So if you are a good cook, how did you learn?

[Kathyis12feethighandbites]

Am just curious nosy really.
Did you teach yourself or couldn't you have learnt without lessons?
Did you absorb it all through watching parents cook or did it take a conscious effort?

We had 'domestic science' lessons when I was at school (back in the dark ages), and I was taught basics, like how to make pastry.

But mostly I learnt from my mum. I used to stand in the kitchen chatting with her when she was cooking dinner, so I picked up loads of stuff from her. I started cooking for myself, experimenting with things, from about 13 onwards, I think.

I love food which helps!

It depends on what you consider a good cook. I can turn my hand to most things and do some baking regularly. I'm no Michelin starred chef though.

I always helped out at home and also did Home Economics in secondary school which had some basic cookery in the first few years.

Mostly it is trial and error. For years I couldn't make soda bread that didn't resemble a door stop but I eventually cracked it.

My older sister had no interest growing up and didn't do Home Ec or help at home with cooking. When she had kids she really made the effort especially with making and can now turn out a Chocolate Mocha cake that I dream about at night

She is better at baking now but I still have the edge at main meals.

I asked my Nana and my Dad how they made the dishes they were best at. Ignored everything my mum told me about cooking and the rest was down to practise and experimenting.

Not an expert cook but will give most things a go. Learned by watching my mum, lots of trial and error and experimenting - I would take receipes and adapt to what I wanted them to be but still keep the main jist of what I was supposed to be making. Simple cook books are best - like ones produced by schools or churches - or recipes on websites like MN - full of simple, family, home cooked meals that have been trialled many times before

Helping my mother who was a good cook. It is more difficult if your parents weren't good cooks as you don't have that opportunity and probably haven't eaten as much decent food!

Helping mum, got really interested, and asked for books and kitchen eqpt for presents from the age of 6 onwards...

I learnt the basics from watching my dad as a child.

The rest I taught/am teaching myself as an adult.

I have a friend who taught herself completely from scratch (from books and asking friends) and it is a lot harder to do that. Her mum died when she was young and she didn't have anyone to show her - she is a good cook though.

Lessons at school taught no one anything. Except how to construct a pizza from premade base/premade sauce and some cheese

Domestic science at school and watching Delia Smith on Tv. I make a good flaky pastry without all that tedious folding thanks to her !

When I was 16 my dad became ill with cancer, one of his ways of alleviating/coping with his illness was to teach me to cook. He had been a cook whilst in the army and he was an excellent teacher.

The only downside was that he often couldn't sleep so would wake me for a cookery lesson really early in the morning, I learned all about choux pastry at 3am one day

I am eternally grateful for all his valuable teaching to this day.

Oh Flower, that's lovely.

I never learnt from my parents (my mother died when I was quite young). I learnt because I had to - just slavishly following recipe books until I had the confidence to go my own way a bit.

I think I learnt all the basics at home with mum. I can remember preparing vegetables, baking cakes, and making pastry at home. I'm fairly certain I made everything in the BeRO book with mum or grandma.

From the first year of secondary school girls all did domestic science every week. Boys never did any cooking. They went off to wood & metal work. We started with things like scones and jam tarts. We also made bread, savoury dishes, pickles and jam . By the end of our 3rd year (YR 9) we were expected to plan and make our own 3 course lunches in groups of 3/4.

I didn't take cookery at O level (or was that a CSE?...really am showing my age now!)

I've always loved cooking. You only need to learn the basics. Everything else can be picked up from books/TV.

I learned loads from my mum, and used to love making cakes adn sweeties when I was little.

I also love cookery books - I have shelves full of them so reading those I'm sure I've picked up things (possibly even things I've never put into practice).

I learnt a lot from my Mum and from working as a waitress from 14-18. We used to do a lot of the food preparation and in the last year I often did the cooking as well so that taught me a lot.

Probably the best though was going to University, not liking the canteen and just getting on with it. I had a great Good Housekeeping article that my Mum tore out for me that had really basic recipes ( a standard tomato sauce for bolognese etc, white sauce for lasagne, roast chicken, a basic guide for soup) and some basic tips like how to cook an onion properly. It was only a few pages long but really useful. I still have it somewhere. It was one of those things designed for students setting off. Other recipe books encouraged me to experiment more.

I'm not sure how good a cook I am, but I do enjoy it and DH seems happy so that's good enough for me.

I learned a lot from my Mum who taught me and my siblings how to do the basics, like scrambled eggs, at a fairly young age as we all enjoyed watching her in the kitchen (she is a very accomplished cook) and the rest from enjoying cooking and experimenting, watching food programmes and just being enthusiastic really. Didn't have any lessons apart from the usual school lessons, although think they must have been pretty good as I used a lot of the recipes from those days even now!
I'm not a fussy cook, and I rarely follow a recipe unless it's one of my own! I have lots of recipe books but just use them as a guide or for ideas or info on how long a certain cut of meat should be cooked etc.

Some good basics from my mum, and some good ones from cookery lessons at school (making a white sauce, I remember specifically...)

Also, I spent 3 years in Italy, which was great because 2 of Italians' greatest loves are cooking and telling you what to do, so asking them how to make stuff makes them v.v. happy....especially the older ladies!

I can make a damn fine pizza now I tell 'ee!

If there's anything specific you want to make, then just googling it is a sure-fire way to bring up loads of recipes...gingerbread and mulled wine, for example, are 2 I remember doing.

But nothing, nothing, teaches you to cook faster than being very poor and very greedy!

learned from mum,dad and grandmother but also happen to have an uncle who is a chef.
So just grew up around cooking and food and showing and swapping ideas and methods.

It obviously has rubbed off on the ds2 who wants to be a chef when he's older.

learned nothing from school lessons other than how not to cook.

Spent 4 years as a chef

Like others mum taught me a bit and also domestic science at school. But something happened a few years ago (roughly 5 years I think) whereby My Dp lost his job due recurring eczema on the palm of his hands and finger tips. he already had eczema anyway but had never had it on his hands before and working in engineering it got to the point that he was off work more than he was there. so we had to go on benefits and after the bills had been paid We literally had £20 for food for a fortnight.
It was so bad that i couldn't afford to feed the family on food from a well known hight street freezer shop. the only way to go was meal planning and making stuff from scratch.
But it worked and I went from a Size 16 down to a size 8 in about 12 months even though I ate well and didn't skip meals. i took inspiration and heart from the era of rationing and thought well if my grandma managed then I can too.
5 years on still a size eight I and the rest of my family (1 dd who's now left home and dp)have more energy and feel a whole lot healthier and I will never go back to previous said shop again

It's easy to be a good cook. Only cook things that you are good at!

Learnt basics of what to do at school and what not to do at home. The rest is down to trial & error and practice, practice, practice.

Cor....well done Hetherine! Did you have to resort to whale meat or powdered eggs?!

Thank you for all these responses. It's very interesting.
It's notable how few people feel they got much from school cookery lessons.... I didn't get much out of them either, even though they were good practical lessons and probably quite well taught.
I love the comment 'But nothing, nothing, teaches you to cook faster than being very poor and very greedy!'
So true. I learnt a lot when I was a student and we couldn't afford to eat out much so used to invite each other round for meals which were as slap-up as they could be on a very limited budget....

I probably got basic confidence from my mother but I have learnt most of what I know from cookery books, specially ones that are really good on technique like the River Cottage Meat Book.

How I would define a good cook.... definitely doesn't have to be professional or Masterchef standards, but I think if you can feed a family or guests, from scratch, making healthy and nice food you can be thought of as a good cook, notwithstanding the occasional disaster or the need to run to a recipe book all the time!

stubbornstains, lol, no, on the egg front fil gave us half a dozen a week.
There was once that I got about 10 servings from 1 tin of corned beef iwas dead proud of that one and still am my parents though it was ingenious lol

Being a glutton and O'level Domestic Science.