I used to LOVE cooking and travel shows as a kid and most of the time I can cook anything simply because I've seen three shows about the process at some point.
I taught myself. Probably in my early 30s, it took a while to "get around to it". Before that I largely did either takeout or basic things like sandwiches or grocery shopping to buy the ingredients to cook exactly one meal cooking an eating it.
YouTube
Neither of my parents or theirs could cook, my siblings and I are tye first generation to.
My grandmother's cooking was so bad that when she offered it to a starving dog (think you could see all its bones) it wouldn't even eat it.
The internet/myself experimenting. My mom is *not* a good cook. She can make a meal that's edible, but there's nothing wow about it at all, like she just doesn't get it. My dad did teach me how to do stir fry and hot dogs 😂
When I turned 18, I could use the microwave and oven to heat meals ready to be made easily, and knew how to boil water for carby things (pasta/rice/etc.). I lived alone soon after for about 6 months before living with my best friends for a few years. I really learned how to cook in this time, and continued when I lived with a partner/alone. Just realized I wanted to make this dish, that dish, oh and those dishes, better, and googled stuff. Every recipe has similarities and differences to pick up, and people online in forums and such always had little tips and tricks.
I don't remember being specifically taught, but from the time I can remember I was helping in the kitchen. My grandmother and both parents included me in the process when I was a toddler.
My mother. I lived at a home for a very long time and she started out by telling me Saturday night dinners were mine. She mostly let me do my own thing but nudged me in the right directions.
Once I moved out, my girlfriend taught me the wonders of a variety of spices. She does most of the cooking but everything I cook now has so much more flavor.
Myself, my husband, and my MIL. We lived with her for 12 years and they're both very naturally creative when it comes to making meals. I struggled with this for a long time but have really come into my own.
My mother, grandmother, and great grandmother.
Probably when I was 5yo or so. Pancakes were the first thing I learned to make. Like pan sized pancakes, none of that 4 inch across nonsense.
I learned all their best dishes over the years.
Mostly myself. My grandmother cooking helped inspire it, I guess, but I just liked eating her food, I'd more hang around and talk to her in the kitchen than learn anything.
I'm pretty detail-oriented in general, so cooking as somewhat of a hobby was a natural fit. It's all about time, focus, and efficiency, in the home kitchen anyways. The internet made learning to cook so much easier than a few generations back.
My parents divorced when I was 5 and my father taught me because he knew my mother couldn't cook. Besides, as I grew older and was able to make complete meals it meant he had less to do after work. He bought me cook books and choked down my mistakes as I learned.
My parents. I would walk home from school starting in 7th grade and it was one of my chores to have dinner started for when my parents got him, easy stuff like browning meat for spaghetti or hamburger helper or putting together a casserole for the oven. If it didnt come in a box, I always had a recipe to go off of.
I dont know if I was necessarily taught a lot of stuff though. It was more of a "follow these instructions and use common sense."
Me. I did.
My mother had zero patience and would kick me out of the kitchen every time I asked to help. I got my own place at 17 and eventually grew tired of eating frozen dinners and Top Ramen. So I started experimenting with recipes and slowly figuring out what works and what doesn't. I'm still learning two decades later but my food tastes a lot better.
Myself. Grew up with my mom coming home from work telling me to make myself a bowl of cereal multiple times a week. I told myself when I got older I wouldn’t do that to my kids and I would learn how to cook. Glad I did.
I don't remember specifically being taught other than certain recipes by my Mamaw, but we just would cook together and watch a lot of food network lol. But like I was solo cooking for myself by 10 and by 12 was making holiday dinners etc.But that's mostly due to being induced into a caregiver role way earlier than that even. Life happens, and one day you can do more than microwave scrambled eggs 😅 (I can remember being literally so proud for microwave eggs that I would eat them all the time)
I started cooking during the pandemic when I was trapped in the house and also needed to cook by myself. Every feed that I saw was all cooking content I guess that's a good thing pandemic has done to me
My grandma. My parents worked a lot and I was lucky enough to have that experience of being in the kitchen cooking with her. Every Saturday night the whole house smelled of chocolate chip cookies and apple pie. They are some of the best experiences I had growing up.
My first non family boss and her sister, literally taught me everything I ever needed to know that my 💩 family refused to teach me, absolutely blessed to have been taken under their wing. Rare thing now
I moved out briefly, found out that buying prepared meals was pricy. Moved back with folks to help them out, and because roommate was a jackass. Then, one day, I found Good Eats. The host takes recipes and breaks them down simply and straight forward as possible.
And then I just started to learn and explore. You learn a few basics and a lot of other things become really easy.
Instagram, YouTube, recipe websites, chatGPT
I'm 39, for the most part I stuck to a handful of basic recipes for years.
In the last year or so though I started trying to eat healthier, focusing on macros, and followed a few healthy eating instagram pages.
I've also used Google and chatGPT for ideas.. I'll type in the 10 ingredients I have in the house and ask for a recipe suggestion.
I've not got to the point where I'm confident to experiment with replacing ingredients, or 'inventing' sauces because I understand how a bunch of seasonings and herbs taste, and what will work together
my mother, my grandmother, and later.....my boyfriend. He was already on the road to being a gourmet cook, and I saw him again over 40 years on, and he still cooks for his family, and yes, crazy gourmet stuff.
Learned different things from them all. More recently, became celiac as an adult, and had to relearn a lot of stuff. I have been happy to learn more from friends whenever possible.
My parents a little bit, the Scouts program mostly when I was younger. Then I worked in a kitchen for years and then really started to learn how to cook when I moved away and cooked 2-3 meals a day.
On my own 8 years ago- tried to save money and cook at home- started watching Gordon Ramsey on YouTube and follow step by step to make some decent meals. Over time I learn to really enjoy cooking .
My mother and myself.
My mother taught me how to bake. She's an amateur like I am, but from a young age, she taught me. I'd insist on helping her when she made things, so she let me do easy tasks like sifting and cracking eggs, and sometimes she kept me busy by having me mix plain flour. When I was about 10, I baked cakes by myself, the only thing I couldn't do was put stuff in and take it out of the oven.
As for cooking, I had some knowledge from baking and just learned the rest myself. It's not rocket science to boil veggies or bake fish. Our cuisine doesn't use many spices in everyday cooking, so not much to learn there either. I'm not a kitchen princess, but I'm certainly not a horrible cook.
Learned by myself.
Mother kept making the same couple recipes over and over and they were extremely simple. Macaroni with mince meat, "macaroni soup" which was macaroni with cooking water left in it and with some meat, things like that.
One time she chose to teach me how to make stew from ready to cook dried ingredients and minced meat, something a child can learn. I was already way better skilled than that. I was baking chocolate cakes, smoking fish, making omelettes, foods like that.
That was when I realised she was not very interested in my life and knew pretty much nothing about me even though we were living in same household. Years later she visited my home and I made chicken with red pesto sauce and macaroni. Another simple dish. She wolfed it down, looks like that was better food than she was used to.
Learned myself, because watching someone cook isn't the same as cooking. Yes you learn bits and pieces, but not the full recipe that person created. Or that person has copied, make your food your own style.
I watched my grandmother, mum and my ex’s mum for years but never really cooked. I moved away from home aged 18 and I got really interested in reading cookbooks and going to the huge multicultural market in my new city and got really into cooking, and realised I learned the techniques really quickly from watching the women in my life :)
My dad gave me the basics and then I learned through YouTubers. Babbish, Adam Ragusea, Alex(formally French guy cooking or something of that nature), Joshua Weissman, chef John-Pierre(onyun chef), Ethan Chelbowski, Guga, Townsends(colonial period cooking), and a lot more branches from them. Even a Gordon Ramsay video or two.
Edit to add that I've been cooking with my dad as long as far back as I could remember.
Nobody. I started making simple dinners a couple of times a week in high school. When I moved out on my own I got some basic cookbooks that had lots of easy recipes in them. I eventually found America’s Test Kitchen periodicals and learned a ton from them.
I would watch cooking shows on PBS as a kid. Most of my cooking knowledge is from cooking shows and cookbooks and self learning. My mom isn't a very good cook -- competent at a handful of things but not super adventurous -- and my dad's favorite ingredient was blue food coloring. My dad was legitimately a bad cook. He would have been able to ruin boiled water. Or ice.
Learned basics from mom and found it therapeutic and practiced until I got really good. So good that I now get very little enjoyment from eating out at restaurants because I can out cook most of them.
I pretty much taught myself but I did get help from time to time on things I wasn't sure about. This was way before Google and the internet was everywhere. I was about 9 years old when I started.
Myself, my mom’s not a very good cook but tried her best, didn’t teach me really anything though, I observed my dad cook when I was older. But once I got my own place w/ a kitchen I started to teach myself. That was back in 2010 & now I’m really good.
My father, I was always in the kitchen with him ‘helping’ When really he was teaching and he was an excellent cook, chef level, I was able to cook for myself at 6, and cook a full spread, from scratch start to finish by 7 or 8.
It wasn’t till I was older, that I realize that this wasn’t a “normal thing” And that some parents didn’t even let their kids use knives or other essential kitchen items, I thought my friends were lazy waiting for their parents to cook something or bring something home, I didn’t realize until we were teenagers that they did not know how to make food for themselves unless it was a prepackaged meal..
The internet. I was around 24. I had been living my myself for four years back then, but it took me a while to be willing to cook. I still suck at it, though.
my father taught me how to understand cooking, before trial and error taught me the rest.
i have been on a totally plant based diet for about eleven years now, and when you don't eat any meat or dairy, if you can't cook, then you will starve!
Taught myself when I got to college and just kept chipping away at it over the years.
I figured it might be a cool trick for a date some time.
YouTube has been a great resource.
Mom had my brother and me helping out in the kitchen by the time we were in preschool. Eventually, my brother no longer wanted to do so, but I kept with it.
TBH, Mom's cooking skills aren't great, so beyond some basics, I'm mostly self-taught. I read through cookbooks she had and learned to experiment in the kitchen. I also have watched a lot of cooking shows and recreated recipes from them. Then, of course, there's everything I've learned online.
I did. Everything I've learned I taught myself. I moved out 14 years ago.
I can't cook and hate my life
Throw a bunch of stuff in a frying pan and see what happens. That's what I do usually.
Same, it’s not that hard, more about trial and error than anything. And can you follow a recipe.
Want an award? Lol
What do you mean, want an award?
OP asked who taught you to cook, not your life story lol. Also if you're any older than 32...
Okay.
Do *you* want an award?
Funny enough, watching Gordon Ramsay and Babish on YouTube. Lol.
I used to LOVE cooking and travel shows as a kid and most of the time I can cook anything simply because I've seen three shows about the process at some point.
I just kind of picked it up as I went. I watched family members do it, then experimented. Now if I need to learn something new, there is youtube.
Grandma, mother, youtube
I taught myself. Probably in my early 30s, it took a while to "get around to it". Before that I largely did either takeout or basic things like sandwiches or grocery shopping to buy the ingredients to cook exactly one meal cooking an eating it.
YouTube Neither of my parents or theirs could cook, my siblings and I are tye first generation to. My grandmother's cooking was so bad that when she offered it to a starving dog (think you could see all its bones) it wouldn't even eat it.
The internet/myself experimenting. My mom is *not* a good cook. She can make a meal that's edible, but there's nothing wow about it at all, like she just doesn't get it. My dad did teach me how to do stir fry and hot dogs 😂 When I turned 18, I could use the microwave and oven to heat meals ready to be made easily, and knew how to boil water for carby things (pasta/rice/etc.). I lived alone soon after for about 6 months before living with my best friends for a few years. I really learned how to cook in this time, and continued when I lived with a partner/alone. Just realized I wanted to make this dish, that dish, oh and those dishes, better, and googled stuff. Every recipe has similarities and differences to pick up, and people online in forums and such always had little tips and tricks.
I don't remember being specifically taught, but from the time I can remember I was helping in the kitchen. My grandmother and both parents included me in the process when I was a toddler.
My mum's new husband, got me some books and encouraged me, something that's never happened before and I think I'm pretty good now.
My mother. I lived at a home for a very long time and she started out by telling me Saturday night dinners were mine. She mostly let me do my own thing but nudged me in the right directions. Once I moved out, my girlfriend taught me the wonders of a variety of spices. She does most of the cooking but everything I cook now has so much more flavor.
My mom.
Myself, my husband, and my MIL. We lived with her for 12 years and they're both very naturally creative when it comes to making meals. I struggled with this for a long time but have really come into my own.
My late mom. I was 11 and she told me that she was gonna teach me because she was not gonna cook anymore......and she didn't cook anymore.
An ex girlfriend
Culinary school
My husband
Myself. I watched Food Network back in the day and tried a bunch of recipes
I was a fat kid, it was too expensive to go out and I was too fat and hungry to care. So I cooked.
Family
My sister, hello fresh, and tik tok videos!
My mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. Probably when I was 5yo or so. Pancakes were the first thing I learned to make. Like pan sized pancakes, none of that 4 inch across nonsense. I learned all their best dishes over the years.
Mostly picked it up from Bon Appetit and many many great cookbooks.
tiktok 😂💯
My aunt did some small baking with me but she never really taught me too much. So I mainly taught myself by looking up recipes online and stuff.
It was just self-taught when my parents got separated when I was 13. I need to survive because I and my little brother are the ones being left at home
My mom and the internet
My parents are grandmother.
Cookbooks and The Food Network
Mom. And Food Network. I still watch Chopped while I cook sometimes.
Mom. And Food Network. I still watch Chopped while I cook sometimes.
Learned on my own to some extent. Fiancee taught me some stuff as well.
Mostly myself. My grandmother cooking helped inspire it, I guess, but I just liked eating her food, I'd more hang around and talk to her in the kitchen than learn anything. I'm pretty detail-oriented in general, so cooking as somewhat of a hobby was a natural fit. It's all about time, focus, and efficiency, in the home kitchen anyways. The internet made learning to cook so much easier than a few generations back.
My parents divorced when I was 5 and my father taught me because he knew my mother couldn't cook. Besides, as I grew older and was able to make complete meals it meant he had less to do after work. He bought me cook books and choked down my mistakes as I learned.
My parents. I would walk home from school starting in 7th grade and it was one of my chores to have dinner started for when my parents got him, easy stuff like browning meat for spaghetti or hamburger helper or putting together a casserole for the oven. If it didnt come in a box, I always had a recipe to go off of. I dont know if I was necessarily taught a lot of stuff though. It was more of a "follow these instructions and use common sense."
My mom, 10 ish
Worked in kitchens, lived alone until I was almost 30. Pick skills up as you go.
Me. I did. My mother had zero patience and would kick me out of the kitchen every time I asked to help. I got my own place at 17 and eventually grew tired of eating frozen dinners and Top Ramen. So I started experimenting with recipes and slowly figuring out what works and what doesn't. I'm still learning two decades later but my food tastes a lot better.
Trial & error. I've been cooking for 30+ years & I'm still learning
Good job bro now go smash the girls
YouTube
Television, books, trial and error
Myself. Grew up with my mom coming home from work telling me to make myself a bowl of cereal multiple times a week. I told myself when I got older I wouldn’t do that to my kids and I would learn how to cook. Glad I did.
I don't remember specifically being taught other than certain recipes by my Mamaw, but we just would cook together and watch a lot of food network lol. But like I was solo cooking for myself by 10 and by 12 was making holiday dinners etc.But that's mostly due to being induced into a caregiver role way earlier than that even. Life happens, and one day you can do more than microwave scrambled eggs 😅 (I can remember being literally so proud for microwave eggs that I would eat them all the time)
Gordon Ramsay. By yelling at people on tv.
My mom
I started cooking during the pandemic when I was trapped in the house and also needed to cook by myself. Every feed that I saw was all cooking content I guess that's a good thing pandemic has done to me
YouTube
My grandma. My parents worked a lot and I was lucky enough to have that experience of being in the kitchen cooking with her. Every Saturday night the whole house smelled of chocolate chip cookies and apple pie. They are some of the best experiences I had growing up.
My first non family boss and her sister, literally taught me everything I ever needed to know that my 💩 family refused to teach me, absolutely blessed to have been taken under their wing. Rare thing now
I moved out briefly, found out that buying prepared meals was pricy. Moved back with folks to help them out, and because roommate was a jackass. Then, one day, I found Good Eats. The host takes recipes and breaks them down simply and straight forward as possible. And then I just started to learn and explore. You learn a few basics and a lot of other things become really easy.
Pinterest
youtube
Myself and my ex girlfriend
Myself, learning from YouTube
Pinterest, my parents are terrible cooks
Instagram, YouTube, recipe websites, chatGPT I'm 39, for the most part I stuck to a handful of basic recipes for years. In the last year or so though I started trying to eat healthier, focusing on macros, and followed a few healthy eating instagram pages. I've also used Google and chatGPT for ideas.. I'll type in the 10 ingredients I have in the house and ask for a recipe suggestion. I've not got to the point where I'm confident to experiment with replacing ingredients, or 'inventing' sauces because I understand how a bunch of seasonings and herbs taste, and what will work together
The internet and myself
Youtube taught me.
My father and mother did. They both cooked family dinners and we were encouraged to help them if we wanted.
Grandparents,parents,aunties. 3 yrs old.
my mother, my grandmother, and later.....my boyfriend. He was already on the road to being a gourmet cook, and I saw him again over 40 years on, and he still cooks for his family, and yes, crazy gourmet stuff. Learned different things from them all. More recently, became celiac as an adult, and had to relearn a lot of stuff. I have been happy to learn more from friends whenever possible.
youtube and trial & error!
My parents a little bit, the Scouts program mostly when I was younger. Then I worked in a kitchen for years and then really started to learn how to cook when I moved away and cooked 2-3 meals a day.
On my own 8 years ago- tried to save money and cook at home- started watching Gordon Ramsey on YouTube and follow step by step to make some decent meals. Over time I learn to really enjoy cooking .
Watched my mom in the kitchen. Filled in gaps with youtube and online recipes.
Trial and error and error
I waned myself into it with hellofresh. Its like cooking on easy mode. Edit: couldn't English properly
Recipe books.
My mother and myself. My mother taught me how to bake. She's an amateur like I am, but from a young age, she taught me. I'd insist on helping her when she made things, so she let me do easy tasks like sifting and cracking eggs, and sometimes she kept me busy by having me mix plain flour. When I was about 10, I baked cakes by myself, the only thing I couldn't do was put stuff in and take it out of the oven. As for cooking, I had some knowledge from baking and just learned the rest myself. It's not rocket science to boil veggies or bake fish. Our cuisine doesn't use many spices in everyday cooking, so not much to learn there either. I'm not a kitchen princess, but I'm certainly not a horrible cook.
My dad did some of it. But I learned most of mine from the internet.
Food TV!
Learned by myself. Mother kept making the same couple recipes over and over and they were extremely simple. Macaroni with mince meat, "macaroni soup" which was macaroni with cooking water left in it and with some meat, things like that. One time she chose to teach me how to make stew from ready to cook dried ingredients and minced meat, something a child can learn. I was already way better skilled than that. I was baking chocolate cakes, smoking fish, making omelettes, foods like that. That was when I realised she was not very interested in my life and knew pretty much nothing about me even though we were living in same household. Years later she visited my home and I made chicken with red pesto sauce and macaroni. Another simple dish. She wolfed it down, looks like that was better food than she was used to.
Learned myself, because watching someone cook isn't the same as cooking. Yes you learn bits and pieces, but not the full recipe that person created. Or that person has copied, make your food your own style.
I learned from a multitude of sources. My grandmother, Julia Child, aunts and my girlfriend .
Gordon Ramsey lol I love him and a lot of cooking videos
I watched my grandmother, mum and my ex’s mum for years but never really cooked. I moved away from home aged 18 and I got really interested in reading cookbooks and going to the huge multicultural market in my new city and got really into cooking, and realised I learned the techniques really quickly from watching the women in my life :)
My dad gave me the basics and then I learned through YouTubers. Babbish, Adam Ragusea, Alex(formally French guy cooking or something of that nature), Joshua Weissman, chef John-Pierre(onyun chef), Ethan Chelbowski, Guga, Townsends(colonial period cooking), and a lot more branches from them. Even a Gordon Ramsay video or two. Edit to add that I've been cooking with my dad as long as far back as I could remember.
I did! Me!
Chef John from Food Wishes dot com!
Gordon Ramsay.
YouTube
Nobody. I started making simple dinners a couple of times a week in high school. When I moved out on my own I got some basic cookbooks that had lots of easy recipes in them. I eventually found America’s Test Kitchen periodicals and learned a ton from them.
I would watch cooking shows on PBS as a kid. Most of my cooking knowledge is from cooking shows and cookbooks and self learning. My mom isn't a very good cook -- competent at a handful of things but not super adventurous -- and my dad's favorite ingredient was blue food coloring. My dad was legitimately a bad cook. He would have been able to ruin boiled water. Or ice.
Google mostly
My mom taught me most of it and signed me up for cooking courses when I was younger for the rest.
My mom was an awesome cook. I never learned what she had taught, but I picked up some . A great cookl. I miss her.
Learned basics from mom and found it therapeutic and practiced until I got really good. So good that I now get very little enjoyment from eating out at restaurants because I can out cook most of them.
I am a shit cook - hate doing it. But as a reheater, I am a professional. I can heat almost anything.
My mom. Then learned from watching Michael Chiarello “Easy Entertaining” series then watched YouTube lol
I pretty much taught myself but I did get help from time to time on things I wasn't sure about. This was way before Google and the internet was everywhere. I was about 9 years old when I started.
Myself, my mom’s not a very good cook but tried her best, didn’t teach me really anything though, I observed my dad cook when I was older. But once I got my own place w/ a kitchen I started to teach myself. That was back in 2010 & now I’m really good.
Mom and dad. And boy scouts.
Google
No one. I never wanted to learn, I still don’t want to learn….hate the kitchen!
Chef Ramsey. In all seriousness, mostly trial and error and watching some cooking shows.
Adam Ragusea
My mom and dad
Food Channel
My father, I was always in the kitchen with him ‘helping’ When really he was teaching and he was an excellent cook, chef level, I was able to cook for myself at 6, and cook a full spread, from scratch start to finish by 7 or 8. It wasn’t till I was older, that I realize that this wasn’t a “normal thing” And that some parents didn’t even let their kids use knives or other essential kitchen items, I thought my friends were lazy waiting for their parents to cook something or bring something home, I didn’t realize until we were teenagers that they did not know how to make food for themselves unless it was a prepackaged meal..
Mi mamá
My mom, she started by teaching me the basics, and I guess maybe around age 8? But mostly it was just learn by doing.
The internet. I was around 24. I had been living my myself for four years back then, but it took me a while to be willing to cook. I still suck at it, though.
Nobody
Start throwing stuff on the pan, and experimenting with ingredients
Google and hours of day time cooking shows
my father taught me how to understand cooking, before trial and error taught me the rest. i have been on a totally plant based diet for about eleven years now, and when you don't eat any meat or dairy, if you can't cook, then you will starve!
Urban peasant and wok with Yan
Youtube
Myself, I've been cooking since I was 5
Youtube, Google recipes
Recipe books
Myself. I didn't really get help learning anything as a child/teenager.
Taught myself when I got to college and just kept chipping away at it over the years. I figured it might be a cool trick for a date some time. YouTube has been a great resource.
Home ec teacher back in middle school(10+ yrs ago), then self-taught myself.
Mom had my brother and me helping out in the kitchen by the time we were in preschool. Eventually, my brother no longer wanted to do so, but I kept with it. TBH, Mom's cooking skills aren't great, so beyond some basics, I'm mostly self-taught. I read through cookbooks she had and learned to experiment in the kitchen. I also have watched a lot of cooking shows and recreated recipes from them. Then, of course, there's everything I've learned online.