|
||||||||
Who taught you to cook? |
![]() |
|
|
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
|
|
#1 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 11,932
|
Who taught you to cook?
A friend was quite surprised when she found out that my paternal grandfather taught me to cook when I was a kid. In turn, I was surprised to learn that she learnt to cook at her school and she was self-taught since then. I find this interesting because until I left home, my family were the only ones who taught me to cook while I was growing up.
The first recipe my granddad taught me was Malaysian beef curry (I unfortunately forgot how to make it since then). My all-time favourite was taught by my great-grandmother: Omurice (an omelette with fried rice and chopped spring onions inside) and home-made tomato ketchup. So easy and cheap that it was pretty much the only thing I survived on during my uni years. ![]() The first recipe my friend learnt at school was cheese scones. Her all-time favourite recipe is pot-roasted partridges with red cabbage, which she learnt from a Delia Smith programme. She makes fantastic dishes, so I had assumed she was from a family of cooks, but I was wrong. She explained that while she was growing up during the 1970s and 1980s, she and her parents survived on frozen food, instant food (Smash, etc.) and tinned food and once in a while, fish and chips from a local. How about you? Who taught you to cook or bake, and what was the first recipe you learnt? |
|
|
|
|
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
|
|
|
#2 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: NZ♥Sydney-UK-CYBERDAZZLE
Posts: 5,686
|
I only learned some cooking skills in housecraft at school
During the period of being taught at school we learned these things ---in this order coleslaw first then:- Jacket potato topped with cheese A Cod steak cooked in an oven Rhubarb crumble and custard Sausage rolls in freshly made puff pastry Swiss roll filled with some jam plain and cheese scones Beef Stew with potatoes carrrots celery and onions and maybe a cottage pie and scrambled eggs I think that was everything I was taught to make at my secondary school~before I left that school at 14 and a bit Since leaving school I taught myself~the things I make I did use a recipe for the first meal I made for a group of 5 people which was in the Women's weekly recipe book for a Xmas meal when I was 19 Duck with cherries ~I also cooked many cakes in Sydney from the same fabulous Women's weekly Recipe book A heavenly- banana cake- which I loved and made very often plus coffee and walnut cakes and some chocolate cakes apart from the above recipes I do not cook ~using any recipes |
|
|
|
|
|
#3 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Devon
Posts: 352
|
My mum taught me some stuff before I left home and then my boyfriend who I moved in with taught me some more but mostly I taught myself!
My mums an amazing cook so I'm always asking for her help with recipes! |
|
|
|
|
|
#4 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: The Sunny Side Of The Street
Posts: 40,106
|
I taught myself.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#5 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
|
I did Home Ec at school but all I can remember are biscuits and sponge cakes. I can't remember any meals that were taught.
Since then i've taught myself - Even when I was working in a vocational kitchen I knew all the recipies they were teaching/cooking so didn't learn anything on the cooking side. |
|
|
|
|
|
#6 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: By the window
Posts: 14,154
|
My mum.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#7 |
|
Inactive Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 16,816
|
I taught myself. Case of having to as we were on a tight budget when we got married. Didn't do cookery at school and although mum offered, I wasn't interested then.
I love cooking now and most people say they love my home cooking. I used to buy women's mags for healthy and economical recipes and learnt that way. |
|
|
|
|
|
#8 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,725
|
I was rubbish at cooking at school and when I went to uni and for a few years after I used to live on ready meals. It got to a point where I was fed up of eating horrible ready meals and one day I just thought "Cooking can't be that hard", I went out and bought a recipe book and just taught myself. I think the first thing I cooked was some kind of curry. I won't touch ready meals now and cook all our meals from scratch. I really enjoy food so looking back I don't understand why I put up with ready meals for so long!
|
|
|
|
|
|
#9 |
|
Inactive Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 16,816
|
Quote:
I was rubbish at cooking at school and when I went to uni and for a few years after I used to live on ready meals. It got to a point where I was fed up of eating horrible ready meals and one day I just thought "Cooking can't be that hard", I went out and bought a recipe book and just taught myself. I think the first thing I cooked was some kind of curry. I won't touch ready meals now and cook all our meals from scratch. I really enjoy food so looking back I don't understand why I put up with ready meals for so long!
|
|
|
|
|
|
#10 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 38,218
|
I watched my Mum mostly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#11 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: May 2006
Location: UK Garage, GoT, Brasil & steak
Posts: 10,505
|
My mum and dad were both amazing cooks but I didn't really bother to learn anything from them. I am kinda self taught, a lot of what I make are things I have invented. What I did learn from them was to always keep salt, pepper, garlic, lemon, herbs and spices to hand. It amazes me when I go to people's houses and they don't have these things!
My mum did show me how to do the Sri Lankan beef curry a couple of years ago and I wrote notes but quickly lost the notes
|
|
|
|
|
#12 |
|
Inactive Member
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 6,338
|
Myself.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#13 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 3,869
|
My mum was a good cook, and she taught me the basics - making sauces, bolognese, cakes, she wrote down all our favourite recipes for us too so we could learn those.
We didn't learn much at school, we did do Food Tech but there were no actual 'meals' learned, just biscuits, cakes, and a pizza. And then I've taught myself the rest from recipe books and then playing around with what I like. |
|
|
|
|
|
#14 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: woking
Posts: 21,684
|
Initially my grandmother, then I did home ec at school but was more impressed with my Nan's cooking and teaching than anything the school did.
My first recipe would have been rissoles I think, then fish cakes. Moving on to shepherds pie and fish pie and Sunday roast. Then she taught me cakes and bread and biscuits. |
|
|
|
|
|
#15 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 7,610
|
I hate to say it but my late Mum was a rubbish cook - but she was the 10th of eleven children so I presume she never got a chance in those days.
I learned the basics at school/ college and but realised I wanted to be a veggie at about 10 yrs old. ( I'm 55 now). My children have been brought up learning to cook both at home & at school. Being married to my Turkish hubby for nearly 33 yrs we've always had a varied diet with his love of meat/fish & my veggie diet. My daughter's veggie and the two boys are meat lovers - despite having a variety of local fresh fish available it's really only my husband who loves fish as much as meat. The three 'children 32,27,26! |
|
|
|
|
|
#16 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 8,709
|
I used to watch my Mum cook from a really young age, I also did cookery at junior school and then H.E. at senior school. But I taught myself to cook properly mixing what I saw my Mum do, what I learnt at school and from books. I used to bake cakes on my own on a Saturday afternoon when I was 7 and my Mum hated it because I never tidied up after myself and would leave the Kitchen a mess.
I refuse to eat ready meals and haven't had one in years, if I can't be bothered to make an ommlette or throw some mushrooms in a pan and have mushrooms on toast then I can't be that hungry |
|
|
|
|
|
#17 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 10,825
|
I used to watch my mum but wasn't allowed to do anything more exciting than fetch this and fetch that. But the weekly menu was set and repeated so there was little in the way of variety and a lot of frozen stuff.
Apart from what I picked up, I'm self-taught, but with a hefty nod to the TV chefs - they really do give you the confidence to try something new and make things simple. It's surprising what you pick up. |
|
|
|
|
|
#18 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 9,227
|
James Martin on Saturday Kitchen.
My wife did all the cooking and then one Saturday I decided I'd make food that evening and copied a duck breast recipe I'd watched that morning. I cremated it. But... since then I've stayed totally involved and OH is more than happy for me to decide what's on the menu and for me to cook it. I have to stop buying cookery books though - the kitchen book shelf is sagging. Edit: I just remembered that in our college flat 40+ years ago I was the only one who made myself a cooked meal. Once I was married OH did it all. |
|
|
|
|
|
#19 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 6,104
|
Myself, my Mum doesn't cook...
|
|
|
|
|
|
#20 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 6,522
|
Basics from my mother (baking, sauces, stews, roast dinners etc). She was a very good cook as far as traditional British cuisine went, but she was never very adventurous and never cooked with things like pasta or rice.
When I left home my scope was limited not by what I knew how to cook, nor even budget, but by limited facilities! Things that could be cooked on one gas ring predominated. I was one of the many students who owed much to "Cooking in a Bedsit" (was that Katharine Whitehorn?) and Jocasta Innes' "The Pauper's Cookbook". In fact yesterday and today we have eaten the Mediterranean beef casserole from the latter! So it's been a combination of Mum, good recipe books and the likes of Delia on TV. Plus all those tips you pick up along the way from other people, random magazines and websites. |
|
|
|
|
|
#21 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,695
|
I started waitressing in a lovely a la carte restaurant when I was 14 and learned by watching & listening. Ended up being the second cook (as opposed to a trained chef). I'm lucky to have worked with some really good chefs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#22 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
|
Quote:
My mum was a good cook, and she taught me the basics - making sauces, bolognese, cakes, she wrote down all our favourite recipes for us too so we could learn those.
We didn't learn much at school, we did do Food Tech but there were no actual 'meals' learned, just biscuits, cakes, and a pizza. And then I've taught myself the rest from recipe books and then playing around with what I like.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#23 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Herefordshire
Posts: 22,810
|
My mum for some stuff, she taught me how to make cakes and pastry, before i went to college to train to be a pastry chef. But the husband of my mums friend also taught me some stuff as well. i used to go there when I was younger and we used to make ginger nuts and stuff like that, he was more of a biscuit person.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#24 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 17,711
|
Mostly my Mum & my sis. My Dad taught me a thing or too. Obviously did cooking at secondary school too until GCSE's...
I don't have a huge variety things I can actually cook but I recently cooked myself tortellini pasta for the 3rd time & got it all perfect xD Was so chuffed with myself it's ridiculous. |
|
|
|
|
|
#25 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: lala land
Posts: 2,203
|
My parents lived abroad for most of my younger life and so they always had cooks. I then attended boarding school and so when I went to University I had not the slightest idea of even how to boil an egg.
But, in my second year, I moved in with some friends - and they were the ones who taught me the basics. They all had had mothers who were good cooks, luckily for me! When I got married I quickly learnt that spag bol and cottage pie were not going to go far so I bought a Marguerite Patten book (no Delia in my day) and set to work doing two new recipes per week - and very quickly I became good at cooking. Now, I never buy cookery books. I rely on Nigel Slater's old ones and the internet for ingredient led recipes because I eat almost entirely seasonally now. |
|
|
|
![]() |
|
|
All times are GMT. The time now is 17:39.




