I was just wondering where or how others learned how to cook and how it affects the way you cook today. For me, it was NOT my mother. She could ruin something straight from a box. I did not learn a single cooking skill from her.
My first experience really cooking from scratch was right out of university. I moved to Moscow, Russia in the early 90's. NOTHING came in a box in that country!!
What was I to do?? (The first week, I ate nothing but oranges... no cooking skills required!) I had no knife skills (I actually had only one poorly-sharpened paring knife) and I didn't know the first thing about how to build a meal from raw ingredients. A neighbor took me under her wing and taught me the basics of scratch cooking. Interestingly enough, like my in-laws in Turkey, she taught me to do most of their cutting right over the pot you are cooking in. It would be another 5 or 6 years before I had a cutting board and "real" knives. She also taught me the flavor benefits of a well-marbled piece of meat, how to eat a whole fish (that is, filet it as you eat is as opposed to cooking a filet) and how to get every bit of use out of every food purchased. I actually learned a lot more than that, but obviously I can't include everything. But it was a virtual stranger (who became a good neighbor and friend) that set me on this path.
What about you. What's your story about how your cooking passion started?
My first experience really cooking from scratch was right out of university. I moved to Moscow, Russia in the early 90's. NOTHING came in a box in that country!!
What about you. What's your story about how your cooking passion started?