When did you discover your love for cooking

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Mimizkitchen

Head Chef
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My dad was the team dentist for the New York Rangers and they used to frequent our home for dinner... I remember helping my Mom with a dinner and she said I should make dessert... Never having made dessert before, I decided on a chocolate souffle (yes Uncle Bob chocolate) it turned out wonderful and i've had the bug ever since...

How about everyone else?? I think this is a great way to get to know eachother..
;):);):)
 
We had a thread similar to this quite awhile back, but I think it is a fun one to redo, specially with all the new people like yourself! Thanks for starting it.


I actually started "cooking" at the age of 8. I think my Mom got tired of me sitting on the kitchen stool and asking tons of questions while she cooked and baked so she had me help. I began with Kraft Dinner, cheese pastry - my own invention to use up the left over pastry when Mom made pies. I would roll it out and put slices of cheese on it, wrap the pastry around the cheese, add some slits and it would go in the oven with the pies. It became a family tradition. I also started at that time making Christmas dessert - it started with Jello concoctions and by early my teens I would do very fancy cheesecakes, tortes, etc. with chocolate holly leaves, etc. I almost flunked the required grade 8 home-ec because I wanted to do things MY way, not the way of the teacher. I couldn't get away with that in culinary school though...which came much later in my life!
 
I used to watch my mom bake. Mostly to lick the bowl but a bunch of it still soaked in. My mom was not a cook and besides dinner (which was the same 10 entres rotated over and over) she did not prepare any other stuff. So we were on our own for breakfast, lunch and snacks. However, my cooking bug did not hatch until I met my wife. She lived a sheltered culinary life and there were many things that I knew she would like if they were cooked right. Porkchops! Can you imagine turning your nose up at porkchops!? "they are dry and leathery, I won't eat them" So I made her porkchops. She was astounded. After that success (and the reward afterward) everything just snowballed from there.
 
Porkchops! Can you imagine turning your nose up at porkchops!? "they are dry and leathery, I won't eat them" So I made her porkchops. She was astounded.

I complete relate to your wife. Growing up my Mother would have to force me to eat "just five bites" of this fried dried tasteless meat. This went on for years until the invention of Shake'n Bake!!!!! Then you couldn't get me to stop eating them. I don't touch the stuff anymore, but try to fit chops into my menu plans at least a couple times a month in different forms.
 
Dad was a chef for a company that operated cafeterias in factories and office buildings. He spent his days driving from one to another and doing whatever he did to ensure meals were properly prepared.

At night he would work on compiling a recipe book. After dinner he would tell me to get the typewriter (children ask your grandparents about typewriters). I'd roll in a sheet of paper that fit into his black three ring binder and he'd start dictating a recipe. For whatever reason, I remember the Mulligatawny soup the best. Probably because it sounded funny at the time.

I also watched Mom cook. If I wanted a dessert, she'd tell me to make a cake mix. That's how I started.

I didn't do any 'real' cooking until I was married. I cooked very little then because my EX didn't want me in the kitchen. After the divorce (for other, non-food related reasons) I had to cook if I wanted to eat. Thank goodness for TV cooking shows.
 
I started at about 13 so mom could come home from work and relax a bit. My father of course decided what we would eat and how it should be cooked. So I didn't spread my wings til I got married. I just had to out do my m-i-l and I finally did, I even learned to make ravioli and gravy to rival hers. Lucky I guess. And now I love cooking ,making salads, and Italian foods. I'm not much of a baker but I can do bread and foccacia,cookies and cupcakes.So a kid of 13 now can do a lot more and loves it.
kadesma:)
 
novice cook

I'm a latecomer to cooking. A few years ago, I decided that I needed to lose weight. I bought some books on nutrition and made a major change in what I ate.

I used to eat those frozen meals found in the supermarket freezer for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I stopped cold turkey and taught myself to cook using some very basic cookbooks. I also picked up cooking tips by watching the Food Network cooking shows.

Well, I discovered that I really enjoy cooking.

I slowly lost weight from 195 pounds down to my maintained weight of 165 pounds. :chef:

I wish that I had started cooking as soon as I retired nearly thirteen years ago. Oh well, who says that an old dog can't learn new tricks?
 
Just like LPBeier, I started young at about that same age, but it wasn't until during my first marriage that I began watching cooking shows and began transitioning from cooking being a duty to becoming a pleasure. I guess it had a lot to do with the expanding of my traditional, boring menu, to things we didn't grow up with and only heard about from others who traveled exotic lands.
 
I discovered my love for cooking when I discovered my love for eating...post baby food :in_love:

Me too!:LOL: I was the kid who was at the dinner table eating 2nd and third helpings of everything. I loved the meats, the veggies, the starchy things too. My mom was a great cook, except with steaks. My dad was also a very good cook. I wasn't allowed to touch the stove until about age 8 though. Then my dad let me cook pancakes with him. My mom and stepfather let me cook bacon and eggs. That was the start. When they weren't home one day, I got hungry for fish. I took a can of sardines and dredged them in flour. I fried pan fried them in oil, the way my dad fried brook trout. They were very tasty, but stunk up the house. My mom wasn't impressed. But there was no stopping me from there. I had watched my parents cooking enough that by the time I hit my early teens, I was cooking whatever I had a mid to cook, usually over a campfire at my and my friends tree fort. We cooked rabbit that we had harvested while hunting, fish that we caught, grouse, steaks, biscuits, soups, etc. I didn't really have a learning curve. It just kind of came to me.

Shortly after getting married, my wife got tired of me pestering her to try this and that, and to change this, or add that, and left the kitchen. Then I got serious and learned techniques, and how to combine flavors, and how to deconstruct foods that I enjoyed at other places, so that I could recreate them. I also learned to create my own recipes, and put together things in my head, mentally "tasting" things in my head before actually combining them to create a dish. At one point, I started sniffing each herb and spice I used and memorizing each according to their aromas. This allows me to pair herbs and spices with different foods without having to turn to recipes. I've been doing this for over thirty years now.

I don't have formal training, but have read so much, and learned even more from people I've talked to in person, or on DC. I've also learned what not to do by eating at other people's homes. I've had some truly terrible meals, but the maker of the meal never knew that:ROFLMAO:. I've made a few stinkers myself, on the road to where I am now, and will probably make some more nasty things. I'm continuously experimenting with new techniques, and creating new recipes for myself and my family.

This tendancy has been adopted by my children, who are always calling me to tell me what new recipe or technique they've tried. They also love to make up their own recipes. We don't own many cookbooks, and have rarely used them. I'd rather write them and share what I've learned with others. I have seen things in cookbooks that are just plain wrong, based on old wive's tales, or on how mother used to do it. I prefer to use a scientific methodology in my cooking, that is come up with an ideas, form a hypothesis (educated guess or supposition) test, record the results. That's what I base my cooking on, and it works. I'm first a husband and father, then a child of my Heavenly Father, then a person who loves to learn how and why things work. I am an engineer by trade (B.S. in electrical engineering), and use the same problem solving skills with my cooking that I use on the job. And when my own abilities fail me, prayer gives me the answers I need.

That's me, good and bad. The most important quality I feel a person can possess is humility, the understanding that none of us are born with all of the answers, and have much to learn, know matter what we think we know. The 2nd most importantly quality for me is love of family and others. 3rd. - integrity. 4rth, a sincere desire to seek the best, most uplifting aspects of life, expecially for those we love, and then, to improve ourselves, be it in art, philosophy, engineering, activities, entertainment, etc. The criteria I use to define the "best", does it make me a better man, or uplift me or my family? Does my food bring satisfaction and pleasure to those who eat it? Is it nutritional sound? Does it create joy, or does it create stress? Ask those questions about what you make and you can't help but become brilliant with your cooking, always knowing that there is still more to learn, and room to grow.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North
 
not until my forties, do i feel i really began to cook. i cooked before that of course but for meat potatoes people. now i cook anything i want and have a huge choice that way. have become a from scratch baker when i feel the urge. not if i don't. i love thinking about, planning, buying and preparing many kinds of dishes.

babe
 
While i was in college. First time living away from home, newly married, my wife hated cooking. Both watching cooking shows and the actual cooking itself was a great way to reduce the stress level of being a student. Back then, no food network, just the pbs cooking shows ( Jeff Smith, Yan Can Cook, Julia Child, Jacques Pepin..... I would study and watch these shows at the same time, often writing down the recipes on the sides of my notes or text books ( still there today 20 years later, along with the grocery lists of things id need). Weekends Id go to the Italian market ( philly), stock up on ingredients, and spend all day sunday cooking and studying. When I finally graduated, cooking remained a big part of my life. Im often watching cooking shows ( preferably pbs-like shows, attending food and wine festivals and book signings to see and sample things from the chefs ive known or watched or own their books. And finally, it looks like this year will be the year i finally get my kitchen redone.
 
It is really nice to hear the stories from all of you.. Keep them coming, they are all so interesting... :):):)
 
My sister gave me a cookery book one Christmas. After I tried out some of the receipes, I was amazed that my food started tasting as good as the food in restaurants.

Then, travelling gave me the inspiration to try new and exotic things. When I had a few years of money troubles, and a new baby, I decided to learn how to cook food from around the world, because I no longer had the money or freedom to go around the world sampling it. If I could not be in far off exotic places, at least I could taste them, in my own home. :)
 
2001: I see a guy on TV making asian spicy chicken thighs. I see what he was using and thought "hey , I ahev thoe things here. What the heck". I did them and it came out okay. The family of course thought it was great (liars). I made thighs again a couple of days later but changed up a couple of things. It actually came out very good. I tried a couple of more things afterwards and I was hooked. Till present..
 
I sort of started doing a couple dishes here and there when I was on my own after college.
When I got married, I started to explore food and cooking a bit more. Started to subscribe to food magazines in the '80's. In addition, my job has given me the opportunity to travel to a lot of places with "unusual" cuisines, by American standards. I've always amazed my political or business hosts by eating and relishing just about everything put in front of me.

My interest in food and cooking really started taking off in the '90's, and has become a full-blown passion in the last few years. I've had a few passions in my life, including music (keyboards, guitar), golf, among others, but none currently surpass my love of cooking. My only gripe is that I don't have enough time to indulge in it as much as I would like.

I am fortunate enough to live in a place (Seattle) that has an incredible assortment of sources for world-wide ingredients. And seafood of every imaginable type.
 
I've been slowly learning to love cooking over the past 15 years. The previous 35 years were meat and potatoes cooking ( which is what I grew up with)
I meet my wife while living in Atlanta 15 years ago. She was at the time just my roommate in the apartment I rented and she knew she liked me so she started cooking "something different" for dinner almost every night. I guess it worked:LOL:.
I started grilling all the time after that, but was still mostly meat and potatoes, and my wife still did most of the cooking.
Then I got hooked on "Top Chef" and "Iron Chef" and started to expand my palette.
I should say that I'm a baker by trade and I used to run my own bakery, but now I work in a corporate retail bakery, so creativity is non-existent.
 
When I discover that telling people that their food doesn't taaste as good as my mom's, doesn't seat well with majority, I realised I'll have to start cooking my self. ;)
 
Somehow only half of my post showed up
After starting homebrewing beer about 4 years ago I realized the creating aspect was more than half the fun, and cooking gives me a (almost)daily chance to create somthing new ( tonight I'm tired so it's hot dogs and beans( I said almost)).
I've really became hooked within the past year after eating the 7 course tasting menu at Victoria & Albert's | Walt Disney World Resort

From there it has become a passion, so much so that my wife rarely cooks anymore
 
I was 12 years old and my grandma teach me in summer ... i learned a lot of tricks and she gives me the passion for cooking
 
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