to beleive that a lot of people in the UK don't actually know how to cook.

[OrmIrian]

They know how to follow recipes. And it isn't the same thing.

I am quite old. I was brought up with a mum who had been through the war and was totally intolerant of waste. So left over meat from Sunday roast was always used up - cold with salad and baked potatoes, or made into cottage pie or a stew. Whatever was left over in the fridge got made into something and if you were a half-decent cook it was delicious. For example last Sundays lamb shoulder leftover were taken off the bone and slow-cooked with some pearl barley, lentils, sweet potatoes and the remains of the red wine gravy. On Tuesday there was half a pack of sausages in the fridge - they were chopped and cooked with some chorizo, garlic, passata, basil, chilli and onions and served with pasta. Dh was about to get a load of mince out of the freezer and cook spag bol - the sausages would have stayed there till they were ready to walk out of the fridge on their own.

When my children cook at school they always seem to learn how to cook specific dishes - not the general techniques that would serve them well for general day-to-day cooking. DD loves cookery programs - when she decides to cook she comes out with a huge list of ingredients that would cost a small fortune because someone on Masterchef did it! They are learning to do it my way, but it's slow progress.

Cooking is being able to make something good out of whatever is available. Not just being able to make something good out of a trolley load of expensive ingredients.

The real trick to being a good cook is to make food that tastes nice.

Thanks to a boarding school my dad won't do gravy/sauce/garlic/spice etc etc. yet my mum makes meat and veg taste bloody fantastic.

Al dente might be good but I've been round to peoples houses where over done veg tasted amazing and others where everything was carefully measured out and made the best ad hoc paella ever.

My food is shit because I can't do any one style. It's a mix of lovely food stuffs thrown together and ignored once I've had a glass of wine.

It can be dreary-a good reason for having things that you can throw together without thought or a recipe book.

Can I also add that growing up (1980's) as a poor rural family all we ever ate was stuff my Dad shot and stuff my Mum grew. So I have had a lifetime of duck/pigeon/rabbit (with shot in) and carrots and potatoes (with holes in ).

A nice fake chicken kiev with no resemblance to life of any sort is my idea of heaven!

Ha! Nothingold! I know exactly what you mean. I used to fantasise about crappy shop-bought cakes when I was little and meat with no fat on it like you got in tins I even flirted with ready meals back in the 80s and 90s when I had more money than sense but since the children came along I reverted to type. Not to mention we have less money (though not noticeably more sense)

I reverted to type

Oh, god, I keep making things that taste nice and are nutritionally spectacular for the cost - but look, universally, like cheap dog food Grandma's wartime cuisine has risen from the dark recesses of my mind, engulfing me in a tidal wave of dried pulses and homemade bone stock.

This week I splurged on identifiable cuts of meat, fresh imported veg of many colours and exotic ingredients (well, some coconut milk and fresh limes.) It's a relief, I can tell you!

With you there LeQueen. The day in, day out 'what's for tea?' is appalling. Then I realised that my 2* Michelin ex was feeding them the same old crap when he has them (which is months apart).
Fri night-Pizza Express
Sat lunch-veg & hummus
Sat dinner-burger at posh local Fulham restaurant.
Sun lunch-muffin at the park cafe
Sun dinner-pasta dish with squooshed out sausages

Now we have a naughty night on pay-day; KFC or McDonalds. Every Thur we have a ready meal as I get home at 5 & we have to be out again by 5.45. & I just don't care.

Neither dh nor I learned to cook at school. dh went to a boys school that didn't do that sort of thing because it was for girls, and I went to a girls school that didn't do anything practical at all (very academic, and very much not into traditional girls stuff).

I was taught by my mother very much in Orms style. She was/is a bit of a food economy freak. She is a very good cook, but quite traditional, mostly English or French style. Dh's family hardly cooked at all, and he ate a lot of ready meals. When we first got together I did all the cooking, but then he taught himself how to cook, entirely from cookery books (I was banned from the kitchen because I kept giving him helpful suggestions telling him what to do)

I think that we are both good cooks, but he has a much better idea about food science. We are both as likley to throw stuff together, mainly because dh (who does the shopping) doesn't do meal planning, and likes to use everything up so sometimes the fridge is very bare and we eat weird combinations. The children get roped into cooking sometimes. dd is much keener, but ds got quite excited about having a cooking elective at school next year - I said he could cook whenever he liked at home, and he was rather less pleased.

To be honest cook every night sort of cooking is pretty dull. Experimenting with new recipes/ingredients is a very different experience IMO.

Oh yes-"what would you like to eat?"

"Don´t know"

So I rustle something up.

"Well, we didn´t want that..."

Wonder if that´s the reason I loathe cooking...

YANBU. I do look at recipes if I am making somethng new, but as a general aid rather than to follow slavishly. For instance, I made a beef, ale and cheese pie this week, and got ideas from at least 3 recipes and then added in my own and it was lovely. The next time I make this I wont use a recipe at all.

My friends are when we cook together, as I tend to just chuck stuff in until it looks right, even when making pastry.

I think many people don't know how to eat, ie don't know what good food is. If there is little demand to eat good food then there is little need to cook it

I have banned the "What's for dinner?"question as it was the thing that was guaranteed to turn me into a seething witch.
Agree that people don't know how to eat...and I guess it is a chicken and egg thing...they don't know how to eat because their parents didn't know how to cook..etc.

"And, I really refuse to see anything intrinsically wrong with that"

Theres isn't. My children will eat MacDonalds tonight. We won't. Can't stand it but they love it

I guess we all concentrate on the things we personally think are important. And I quite enjoy cooking generally. I particularly enjoy the challenge of making a meal of of 'nothing'. Yes it gets dull day to day - sometimes I feel as if I am catering rather than cooking now that there is little time and there are 5 people to feed (often more). But so does making the beds, dusting, ironing. Housework is made up of dull repetetive thankless tasks - I just happen to find cooking one of the least boring.

I like the chefs/cooks who emphasise making things easy and realistic for everyday cooking. I've found now I know what I'm doing more, I cook with fewer, better, ingredients and keep it simple. Years ago I would spend loads of money, try something with 20 different steps and get in a flap. It's experience though and confidence.

I started cooking regularly at 12 or 13 because food at home was very plain, and at my friends' houses and the odd time I was taken to restaurants I discovered the wonders of pasta, pizza, garlic bread, houmous, meze, pitta bread, home made cakes instead of Mr Kipling and later Chinese and Indian food. Later when I was at uni in France I discovered that beef didn't have to be cooked until all the juices had disappeared - in fact, it was often better barely cooked at all. Also vegetables were much nicer if they weren't stewed and watery.

I am completely self taught and have learned a lot from TV cooks and chefs and I think things are getting better- cookery has become a bit of a lost skill for a lot of people though certainly. But in the last ten years in this country we've started to reconnect with where food comes from and buy more local, organic and free range produce. Also to realise that a lot of our regional traditional dishes are actually quite good and there has been a bit of a revival. I decided I liked cooking so much I now work for myself teaching children to cook.

Yet - please take some comfort from this - my kids still at times moan about what I cook and cooking can be just a huge chore! And we do go to McDonalds, and eat convenience food. One of my favourite cheats is frozen mash for Shepherd's Pie or Fish Pie. Generally my aim is to be relaxed about cooking and eating so they don't get food/diet hang ups. My husband is always worrying more about them eating healthily but I think if they aren't overweight, they are generally healthy, their teeth aren't falling out and they are able to sleep at night and concentrate at school then there really isn't much to worry about.

Also I'm still learning- especially about baking. As the OP said for years I was good at following a recipe or doing a few dishes without a recipe but eventually I have learned more about technique and process through much trial and error!

My cakes still often don't quite turn out as intended but they always taste nice.

If our family ate convenience meals we'd all be thinner - that's for sure. I saw a man buying a 'family' chicken pie the other day. I can only assume the family it was meant for was 3 people or less

perhaps that would be a good diet idea - the Ready Meals diet....

We only get all together round the table at weekends. Same as when I was growing up. I think eating well is important, and knowing about cooking and food can help you to eat healthily.

I think you're right there Orm. the odd time I've bought a chicken pie it's turned into a game of 'find the chicken' - I buy two to feed the five of us (DCs aged 11-17), and rarely find enough protein to provide two decent portions, let alone five.
I do find thinking up meals and shopping for them tiresome, but resent paying money to end up with cardboard pastry and wallpaper paste filling.
Mind you, my version of home catering is hardly thrifty - I use free-range meat as much as poss, and we try and have fish at least once a week, which always costs a heap when you're feeding five gannets.

Ditto re free-range meat and fish - but that is the reason my cooking also contains a lot of vegetable and pulses.

I'm not sure.

But I have noticed that none of the dc's friends want to eat what we eat

Just reading the OP makes me want to shout "stealth boast!" :o

Your food sounds lovely, you smug smugger :)