good). I started eating most of my dinners out once I had the means, and developed a love for food of all kinds. Never really even attempted to cook anything that couldnt go in the microwave until I started dating my Fiance. Her father is a very good, self-taught cook, and after both commenting on how much he enjoys cooking, we decided to teach ourselves. We were beyond attrocious when we started out, and over 2 years later we have a few dishes I am proud to serve others, but still consider myself a beginner.

[deangold]

When I was 6 or 7 or so, my mom took me to a kids cooking class at The Egg and the Eye. It was a combination art gallery and restaurat specializing in Omelets opened by the woman who was the original Omelet cook at Hamburger Hamlet. The ides was that moms could drop their kids off and get them fed whoile the moms went across the street to the LA County Museum of Art. The kids would be taught to cook an omelet (or, as the vast majority that day did, watch as Dehlia made them the omelet with fillings of their choice) and then retire to the art room upstairs and color and play and raise hell while mom had a day off from us. My omelet came out pretty good and I would up cooking something like 6 or 7 omelets that day. I was particularly proud of the onion garlic spinach and bacon omelet I cooked that day. It had fresh chopped herbs in the eggs too!

The next day I picked up mom's copy of Julia Child and started to cook from it.

[yeuxblu]

Parents divorced when I was 8. Mom got her RN and went to work as a nurse which meant occasionally working the 3-11 shift for two weeks at a stretch.

My choice -- cook or starve.

I'm from the cook or starve method also.

My mom was a bit of a health nut when we were young but once she started grad. school our eating habits when down hill quickly. She started working full time when I was in 3rd grade. By the time my parents got home, no one wanted to cook. I was tired of the frozen dinner and Spaghetti-Os so one afternoon I opened up a Southern Living magazine and found a recipe that sounded good. It was a chicken with white wine and mushroom sauce. Called my mom at work to find out if we had any wine I could use for dinner. That was a fun conversation. After a lenghty pause she said yes and so started my experimentations in the kitchen.

[KeithA]

Growing up Mom did most of the cooking, but it was only so-so. On the weekends, Dad won me over to cooking with his skills making omelets and grilling. Before college, each of them taught me a few things.

However, my real culinary advetures begain in college where my dorm had a kitchen but no meal plan. So I quickly learned to make a few dishes, picking up recipes from upperclassmen. This haphazard way explains how I learned the "correct" way to know if spaghetti was done was to throw it against a wall and see if it sticks. My skills got better as I started watching the food network and mimicing what I'd seen.

Post-college and plus wife, I really got into cooking as I finally had my own place. Now, I pick up recipes from cookbooks, Cooking Light magazine, Food Network, epicurious and try out my own creations (some of which turn out well

I've also begun to learn some old family recipes from my wife who learned most of her skills watching her grandmother.

[Erin11]

Great idea for a thread!

I started cooking in college as a way to expand my very limited meal repertoire. After graduation, I headed back to my hometown for a year. My parents had moved out of state and so my brother took over hosting the family Christmas Eve dinner. He and I decided to change things up from the traditional deli tray and shrimp tray my parents served for years. The first year we settled on a Cajun/Southern theme because we wanted to make a shrimp etouffe recipe I learned from a friend in college. Each year after that we picked a different cuisine and researched recipes. I loved planning these dinners as well as the positive responses we received from the family over the dishes we made. When I moved to Chicago I continued experimenting with new recipes. Finally, my desire to be a more intuitive cook (and maybe cook for a living one day) led me to culinary school. Three years out of school, I'm not cooking professionally but my friends love to come over for dinner. I don't have cable so I rely on my local PBS station for cooking shows as well as food magazines and the web to continue my culinary education.

[Nadya]

Not at all in the family as other people took care.

Mostly learned by osmosis from hanging around people who cook professionally, overhearing bits and pieces, and realizing that I am every bit as smart and nimble as them, and the only obstacles to great cook-reputation were own fear and sloth. Also from discovering that people don't expect cooking talents in anyone glamorous, and liking to surprise them.

[Heather]

Latchkey kid here with an off and on single parent (Mom and Dad took 16 years to decide to divorce). I started at age 9 or 10 by calling mom at work and asking what was for dinner, then getting out the ingredients and cooking it. Mom is a good cook of the Fannie Farmer, Woman's Day, Family Circle variety.

After dropping out of college at 18 I became an au pair for a family in Washington and gradually took over all the cooking and shopping, including their parties. I went to culinary school on the weekends, worked in a bakery during the day while the kids were in school, and later did some freelance catering. My education in culinary school was supplimented by Mastering the Art of French Cooking and the Time-Life Foods of the World series. Eventually I decided I didn't want to work in the biz and went back to college and have been just a home cook ever since.

I'm not a great cook but I have a lot of useful skills - most of which are not in use as I have two very high-need kids and not a lot of time. I do read various food mags, and collect cookbooks.

[Jsenter]

I learned to cook from my Mother and one of my aunts. Both of my grandmothers and my other 5 aunts and none of my uncles could cook any think anyone would eat. I have 18 first cousins that all lived within a few miles of each other and the question every night was to either go to my mothers or my Aunt Millie.

My mother cooked all of the standard Jewish and Creole standards ( I know a weird combination, but that is what you get in a Jewish family in New Orleans). My Aunt had sent many years in Japan and had a lot of Japanese influence in her cooking.

I used to watch my mother cook and then imitate the things she made. When I got to be around 11 I would go though the different cookbooks we had and find recopied that looked interesting and ask my mother to try them. Some worked and some did not. I also started experimenting with trying to cook different things.

I also spent time in Southern Mexico growing up and tried to learn from the maids and cooks how to cook southern Mexican food. They where older women and did not think that a man should know how to cook so they where not that willing to teach me. But I did spend a lot of time watching what they did and the techniques they used.

Ever since I have left home I have always done a lot of cooking. Either because my roommates did not do very well at it or that they did not like to. My wife does not like to cook so I have always been the cook at home.

[B.A.R.]

San Quentin, but I don't like to talk about it.

[laniloa]

A variation of the starve or cook school. More like gain a ton of weight because the only other option was eating all prepackaged or prepared food. It is just too darn hard to do only that and eat healthily. And far too expensive when you are in school. I started very simply and worked up to a few dishes that formed a routine. Which is pretty much what I grew up on. My mom is a very good cook but not particularly adventurous due at least partly to conflicting tastes between those she cooked for. Anyway, once I got my routine down and had eaten that routine several hundred times, I got bored and tried to recreate something I either read or had seen on tv. And it didn't suck. So I broadened my routine a little. Then I took a basic cooking class and tossed the routine. I'm still somewhat tied to recipes for ideas even if I don't follow the specifics. The board, cooking shows, things I eat at restaurants and then track down recipes for, cookbooks, cooking magazines and whatever else catches my eye. I make my fair share of inedible messes and things that are entirely different then what I initially intended. Somewhere along the way it just became fun and not just basic necessity and that kept me going.

[MelGold]

Both my parents are talented in the kitchen and preparing dinner was a family affair, so I was granted access to the stove at an early age. I'm best known for learning the hard way that tin foil does not go in the microwave and that 10 large potatoes make ample portions of mashed potatoes (especially if you are only feeding 3 people while your mother's away on business...best damn potatoes I've ever made too!). I tend to stick with proven family recipes and explore a bit on my own, but have a treasure trove of recipes on the shelves that have yet to be tried.

[edenman]

My interest in all things cooking began, not at home, but after college, when I started brewing beer at a more serious level than during college. It was this expanded interest that branched into the cheesemaking, which gradually expanded into other food areas and thus into the enjoyment of good food. I still don't do a whole lot of exciting cooking (mostly just fried rice, pizza, burgers on the grill), but the food projects are going strong, and I do cook the occasional random recipe when the mood strikes me.

In short, I learned to cook from the internet. Thanks, internet!

[modthinglet]

I have to thank my Mom for teaching me how to cook at a very young age. Some of my best memories are standing next to my Mom at the mixer and her allowing me to add things. The cooking bible in my house was the two volume Gourmet cookbook published between the mid-50's and early 60's. When my Mom arrived at graduate school at Columbia her cooking knowledge was limited to Russian Jewish peasant food. The students and professors in the program generally came from a very different background than my Mom, and they gave dinner parties. One of her graduate school friends recommended the Gourmet cookbook to her, and she basically learned to cook by working her way through the book. This cookbook is quite the harsh taskmistress for the beginning cook (which I remember well during some of my early experiments). I've thought about getting the book rebound for her since it's been falling apart since the 70's. So, anyway, I have Mom to thank for my love of the complex receipe. Thanks Mom.

[Cook&Bottlewasher]

I learned to cook from my mom who, as she was of Scottish ancestry,was a pretty good cook but a better baker.

Everything was made from scratch,all bread,muffins,stocks and sauces but this was a matter of economy since she was a kid during the Depression.

Since she was a dentist,she took the scientific approach and I am also very oriented that way. I remember her spraying silicone on cookie sheets 3O years ago(I'm probably going to get cancer).

I later graduated from the CIA in Hyde Park and make food to sell to support my children.

For me being a skilled cook is also a matter of survival.

[zoramargolis]

Growing up, I did not cook much beyond scrambling eggs and making sandwiches. But my mother was a fairly good home cook who ventured occasionally to lasagna-land and middle-America from the Russian-Jewish standard fare we mostly ate (ie. chicken soup with kreplach, brisket, koteleten, broiled chicken, borscht, blintzes, chopped liver, chopped eggplant appetizer) and I was taken to a lot of different ethnic restaurants on a regular basis--Chinese, Mexican, Indonesian, Japanese, Italian and French. Food was enjoyed and appreciated in my family, even if we weren't terribly sophisticated.

When I went to NYC after high school and was living on my own, I started to get interested in cooking. I didn't have enough money to eat in restaurants for every meal, so I gradually acquired cooking equipment and cookbooks, and began to cook for myself and my friends in the downtown theater world (ie. other young, starving actors). Using lots of onions, garlic and wine was my mother's greatest legacy. I waited tables and hung around in restaurant kitchens, talking to the chefs, helping out and working at banquets and parties.

By the time Jonathan and I first crossed paths, I had been watching Julia on tv for quite a while and was thought of as a very good cook by my friends. Our relationship was a done deal the night I cooked chicken Marengo, rice pilaf, steamed asparagus and hollandaise sauce on a two-burner hotplate in his basement apartment in Rowayton, CT.

We moved to Vermont together and started vegetable gardening and keeping bees. I got a job as a cook in a natural foods restaurant in Brattleboro, called The Common Ground, which was a collective where we could pretty much cook whatever we wanted to as long as brown rice and stir-fried veggies was always on the menu. A friend I met there and I started a small catering business, doing parties and weddings. When she got a job as executive chef in a restaurant across the river in New Hampshire, I worked there as a prep cook during the day, and waited tables at night. I also waitressed at a fairly sophisticated French restaurant in Marlboro, Vermont, where I learned continental service, boning trout at the table and tableside flambe-ing and a lot about wine and traditional French food from hanging around with the chefs and the sommelier.

When we moved back to California, I was into year-round organic vegetable gardening, foraging, pasta-making. I took formal cooking classes for the first time, from Wolfgang Puck and Michel Richard, at a small cooking school called Ma Cuisine. I was a private chef for a family for a few years and an occasional caterer. Always passionately interested in food, always looking to learn more. Though other things in my life have changed a lot, that hasn't.