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KS cooks, how/where did you get your kitchen skills?

greggargubby

greggargubby

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Joined
Nov 3, 2005
Location
East Bay Expatriate
Moto(s)
Yellow Wing
Name
Greggar
i live in the kitchen; it's my creative time and my therapy. today, my well-fed housemate asked me where i learned how to cook. and it dawned on me that i have no idea. none of my family's elders are foodies. my brother is a quasi-chef with no formal training, but the only thing he ever taught me was how to forge our father's signature. it appears i just make it up as i go (and sometimes i fail miserably).

so what about you guys? did a member of previous generations teach you? restaurant experience? i'm no baker, so i'd love to hear a story or two from those who learned to bake bread the hard way (hopefully wendy will catch this thread, though i've never met her).

stories?
 
No restaurant experience, no learning at my mother's knee (except how not to do it). I learned by reading cookbooks and recipes with great attention, cooking a lot as a young girl and woman, but the real secret was my cooking dinner from scratch 6-7 times a week for the last six years. So: passion, finding out how to do things, and doing it over and over, fine-tuning my skills and palate, over many years.
 
I only got one kind of kitchen skills: I can make damn near any breakfast. Lunch and dinner, oh they elude me, but breakfast speaks to me. I picked that skill up in college. :shhh

Steve
 
Once upon a time I wanted to go to culinary school and become a chef, but decided that I just wanted to cook for fun at home and not slave away in some hot restaurant kitchen for years on end.

I originally started cooking with my grandmother making fresh Italian sausages at her house on Sundays a few times a year. Later in life, I dated a girl for a few years who went to the CIA in New York who eventually became a Sous Chef and later the Chef de Cuisine at a well known restaurant in San Francisco. I picked up a lot over the years from her and her friends. Unfortunately, she (ok we) got wrapped up in the after-hours party scene like chefs so often do. Sadly, she lost a good part of her personality and memory to overuse of Ecstasy. Last I heard she was an Executive Chef for one of the Ritz-Carlton hotels in New York.

So yeah, I got a virtual Le Cordon Bleu education right in the kitchen at home.
 
For me it was college and having a palette with some serious ADD. I'd take mostly simple prep foods and add various things to them to tweak the recipe around, and from there, my skills slowly evolved in different directions.
 
When your wallet allows you to buy frozen chicken pasta and potatoes, you learn millions of ways to doctor up said items. I took the skills of making those items seem like a differant meal 7 nights in a row to other foods, and there ya go. Like everything else I enjoy doing, I am good enough to amuse me and my friends, but not good enough to make a living at it.
 
Got my sense of taste and cooking skills from Mom. She had to learn to cook. She had none whatsoever when she married two days after turning 20. Her repertoire was mostly Filipino cuisine plus wherever Dad ended up being stationed by the Army, she picked up new recipes (except when they were in Tokyo). So when we were kids, she'd have us prep the veggies. Later as teenagers we ended up cooking dinner much of the time, esp. when they'd leave for their many gambling trips. But I much prefer Julia Child's method of cutting whole chicken. And Dad's idea of good cooking was dropping sliced hot dog into everything. :barf He did though make some very simple and delicious omelettes (sans hot dog slices). I'm a good cook and so are two of my sisters (my brothers are just okay). My younger sister is the genuine cook/baker/foodie in the family. Sunset magazine has published several of her recipes.
 
mom and food network. Apparently when I was a little kid I would pull up a chair next to the stove and watch my mom cook. I would like to think that I was interested in how to cook, but honestly I was just hungry :p.
 
I wouldn't say that I'm a great or even good cook, but it's definitely something I enjoy very much. I tend to cook more for myself than anyone else. I find it relaxing and something to look forward to when I'm bored. I've always loved food and have been an adventurous eater as long as I can remember. I was one of those kids that would eat anything -- duck feet, pig's blood, tripe, garlic, green onions, clams, whatever my family put in front of me I would eat it and love it.

My mom definitely had the biggest influence as she's crazy about food too. When I outgrew Saturday morning cartoons, around age 12 or so, I remember spending my Saturday mornings watching cooking shows on PBS with my mom. Jacque Pepin was and is still my favorite cooking show, though I kinda stopped watching after he started trying to feature his daughter on the show. A lot of times, I would try recipes from the show and also help my mom prepare meals for the family.

In high school and college, not really having the funds to go out all the time, I would try to recreate meals that I really enjoyed. Usually they didn't come out too well, but the failures helped me learn a lot about taste profiles and different cooking techniques. It was sometime during then that the definition of a toy store for me went from Toys R Us to William Sonoma.
 
trying to impress chicks in college. I would practice by cooking for my roommates, and the good dishes got the green light to be tried on dates :p
 
I learned to love cooking at an early age. All of our family gatherings are centered around food, lots of food. By age 8 I was developing my own recipes. When my parents separated, I would come home from school, do homework, then cook supper all by myself. My mom loved coming home to a hot meal after a long day at the office.

If things had gone as planned, I might have become a pro chef. I was accepted to the Culinary Academy right out of High School, but could not afford it. Got into doing catering for friends. Largest event I ever did was a renaissance feast for 700. That was nuts.

I still love food, but cooking in an RV kitchen can be challenging. I'm also challenged by dietary restrictions, but the good news is that having the food knowledge makes it easier. I am hyper-sensitive in the smell and taste department. Some folks call it being a Super Taster. Great when going wine tasting, and when I try to disect a recipe for re-creating it at home.
 
learned from mom a few things pops a few things gourmet foods in hs and just cooking for myself
 
Mom, Fude Network, and being from New Orleans, where fude is a HUGE part of the culture.

Combine those all together with a desire to impress my dates- and lots of practice!!!!

Now that I'm single again- I'd better start reading my cookbooks!!!
 
my family owned a restaurant, so i grew up around it, i hung out at the restaurant a lot and the cooks would get me to help them with food prep and eventually cooking. :cool

then when i was about 12, my mom's busybody accountant told her she could get in trouble for having a child in the kitchen, so i was 86ed from the kitchen. this was the same genius that told her-- during the 80's-- that buying property in san francisco was a bad investment: fucking moron. :mad
 
I was a p/t waitress at a little bistro and stepped in for the dessert/bread baker while she was away. Turns out I have a real knack for baking. I'm pretty good with "real" food too and try to experiment and learn new things. I make some really mean desserts.
I was fortunate enough to learn good basics from the chef I worked with. When I was growing up it was all Cool Whip, Mrs. Butterworth, margarine, overcooked meat that got the A1 treatment. Now, it's all about quality ingredients and minimally processed food.
God, I'm hungry.
 
my grandmother, my aunt Anna Mae and a desperate desire to find something better to eat and serve to other people than what my mother- who couldn't cook for love or money- ever put on the table.

I'm good with food and can usually break down a dish I've tried somewhere and liked, and repeat it at home. or even improve it.

some of my best recipes like my chocolate cake are my own creations by pure trial n error. others like my soda bread or venison stew, were passed down and no one but my daughter will ever know how they are made.

tonight's menu? grilled pork sirloin with brandied peaches, rosemary potatoes and spinach salad w bacon n poppyseed dressing......
 
I learned by poisoning my college roommates for 4 years :laughing

One day during sophomore year, one of my female friends took pity on us and taught me the basic methods of cooking: mise en place, heat control, basic sauces, etc. From then on, just trial and error (mostly error.)
 
lots of trial and error with internet recipes or cookbook recipes. hasn't been until recent that I've been trying to do things on my own.


Oh, and as for grilling, BillSwim!!!
 
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