Trial and error. Lot's of meals that I just... forced down. Learned what I did wrong and changed it. But well, I don't really cook specific recipes, mostly I just boil things and know when to add stuff and what spices might go good with it, if any.

I'm happy other people had their parents to teach them but my parents mostly made stuff from boxes like hamburger helper and kraft dinner. Then they had all that free time to themselves to watch tv and get drunk.

I learned to cook the same way I learned to have sex. Trial and error, usually by myself, sometimes with a partner, and I read some publications about it that had plenty of pictures.

I learned cooking from observing my father, but he never really taught me to cook. He loved cooking and I always remember himself saying, "the hardest part about cooking is figuring out what you want to cook." Cooking is easy when you're not afraid of making mistakes.

My mom allowed me to watch, so I understood the basics. But she also was a terrible cook, so I didn't really git gud until I started watching Good Eats. The inclusion of the science was a huge help, since I am one of those people that benefits a lot from knowing why I am doing something and not just knowing that I need to do X. So I can follow recipes, but also can concoct my own things knowing what will work as a substitute and why, or what flavors go well together and such.

Have kids to feed. Have random things to cook. No time. Get creative. Fail. Try again next time. Succeed. Repeat. Fail. Succeed. Fail. Succeed. Start to plan ahead. Continue to fail or succeed. Try to teach kids so they fail less than me. Hope kids teach their kids. Break cycle of family not knowing how to cook. Family line succeed. Humanity saved.

I learned in chapters.

1. Teen/young adult years I just got the basics down, how to cut meat and veggies depending on their application and making meals I grew up with and knew well. 
2. Twenties, mostly cooking in restaurants learning new recipes and commiting the "correct way" to memory while learning foods from other cultures 
3. Thirties, breaking out of my comfort zone and just making food that sounds like it'd work together instead of making what middle-of-the-road restaurants taught me. Lots of YouTube videos absorbing general concepts.

The biggest things I've learned is that food needs twice as much fat/oil as I think it does and three times as much salt. When I have bits of veggies I'm not gonna cook, I freeze them in a bag until I have enough to make a stock—it's free flavor. Also, spice and season everything; I used to season my main ingredients and then just plop unseasoned ingredients on top thinking it's fine (for example, an egg scramble needs salt and pepper added to both the eggs and the sautéed veggies) 

Back in 2009 our youngest was born and I had lost my job due to the economic downturn. My wife was the cook at the time, but was also the sole bread winner as well.

I had some basic skills in the kitchen, but really could not say I could cook. My wife was a great cook. However, it did not make any sense for her to work a 12 hour day and come home to cook. When I had been home with the baby and our older son all day.

So I had her teach me what she knew. Mainly it involved in how to read recipes. Learning the difference between a TSP and Tbsp and those types of things. While I would not say I have a talent for cooking, I did have a penchant for it. That lead me to cooking almost every day and discovering that a lot of getting good at cooking is practicing cooking techniques.

Fast forward to today and I've been a hobbyist cook for 17 years. I can confidently open any cookbook to any page and at least competently make that recipe, if not put restaurant quality meal on the table.

Am I as good as professional cook or chef? Oh hell no. I'm a home cook... A great home cook, but still a home cook. I'd probably be lost in a professional kitchen.

My wife and her mother taught me. I love to cook now, but my mother doesn't like to cook and was too tired as a single mother to cook a lot, so when I lived alone I was totally incapable to cook.

I learnt at cooking school, because i was a chef at one stage. That was 2 decades ago, and I've lost most of those skills now.

YouTube

• Food Wishes, Chef John M

• Chef Jean-pierre, god bless the man. He taught me everything I need to know about Onyo

My dad did most of the cooking, it is serviceable food some great some just okay, but he'd have a thing where he introduced me and my sister to cooking by starting with asking us to taste food during cooking and going "do you think it needs any salt? Any pepper?" type questions

This progressed on to "can you make the mash whilst I make the sausages? Can you slice that vegetable whilst I...?" - easy tasks that are out of the way of the main bulk of the meal

Then on to eventually "wanna try making the Sunday Breakfast today?"

A steady progression of increasing responsibility, in a way that disguises that's what's happening

A really great way to teach, tbh

By cooking.

I had a mom who was able to pass the basics of cooking down as well as home ec. classes. We've done a major disservice to the younger folks by not offering such classes honestly. Learning how to read recipes, basics of cooking, knowing when food is good to eat, etc. is a highly useful skill even now.

Small steps. Some cookbooks talk through the basics. Lock in some staples and built from there. Eggs 3 ways, pasta sauce, simple desserts. I was surprised how simple and impressive a gelatine-based panna cotta is. Once i got some under my belt, i tried something more intricate - Lemon sabayon pine nut tart with honeyed mascarpone cream from the french laundry.

Funny how desserts are formulaic, so follow the recipe. Daily cooking is usually by 'feel'.

Oh and always ask that amazing lady for advice.

I didn't. Though you can figure out the basics with some common sense and trail-and-error. But I really don't care for it.

It started from sloth and gluttony, actually. I remember wanting a cookie, but not having the motivation to go out into the world to buy cookies. So I looked around the kitchen, looked up a couple of recipes, and tried to make some simple sugar cookies with what I had on hand. I didn't have the right kind of flour, and ended up using whole wheat flour, so I had these odd looking brown-ish sugar cookies.

They were so good. I couldn't believe I'd made them. So I started picking up the spices and other ingredients that cookie recipes commonly asked for, and I started making cookies every weekend. Then I started collecting cookbooks. Eventually I changed the way I bought groceries, I don't buy finished food anymore for the most part, I buy ingredients. I have an impressive spice collection built up at this point, some of which was grown by my wife. I have all the cool stuff like cooking sherry and at least three different kinds of vinegar.

And now, a decade after making those first ugly cookies, I can create an amazing meal at the drop of a hat using only the stuff in my house. And then I can make cookies that melt in your mouth and are so tasty they would make a medieval peasant cry.

Tl;dr: Man is too lazy to drive to town, changes his life and eating habits over a decade instead.

Some from my parents, some from school, and some from trying shit :3

Overall the cooking classes I got in school were probably the biggest part of learning it lol

At first my dad showed me how to grill a chicken in our oven and how to make mashed potatoes from powder and open a can of sauerkraut. Our mom was in the hospital for several months and our dad had to work shift so he sometimes wasn't at home and at about 13 it was ut to me to Make lunch for me and My 11 years old sister when we came home from school.

After mastering that I did a lot of trail and error. I still for the love of god can't cook a rabbit, it't always terrible dry and chewie.

But other things like beef, vegetable soup, chicken, barszcz etc. I am now cooking consistently as they should taste.

But the most fun I have cooking with stuff which randomly is in the refrigerator, sometimes it's a miss, but most of the time I have a feeling what will work well together.

I watched a lot of PBS and YouTube videos to better under what I should look for when cooking. After that it's really just get in there and try it. Flavor is subjective so that videos kind of stop being helpful at some point. ATK and Babish do a pretty good job of explaining what is happening and what to look for to know that something is done cooking.

Trial and error. You need to know what you did wrong to do it right to get better and better. Salt and pepper is your friend. Recipes are nice (not your ad driven life story) but get 2 or 3 of the same dish and see how they differ. There’s so many ways to do one thing, and they all may be right but for YOU, you need to find what’s CORRECT for YOU. Also grab some music or blast the TV, this is your time, to take your time, to time the food right, because this will feel right in the end. Enjoy.

Start by watching YouTube videos about cooking - specifically single skills like how to chop with a Chef's knife, how to get a good sear on cast iron, how to sauté, fry, etc.

Then try some recipes that incorporate these skills.

Then once you can follow recipes alright then move on to experimenting and tweaking recipes. Try your spices. Identify what goes together. You'll get the hang of balancing acid, heat, sweet, salty, etc. You'll fail sometimes but you'll learn.

Eventually start making your own combinations and you won't need recipes (which doesn't mean you'll never use them).

My mom taught me to cook from a pretty young age. Not that it's exactly cooking, but the first thing she taught me to make myself was just a bologna and cheese sandwich, which obviously left an impression on me lol.

Opened cookie book. Followed directions. Suddenly had delicious cookies. Realized that I could do this with other things.

Growing up, there was a calendar in the Kitchen that was called The Shit Day. My three siblings and I and my mom would each get a shit day, where we had to do all the cooking and cleaning.

So I learned to cook by doing it.

adam ragusea's videos have taught me so much about cooking. he's very much an advocate for cooking by feel, he teaches a lot of the food science behind his recipes, and his recipes are very easy to follow.

Something my mom said, I am slightly paraphrasing: Cooking is simple, you just put things on heat source, don't let it burn i.e. add ingredients in the 'right' order, control the heat, stir and stir; balance the salt and pepper. Voila.

The updated version is: heat the pan, add little oil or butter, lightly fry chopped onions, add stuff to it, stir to prevent burning, sprinkle salt and pepper, Voila. When you're ready to start being fancy, experiment with spice mix, later you don't have to rely on spice mixes.

People suggest cook book as a start, however be careful that complicated receipts are tedious and might remove the joy of cooking.

Most actually good receipts are also simple - keep that in mind.

My two cents will be to find simple stuff and start from it. You will discover that most cooking consists of

1. "Fry onions / other vegetables" Add meat.
2. On the side boil some granes or potate, mix in. 2.5. Or smash everything together into the oven and wait.

It is possible to have a nice home cooked meal without the major struggle if you learn simple receipts. And then you can start buying food based on your knowledge of cooking - keep the stash of universal cooking supplies is as important as the cooking itself.

I use Youtube. I also learn from my grandma. She knows how to cook many dishes and I'm very impressed by her.

I was more or less forced to contribute at home. It was not just cooking, but the whole process of dinner. It started with me having to set the table, clear the table, do the dishes and when we got a dishwasher, load it. Then I also had to peel potatoes, cut vegetables. The older I got, the more responsibilities I got. At some point I had a dedicated day in the week where nobody would be able to cook for me and others would eat later than I would. These days were initially just me and my dad, so my dad showed me literally once how he made pasta bolognese. The next week, it was my turn. I was given feedback on my cooking and the next week I could try again. I kinda liked doing it so in due time, I also had to cook on another weekday. My mom would show me how she handled certain things and after a while, but the time I was 16, I could make a couple of dishes and did so at least twice a week. My sister was gearing up to be a professional athlete (sadly she never made it that far) so she rarely cooked but once she stopped her sport, she would also cook twice a week.

This is less the story of how I learned to cook and more the story of how my parents trained their servants to cook for them.

I started as a kid with simple things. Cooking and frying eggs, pimping an instant soup, etc.

Then they had a real chef in a weekday afternoon TV show. I started emulating his job, learned about using the "claw" to cut vegetables, how to make soups and sauces from scratch, and what spices to use.

When I was a teenager, I was visiting relatives, and a bunch of farmers wives were peeling and cutting onions en masse. They invited me to join, more for the fun of having a young man on the table. This was a time and culture where a male had no place in the kitchen, so imagine their surprise when I got a different knife out of the kitchen, sharpened it, and started cutting up onions way faster than they did...

Twenty years ago I bought an Italian cookbook called The Silver Spoon and followed the instructions. Some time later I bought the book 1080 Recipes by Simone Ortega, of Spanish recipes. These two covered almost all my needs and taught me everything I know, that is not much but is enough to enjoy my meals and not be scared to try new recipes.

I got off the ground by taking cooking classes in grade school as one of my electives in both junior high and high school. My parents weren't great at teaching much of anything. I have no passion for it but I figured I should know, and I like to cook for people I love even when I won't bother to if it's just myself.

My biggest weakness is knowing what spice to use, so I have actual cheat sheets I printed out and pinned above my stove lmao.

It is an ongoing process.

Learned the basics from parents, friends, and others when young. Nothing fancy, just how to cut things and apply heat when needed.

As a young adult learned more from the internet, expanded what I could make a bit. Kept it simple because undiagnosed ADHD made complicated cooking tedious. Baking was fine because it is a regimented process with exact measurements and steps!

As an adult learned from my wife, Good Eats, Youtube, and more. Learned how to cut properly, what 'high, medium, and low' on the stove actually means. Learned how to adjust cooking for different pans and stoves and whatnot.

Still not great with remembering which spice adds what flavor and frequently still guess wrong on temps and whatnot because I don't cook often enough for it to stick, but still improving. Next month I will most likely be cooking almost daily and the increased frequency will be great practice that greatly improves my skills as well.

My mom was a chef, and she taught me some absolute basics like how to hold a knife and a couple of recipes. She also told me that when learning, if I mess up it’s okay, but try to eat everything you make to learn to taste what went wrong.

I got really good after I started watching “Good Eats”, though.

I watched a lot of cooking shows on TV as a kid, just because I liked them. (DIY shows too, BTW, which is why I'm also comfortable doing my own home maintenance.)

I like cooking competitions, more so the high end ones than the average cooks ones because I aspire to cook dishes that are amazing. Still working my way up there, but shows like Culinary Class Wars have been great for inspiration.

Also helps that I'm in a financial position where I can afford to grab new kitchen toys, whether it's wider bowls, nice knives, or gadgets to accomplish specific tasks.

I suggest reading up about specific techniques, because a lot of it has nuance that isn't obvious. Like for example, for a long time I thought I was frying things when I was actually steaming them because just hearing a sizzle doesn't mean you're frying (and I still haven't fried anything but I do sautee things now).

Other then that, think of something you want to make, then look up a recipe for it and try to make it. Cooking allows for a ton of variation. Hell, even baking allows for it, though the differences you try out can have a larger than expected effect on the final result. But seriously, experiment and be creative, your failures will help as much as your successes. Other than fires, allergies, and freak accidents, the worst result you'll generally see is needing to throw out some food. But even that is rare from my experience. Most often I either pivot into something else or say "this would have turned out better if X" as I serve it anyways.

Learn how to balance flavours and while it won't make everything you make amazing, it will bring up your baseline to "not bad". Also there is a very fine line between "tastes absolutely amazing" and "tastes boring/gross" and knowing how to balance flavours will help you get to that "amazing" state consistently when your food has the potential to be there.

Also knife safety is important. It won't make you an amazing cook (though knife skills can really help), but following knife safety could have a huge impact on your life, especially if you get some good knives. They say sharp knives are safer than dull knives, but I'd add a caveat: as long as you are using them safely in the first place. A dull knife can make you use enough force that it ends up going through your finger when it gets free from whatever it was stuck on, but a sharp knife will go right through your finger without any force if you're cutting in a way that aims it at your finger. And as an added bonus, the technique that I use also makes my cutting better because my finger deliberately acts as a guide, which helps with consistency.

Other than that, play around and have fun! And take notes, it sucks so much to make something that is amazing but then realize you don't remember how you did it the next time. Something as small as forgetting a teaspoon of mustard can have a huge impact on the final result.

For me, it was about gear. I impulse bought a grill that can detect the width of meat, and can pretty reliably grill whatever I put there, assuming I choose the correct program. That made me buy a lot more steaks, since they were super easy to prepare.

Another one was getting an instant pot, and just randomly choosing recipes on the internet, mostly focusing on one-pot recipes. It's so much easier when you don't have to deal with standing there and guarding the stove, which I always found super boring and that was keeping me from cooking.

By not having exactly the correct ingredients, I've eventually discovered that most of cooking is just "stock, veggies, meat and seassoning", maybe cream, and i can just do whatever (within reason, but you can usually guess what works together) and it probably works and tastes good.

On disadvantage my mostly random approach has is that I can make an amazingly good meal, but have no idea how I actually did that, only to never be able to make the same food again. I have a memory of a goldfish on ketamine and hate planning stuff, so my cooking is mostly random. Most of the time it tastes good, but I was never able to exactly repeat the same process twice, hah.

The basics at home as a kid

But once I started watching cooking YouTube, my cooking improved massively

I didnt yet. When I left home i was too poor together any real ingredients, and lived off whatever the supermarket was selling for "about to throw it away" prices. Usually cakes and bread, remade sandwiches and whatever. Now that I'm in a real family again the other members are all super picky and only eat about 5 meals, so theres no room for trial/error to learn, and most staple ingredients are blacklisted anyway.

My parents are both culinary explorers and taught me several dishes. Mum learned from her mother and from recipe books. Dad is masc (guitarist, surfs, lifts weights), also had a cooking mum, and intuitive cooking just adds to his rizz. I’m a blend of them, although I pick up more from YouTube nowadays. I hope Nebula eventually gets more cooking content.

If you’re feeling cornered by masculinity, look to celebrity role models like Bourdain and Ramsay. There’s good (free) content from them that can be inspiring.

My mom was a drunk and would be unreliable for food and the stuff she made was often bad so if I wanted to eat I needed to figure something out. My first real cooking experience was trying to impress her with a nice meal and it worked. The monster liked me, and food was a great answer for making a bad situation better.

After that it has been... Whatever works. I talk to people about their tricks and try cuisine I might not otherwise like cause it is good to know. Get cookbooks and watch cooking shows sure but also exploring the concepts behind how and why. I chose to learn basics. Why something turns out the way it does from the way you cook it (poached, baked, broiled, fried) and then add to it and adjust.

Humans are great puzzle solvers and cooking is a personal puzzle for what tastes good and what you have to work with. Get the basics down and then be ok with mistakes.

I just cook for myself when I'm hungry.

I maybe sometimes skim through recipes on the internet.

Breaking Bad.

Wait, I mean Baking Bread.

Alton Brown.

I started by "making" frozen dinners, instant noodles and meal kits.

The most complex stuff I'd make is stir frying with some stir fry sauce.

Starting somewhere around 3rd year in college I decided I wanted to get better at cooking so I would look up a recipe for something I liked to eat once a month and try to make it.

Once I graduated I realized I actually like cooking so I took the idea further and decided to make a new dish every week. I would research a dish, find a recipe that I thought looked good and then buy the ingredients the next time I'm at the grocery store. I practiced mise en place (ie. I would measure, wash and cut every ingredient before turning on the heat) and it really helped make every dish accessible.

I did this for 10 years. Turns out if you consistently cook at least once a week for 10 years you make mistakes, learn and get better.

I'm not as good as a chef and my knife skills suck but I like to think I can cook food as good as most restaurants. I also got to explore a large range of dishes and discovered a lot of foods I love and how to make it.

My parents had a restaurant and needed some help for the differents services. So they put us at work (brother, sister and I).

Younger I didn't understand the luck I had to eat restaurant quality meal every day. I was kind of happy to eat a junkfood in a US burger chain.

Now that I grew old, I cook because it's way cheaper and also because it's a moment where I could decompress from an exhausting week. Also when we are cooking I let my son participante, and I explain to him the differents ingredients that we put in the recipe.

My bet that he will also Cook when the time comes.

My father was, shortly, a short order cook. So we learned some from him. Mother was also an adequate home cook despite her thinking she wasn't. So we learned cooking from them.

I learned baking from teaching myself by "following recipes exactly and precisely" which usually worked. Having to follow the rules really helped for baking.

I still don't know why mothers friends didn't understand what preheating the oven meant!!!! Don't throw shit in there while it's preheating at least not cookies!!!

my moms is like that only does expensive takeouts and barely cooks herself, she used to before she got lazy and just goes out shopping all day. i can sorta cook, but not entirely self-sufficient, we do use rice cooker.

Other than the basic cooking lessons we had in school I did a lot of trial and error when I moved from home.

Mum and dad did cook and I sometimes helped in the kitchen but that only gives you confidence to try, you don't actually learn until you fuck up and bite into medium rare chicken.

My mom made a point to teach me and my sister when we were kids. We even had to plan dinners and cook it. I then made a point to take home ec in middle school. But my mom has a collection of cookbooks she is very proud of. She reads cookbooks like people read fiction books.

Home cooking was a staple for my family. My grandparents raised my mom and her brothers on the farm. For a little while I even lived on that farm. But even though we mostly lived in town for most of my life, the fact that most meals were home cooked didn't change.

I did cooking at school, all the way to GCSE, very nearly went to culinary school instead of doing A Levels and Uni. I decided against it as chefs are more likely to work evenings and weekends than your average IT nerd. I do not regret it, IT can be toxic but nowhere near as toxic as a lot of commercial kitchens.

As I got older I realised that I enjoy cooking, and I am a good cook, but I am not a chef and being a chef is a completely different level due to the volume of food and dishes you have to make. Cooking for yourself you make for a handful of people most of the time, usually a single meals worth of dishes, and you will still eat it even if its bad most of the time. A chef might do over a 100 covers from a menu of dishes and they have to be at least good, while working as a team to do so.

At least for GCSE there was a lot of repetition over dishes to get good at them and their basic techniques, and an encouragement to experiment with them. I must have spent six weeks making victoria sandwich cakes for example.

Post school, cooking books and youtube to expand the range of cuisine that I can cook.

Hanging out with my mom in the kitchen as a child. She gave me little things to do as I was able to do them. And then once I was big enough she just set me loose and let me figure it out. I also liked watching food shows as a kid. Did it for a short while after highschool professionally and that really soured it for me for almost a decade.

One day, deciding I needed to be able to cook (like I'm able to mend clothing) and committing to it. A lot of trying and failing. Slowly improving ;)

Most everything I learned, I learned from my mother. Cannot remember when, but at some point I got saddled with being the one who helps my mom cook most every night. No complaints here since it's an essential life skill.

Definitely not from my parents. I had to teach myself in college and have been doing the same til now. Following recipes obviously helps, but also taking classes or watching YouTube is great for the more subtle points as well as making sure you've covered the basics.

From what I remember, in order

Watching my mother cook

Begging my mother to allow me to handle a knife to cut vegetables or stir food. Also she taught me to crack/open eggs near the frying pan so it won't "break"

Getting into a Technology and Livelihood Cooking Class, the thing I remember that I haven't learned outside of that class is learning how to properly hold a knife and sharpen it, the various vegetable cuts and the effects of cuts on flavour, and using a toothpick to hold the shape of rolls

Reading a book called "Salt, Fat, Acid and Heat" as essential components of flavor. Helped me to stop making bland food lol because I used to be conservative with salt and fat and was making food that only tasted good to myself

Watching youtube videos of recipes and how to do stuff. The youtube videos helped me a lot

I worked in a group home in college, and part of the job was cooking. When I started, my cooking level was pretty much spaghetti and sauce from a jar. Fortunately for me, there was a set menu with recipes to follow.

I've learned quite a bit since then, but I'm still very much a "mechanical" cook. I'm good at following recipes, but I won't typically be able to improvise a meal with whatever is on hand. I'll take a look at what we have and start searching for likely-looking recipes.

My parents rarely cook, I mostly learned it from just trying some basic stuff first and than slowly trying new stuff. I highly recommend searching some simple stuff wth ingredients you like and expand on it if you want

I was already vaguely interested, and when I was desperate for a pandemic hobby, it was a fairly natural choice. I can recommend "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" by Samin Nosrat as a good introduction - recipes, but, more importantly, explains a bunch of basic concepts and "whys". Then, if you can stomach youtube (ublock origin or some other adblocker + sponsorblock are basically mandatory), check out e.g. Food Wishes (Chef John, aside from a râthër wéîrd spèàking style, is good at explaining things in an accessible way), Helen Rennie, Frank Proto and others.

Trial and error is a must eventually, but starting off that way is very likely just wasting food, effort and motivation because failing at cooking can be pretty demoralizing.

looks in fridge

Oh,hello stack of tv dinners.

I took adult classes for about 3 years. I could have passed the exams to become a professional cook and pastry chef, but didn't bother as I didn't actually want to enter the industry. I just wanted to learn.

I recommend school books for people who actually want to learn. They're usually a good ressource. Typically better than generic recipe books.

Following a lot of different recipes for the same dish, also Alton Brown

My mom was just an awful cook and my father didn't cook. I learned by starting with recipes off the internet. The more I did it the better I got. I also started making bread with my sister as a way to bond with her when our family was falling apart.

Once you understand to season to taste and have some recipes it's not hard. And you pick up more skills where you see them, and grow familiar with new ingredients as you use them. Simple recipes are simple, and while many of them have depths of complexity the fact is you can't really fuck up american style tacos or baked ziti that bad if you follow the instructions and set timers. And if that's still a problem start with something cheap like rice and beans and accept that it'll be fine and you'll screw up sometimes. The biggest thing is learning what works/doesn't and why.

Oh also I grew up on good eats which taught a lot. I then graduated to seriouseats and use J Kenji Lopez Alt's recipes and guides wherever I can, he explains the why wonderfully

By making mistakes! I have always been experimental with food and it eventually paid off. I can cook very well now, and love to. Lucky you to have a cook!

My mom made food for us, and kept easy to make stuff too, we were well fed, but she was not a good cook, just spaghetti and chili and eggs, wirh an occasional crab/shrimp boil, it was fine but she didn't enjoy cooking.

My dad forced me to cook as a kid, that was stressful. Then when I moved out, I was way too broke to eat out, so I learned more by trial and error/looking things up. Then later, I worked in a kitchen for like 5 years.

I never cooked anything in the past. A good friend/neighbor joked about my eating habits while we went grocery shopping together and that inspired me. One day I set myself a challenge to only eat home cooked meals for 4 weeks. I used an app with simple and very easy to follow recipes (KptnCook from Germany). It was tough but I learned a lot and I realized my potential. Since then I usually cook 3-4 times a week, often more than I need so I have leftovers. I love it!

My mother taught me a couple of my favorite meals before I moved to an apartment, and after that I just followed instructions in recipes. It's remarkable how if you just do the things recipes say to do, and not things they don't, you'll end up with the dish they show you.

I... never learned how to cook properly. Parents did cook all meals at home but only knew how to cook things about as delicious as your average Northern Europe staple, so the only thing I was taught was how to cook rice... but I do not like rice 💀

Out of convenience I ended up just throwing everything in a pot and make sure they are well-cooked, do meal-prep, and eat the same food over and over again; personally don't mind so it works for me. If it is not enough taste, just throw in some olive oil and spice, if not good enough more spice, if still not good enough add MORE spice, usually works out quite well & is quite healthy

I wanted japanese dishes, so I was promoted to "Japanese home chef".
Othee than that: I wanted to keep up with potential peers and not be reliant on Hotel Mom™ to provide me food.
And thus began my quest into collecting and documenting recipies :)

I got sick and had to go on a restricted diet that was salt free AND potassium free. I had to learn to cook because everything has salt and/or potassium. Found out I love to cook and bake!

From the directions on the back of boxes along with trial and error.

My parents got me started on basic stuff like scrambling eggs, boiling pasta, and following basic recipes, but everything past that was basically self taught. Both my parents can cook just fine, but as time went on they did it less and less often, so by the time I was in highschool I made most of my own meals, not usually anything too fancy but I never relied on the microwave at least.

I've been using YouTube as a resource more and more the last few years. Helps a lot to figure out the stuff that my parents didn't teach or that I couldn't easily trial and error. Firstly, it's nice seeing someone else do it and secondly as blogger-type recipes grow more and more long-winded it's honestly not much of a time difference

Started off as a kid wanting to eat simple things like eggs without having to be dependent on someone else making them.

Get this book. "The Joy Of Cooking" It breaks down every step of the process clearly and simply. Plenty of great recipes to choose from.

Im old enough for pre you tube. No one taught me to cook. I stopped eating meat and dairy pre 18 years old and either had to learn myself or eat crap stuff.

I started with a few cook books and simple stuff. Made the same thing over and over again and refine it, like a stir fry. What I learned then translates to the next thing.

I try to learn a few "new" dishes or techniques every year and its built up over 20+ years.....