I discovered my love for cooking when I discovered my love for eating...post baby food
Me too!
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
. 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