Who taught you to cook?

[thesunflowergal]

My kids are always in the kitchen with me watching, tasting, helping and the elder two love it. The eldest who is 6 in January, corrected my Mother on her cake making method. I am hoping that they will all learn cooking skills for life.
My Mother did not teach me much in that way, but I have learnt a lot from hubby and a bit from books abnd the internet.

So what about you??

Nikki

[Green Aura]

I don't really remember being taught but I suppose it was watching and talking to my parents as they cooked. By the time I was 12 I could cook a full sunday lunch (including yorkshire pudding) while they went to the pub

But I don't think I really learned to cook well until I left home and had to fend for myself.

[fifi folle]

From both my parents (unusual in the 80s to have a Dad who cooked!) and my paternal Grandmother who taught me about baking and pastry and such like. Also was v fortunate with the first secondary school I went to which had a great Home Ec dept that included things like profiteroles in second year cooking. Have taught hubby a lot, building on the basics he already knew. Also some friends from uni have now thanked me for teaching them how to make things like bechamel sauce!!
Still learning more techniques and skills through books and internet, especially jam, chutney and preserving stuff.
I guess I love food and come from a family who love food!!!
Including Mum's parents (who I never met) who were a baker and fishmonger respectively.

[jampot]

me and my brothers and sister all learned by watching and helping my mum to cook. when i was little she taught me the basics and ive taught myself more as ive gone along with only a few minor inedible blips .. having a pair of gluttonous brothers and a dad who will eat anything helped (i mean anything he was taught not to waste food as a child thru fear of a good beating !) we all learned cooking from scratch but my sisters useless "home ec" teacher has taught them that to make pasta sauce you open a jar !!! (my nona would be spinning in her grave) . the best thing about going home now is that my little bro always wants to make cakes, he learned the recipe very fast!

[Millymollymandy]

My mum taught me the basics which was how to make a white sauce and how to brown meat & onions, add flour to thicken a sauce base etc which was the base for any stew/spag bol etc. Also how to cook a roast.

Cakes and puds I think I sort of taught myself as my mum was never into that kind of cooking - I think school 'may' have helped but mostly what I remember of cooking lessons at school was that I was a complete disaster zone and the teacher hated me, and I was so slow I used to go in break time and get started ahead of everyone else or else I couldn't keep up.

I haven't changed, I still need all day to do one thing and use every pan in the house. Sometimes I like cooking but sometimes I truly hate it.

[fran]

My mum and my two grandmothers. As Mum and Dad were hard up and Grandad had a greengrocers, Mum was cooking lots of vegetarian food way before it became fashionable. Mum also taught me how to make the most of cheap cuts of meat etc. The two Nan's taught me about pastry making and cakes. One Grandmother used to cook all the Xmas puddings for the family and the other the Xmas cakes. I really really miss those, as their recipes have sadly gone with them.

[123sologne]

I got the basic from my mum like many others. But mum's cooking was very restricted as she knew a few dishes which she did to perfection and that was it. She had lots of cookery books, but they were never opened, so I started looking at them and tried my hands at things when I was a young teen. I started with cakes, making one every Sunday for many years, and then I moved to doing the full Sunday lunch and so on... I just love food, so I fell in love with cooking. I think it was meant to be. And cooking is a great way to relax for me, to forget the world and all the stuff that gets on my nerves... Cooking is my therapy.

[Milims]

I guess from my Mum and my sis - who trained as a cookery teacher - but I don't remember being directly taught - or even particularly interested. I do remember getting a slap accross the back of the head from my sis for "analysing" what was happening to the fudge I was cooking - but actually I was learning an important skill by observing the changes that were going on - and my sis is a stroppy moo! I'd say that I'd mostly learned how to cook from trial and error, observation, analysis and research. And I'm a better cook tha my sis!

[Stonehead]

Many people.

I picked up budget cooking from my mother. Her mother had a coal-fired Victorian range and taught me to cook on solid fuel, including the lightest of cakes baked in a coal-fired oven. My father and his father taught me to cook on an open fire. Home economics, Scouts and the Navy taught me to cook for large numbers. One of my French teachers taught me about gourmet cooking. (He had the interesting notion that if we cooked in French, then we would learn French.) An Italian friend taught me to cook like a peasant—his words, not mine. A Russian friend taught me how to cook with rye flour, beets and sour cream. Curries came from Gurkha, Malay and Thai friends. American friends taught me how not to cook with sugar! (But on the plus side, they did show me how to make a good chilli.) A Chinese friend got me into noodles. And, of course, I have a plethora of cookbooks ranging from the present day back to the 1500s.

So, whatever I'm cooking and wherever I'm cooking I'm always reminded of friends and family.

Normal grumpy service will be resumed shortly.

[ajs88]

My dad is a very good cook and has a style which I call 'mark-down cooking', he never followed recipes, virtually only bought mark-downs and always used up leftovers and whats in the fridge. However this style is very differcult to learn at first so I started teaching myself recipes for special family dinners and then when I left home begun to learn the same skills that my dad used.

[Green Aura]

Cooking is my therapy.

I think we're a match made in heaven - eating's mine

[cafe_tom]

My Mum pretty much taught me the basics, and recipes of food I liked to eat. In fact I've always liked food.
My Dad taught me chili, and I love chili.
After dad died and Mum left home I was just looking after myself as a 19 year old, so meals were varied and went from breakfasts cooked completely in the deep fat frier, to 3 course meals. All depending on time and who was there to eat it. I get little joy from cooking for myself. I far prefer having people to cook for.

[Susiwaa]

I learned some from my mum but I guess I just picked it up!

Always liked making new things, sometimes use a recipe book and sometimes just try and see.

I've let my daughter help since she was really young, and she has been able to make a meal herself since she was about 12 (makes a mean chiken korma!) Now she can do all sorts of stuff from adding water to a pot noodle (lol!) to creating a weekend menu for my Guide unit when we're off on camp!


Susi

[Andy Hamilton]

Interesting question. I'm not really sure, I think partly my mum as I remember joining in whenever she was baking. After that though myself really through trial and error. When I first moved out it was Fry bentos pies, pasta n sauce and waffles as the only thing I could cook on my own was pancakes. Then I learnt how to cook pasta with a bought sauce (well difficult) and now, well there is nothing I won't have a go at cooking. I think myself and Emma (GF) have taught each other over the years.

[bonniethomas06]

Not my parents! I love my mum dearly, but I grew up on a diet of Vianetta, Findus Crispy Pancakes and Bernard Matthews!

I was always interested though - I remember reading 'The Love of Cooking' just for fun at night, even when I was about seven. The rest is down to HFW and the BBC website.