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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask how you learned to cook and

129 replies

ResponsibleMushroomForager · 02/12/2018 08:26

Do you enjoy it or not?
If you have a DP do they cook?
If you have DC are you teaching them to cook?

OP posts:
LoniceraJaponica · 02/12/2018 08:31

At school, watching mum and watching my auntie cook.
Yea
Yes

Being able to cook is a life skill, and one I enjoy.
We eat well in our house. My sister is a fantastic cook as well.

SetPhasersTaeMalkie · 02/12/2018 08:33

My mum taught me to cook from a young age. I do enjoy it but was always a bit miffed she didn't teach my brothers.

I've never had a partner who cooked.

My son can cook but doesn't particularly enjoy it at the moment. Sometimes he has to see to himself if I'm ill or not at home. He's quite capable. I think he will be fine when he moves out.

Roo2012 · 02/12/2018 08:34

I learned to bake with my mum as a child. Also learned lots of basic cooking with her. Honed my cooking more as an adult especially since having children and wanting to cook things for them. Tend to practice with a recipe and then when more confident I'll amend it and do my own thing. DH does a good roast and is adept at assembling things but wouldn't know how to make a bechamel sauce. DC are learning by joining in with stuff I make, and eldest can now follow a simple recipe on her own. She likes baking biscuits almost unsupervised. She's crap at clearing up though!

Youvegotafriendinme · 02/12/2018 08:35

My DM taught us from young ages. I actually love cooking as do my siblings. My Ds is 2 and he helps me with simple tasks like easy food prep, stirring etc as I want him to have that life skill from a young age. My DH can’t cook and was never taught as his family were never taught

bellinisurge · 02/12/2018 08:36

My parents (my dad loved to cook; mum hated it), my school (I only make shepherd's pie the way I learned at school), telly and recipe books.
My dh loves to cook too.

Poodles1980 · 02/12/2018 08:36

Learned to cool at home and my mum sent me on a cookery course one summer when I was about 13. It was brilliant. My dp can’t cook at all but went to boarding school from young so never has the chance to learn at home. I teach my kids. It’s one of the most important life lessons to have

PotteringAlong · 02/12/2018 08:37

I never had a flair or an interest. So at about 26 I asked for a subscription to the good food magazine for Christmas and made a New Years resolution that once a week I’d cook something I’d never cooked before. I stuck to it for 2 years and at that point reckoned I was as good as I needed to be!

recently · 02/12/2018 08:39

A bit from my mum and a bit on my own. I moved out at 18 and needed to eat!

Atalune · 02/12/2018 08:39

My mum showed me and school home economic classses and then I just would try things myself.

I love cooking and so recipie books etc are fun for me.

I’m teaching both my children to cook they are 7 and 10 then can independently now-
Make toast
Make cereal (!)
Scramble eggs
Chop veg
Make a jacket potato
Make a basic ragu/spaghetti sauce
Make Eton mess
Make pancakes

With help they can
Make a lasagne
Bake a cake

EmUntitled · 02/12/2018 08:43

My mum and dad both taught me to cook. My dad used to cook 3 night a week while my mum worked. When I turned 18 I was reponsibly for buying and cooking one meal per week. I do enjoy cooking.

My partner can cook some things now because I taught him. His mum doesnt seem to have passed on much in the way of household skills to her 3 boys. Her husband doesnt cook for himself at all. So I taught DH some basic recipes and now ge can cook most things with a recipe and some things without. He doesn't have a lot of confidence though.

My DD is 18 monthd and we have done some baking together but not a lot. I definitely plan to teach her cooking skills, as well as any other male or female children in future.

Original poster
ResponsibleMushroomForager · 02/12/2018 08:43

Thanks for replies. I'm late middle aged and can't really cook but am hoping it's never too late to learn!

Mum died when I was young and we really just cobbled food together afterwards.

DH is a good cook. I agree it's a life skill - any tips on starting from scratch? I'm not a multi-tasker.

No snippy answers please.

OP posts:
Piggyhoolier · 02/12/2018 08:43

My mums an amazing cook but I didn’t really learn from her as she mainly makes things up as she goes along. When I left home I was rubbish, my actual knowledge has come a lot from trial and error and from books/tv and only really started when weaning my DD and wanting to give her nice homemade food.

Yes I enjoy it now
No my DP is hopeless although weirdly makes amazing Yorkshire puds
And I’m sort of teaching the DC but they’re v young so it’s more just them joining in the same as I did with my mum. They like measuring and pouring and stirring.

Pimmsypimms · 02/12/2018 08:44

My mum didn't really cook that much so I learned when I left home. Thinking back now to when I first started to cook, I had this one book of Classic dishes and It would take me all day to make something simple like a casserole as it seemed so complicated, now though, it's something I'd throw it together without thinking about it in between getting in from work (part time) and picking up the kids from school. I do enjoy it and can't wait to try cooking and baking a few new things at Christmas.
dh doesn't cook as he works full time and he can't really cook tbh, doesn't bother me though.
I don't really teach my dd to cook but I know I should, she likes to bake with me but it's easier for me to cook for everyone than to get her to do it, I guess time constraints are the issue there.

PadawanCat · 02/12/2018 08:45

Still learning really. My mum could make great cakes and bread, but her meal cooking was very basic - meat, veg every bloody day - same two veg everyday - no rice, pasta, no herbs, spices, garlic. Love learning new techniques and recipes.

Caprisunorange · 02/12/2018 08:47

From cook books and the internet. My parents can’t cook (or rather, don’t want to) neither could the grandparent alive in my childhood.

I remember how hard is was before the internet- I remember wanting to make a tomato sauce and phoning various people to ask if they knew how! One friend told me to pour a tin of tomato soup over my pasta

fleshmarketclose · 02/12/2018 08:47

My dgm taught me to cook so that I could take over the cooking when my dm became terminally ill.
I love to cook and I love baking even more.
Exh never cooked in the thirty years I was with him.
Yes I taught the dc to cook, not one of them like cooking though.

nancy75 · 02/12/2018 08:48

When I left home I shared with 2 other people and none of us could cook. We got to the point that is was embarrassing ringing local takeaways as they all knew us.
I bought a Delia Smith cookbook & taught myself how to cook, starting with basic stuff like an omelette!
I love cooking now, it’s something I find really enjoyable & I’m teaching my daughter to cook at the same time

SerenDippitty · 02/12/2018 08:48

Parents/school
Yes DH can cook
No DCs

OliviaStabler · 02/12/2018 08:50

I was taught by my Mum. I did Home Economics at school but it didn't teach me anything I didn't already know from Mum.

If I had dc I would teach them how to cook. Imo it is a required life skill.

Chocolateheaven123 · 02/12/2018 08:50

I actually can't remember cooking with my mum! I had a few lessons in school.

I taught myself a lot as an adult from cookery books, online recipes etc. I will ring mum now to ask her certain things, like when I made gravy for the first time last year at the grand old age of 31!

My son is nearly 2. We do the occasional baking and as gets older, I'm intending to teach him to cook and his younger sibling who's due next year. I want both of my children to give to university/move out with a basic understanding of cooking even basic, easy meals. Not only that but how to budget and cook cheap meals/cheaper cuts of meat/etc if times are a bit tougher.

ILiveInSalemsLot · 02/12/2018 08:50

I learned to cook from my mum and baked as a teen.
I don’t actually enjoy cooking but want decent food for me and my family so I do it. I find lots of easy recipes, try new recipes and have music or an audiobook on in the kitchen while I do it.
Dh will cook from tome to time. He’s good at cooking and loves to experiment and try really long winded recipes that I’d never bother with (like a steamed steak pudding all done from scratch)
My dcs are learning to cook. They already bake and dc1 will do omelettes and fried eggs for breakfast.

diwata · 02/12/2018 08:50

I grew up in East Asia, never did any cooking as we had a cook. My DF also cooked really well; DM never did any cooking, she worked FT in academia/the UN.

Moved out of the house and did some basic student type cooking with DH in our flat, still in East Asia. It was easy and cheap to eat out, and quite the norm for MIL and my DF to send over food they or the help had cooked.

When we turned 30, DH and I moved to Australia where obviously we had to cook on our own as it would have been too expensive to eat out all the time as we did in Asia. So we joined a university adult course on basic cooking, and did a couple more on desserts and Moroccan cooking. Found we enjoyed it, and now we're living in the UK we both cook at home.

DS (10yo) isn't so interested in cooking; we've not kept on at him to do it, but he knows how to make an omelette, and will help if we ask him to, e.g. cut mushrooms, strip thyme leaves, measure ingredients and stir them in, help with Kitchenaid.

Alfie190 · 02/12/2018 08:52

Did some cooking at school but mainly just picked it up over the years.

I enjoy cooking as does DH.

Chocolateheaven123 · 02/12/2018 08:52

ETA: I love cooking now and am always interested in new recipes.

HRTpatch · 02/12/2018 08:53

I learned from a book in my 20s. Wasnt remotely interested before