How well do you cook?

I know how to cook, but don't do it much, because I find it an absolute chore. If my choice is eating a piece of toast or a beautiful roast, I'll take the toast, thank you.

There's two parts of cooking, yeah? There's the mechanical process of taking ingredients and making them into food, and then there's the process of taking care of yourself, your family, and your friends on this deep and fundamental level.

When I cook something for my friends group, my wife gets compliments on the food. It strips away a lot of the joy and meaning that might otherwise be attached to the process.

I love cooking. I used to do much more of it than I do now, from stir fries to paellas, cakes, soups, broths and stews.

I can't put my finger on when and why I stopped. I think it was largely when our Son was aged 5 and the cooking became simpler to cater for his tastes, and it never recovered from there.

I only do Pizza Fridays now (tomorrow, yay). I do make the dough though, and the sauce, so it's pretty home made still. So if I have a current signature, that would be it.

I really liked my pseudo not quite paella though. And home made pseudo duck wraps (home made marinaded seitan) with lots of scallions and hoisin sauce. But they are no longer made. :sadface:

I have known how to cook simple things since I was young. I remember making hamburgers, Mac-n-cheese, etc., just by watching my mom cook. Both of my parents work, and my sister is five years older than me. So when I was in my teens, I was home by myself a lot, and my family was too poor to order out much.

I didn't start pushing myself to cook and explore until my mid-30s. I found out that I enjoy it, whether it's inside on the stove or BBQ/smoking outside. I'm now at the point (41) where I'm comfortable doing the entire Christmas/Thanksgiving dinners alone. I rarely use recipes, as I grew up in a Cajun household with the "pinch of this, pinch of that" method. I've never had any complaints from family or friends, and my dad says I inherited my grandpa's talent for being able to wing it in the kitchen.

Edit: My only downside, is when I make something truly amazing, since I don't use recipe’s I rarely write my process down. So nothing tastes the same twice lol. I've toyed around with the idea of putting a couple of camera’s in the kitchen so I can write down the recipe I made afterward.

When I grew up my Mum was not a great cook. I know I was a fussy kid but I don't remember her ever cooking from scratch. Best she would do is a combination of packet sauces and some roasted chicken or something. Everything else was store bought and heated in the oven or on the stove to some extent.
I don't think we ate badly as such, but I like cooking fresh and she still disagrees with me lol.

Anyway I didn't learn much from her, or school, except how to turn on the oven or stove and not set the place on fire (gas ya know).

University my housemate was a bit food guy and I learned both from him and with him. We used to just have fun cooking something dumb together and eat it for a week. It was a great relationship.
That really enabled me to learn more and keep the interest going. I mean I'm not cooking from scratch, home cooked meals every night, but I enjoy throwing together something like a spag bol, chilli, a pie or some tasty pastas with all the ingredients most nights. Its pretty easy too.

All that said, living alone was a nightmare. I had no motivation what so ever to cook at all. Most dinners were as low effort as I could manage or just takeout. Having a partner makes a huge difference because someone else can actually enjoy my cooking.

I'm trans, so theoretically I should've been encouraged to learn skills like cooking when I was younger, but I still didn't get much instruction or practice with anything more complex than a grilled cheese or eggs as a teen. Some of the stuff I made during college was straight-up inedible as I learned the ropes. This luckily corresponded with me becoming a less picky eater as I grew up (I refused to eat soup or anything with sauce as a kid).

By now I think I'm fairly decent cook. But I need some sort of recipe to follow, even if it's one I kludged together from multiple sources and with measurements that end up being more impressionistic than anything. I work better when I have the steps laid out in front of me like that. Learning to make a basic stir fry was the biggest life-changer in terms of my confidence at simple home cooking. Cooksmart's infographic is a phenomenal place to start, and it's such a good way to add something to your cooing portfolio that has a lot of ways you can vary it to keep it from getting stale. And it's a good way to get more veggies in your diet in a tasty way, since that can be hard when you're not a good cook yet. This was the first dish I made as an adult where I got compliments from my peers for it, and that's something that really makes cooking more enjoyable

Pretty dang good, if the people I feed are to be believed. I loved hanging out in the kitchen as a kiddo, and the rule was if I was going to stick around, I had to not be a pest, and do useful things. Turns out you eventually learn. :)

I don't as often as I would like, for time reasons alone. But if I didn't have to work so much, I'd be playing in the kitchen trying new things daily. It's a happy place for me.

Both my parents are good cooks and I grew up cooking and baking with them.

I enjoy cooking and have started cooking with my kids — I think it’s a great life skill to have.

I've always gotten good feedback on my cooking, and regularly try to do new stuff to get better. When I was a kid, I would cook with my mom all the time. She would let me look around in the spice cabinet while I helped. When I found something, I'd taste it, and if I liked it, we'd make something with it. Once I started living on my own, I would go to whatever non-American markets I could find and buy lots of spices and herbs, try different things and see what was what/what worked together. In times when the budget was tight, I would buy big bags of basic stuff like rice/beans/frozen vegetables and just try different blends so it wouldn't get boring. When the budget wasn't as tight, I'd go find things I'd never tried to do before and push my skills. A big part of my dating life has been evenings spent cooking with women I liked and talking about food.

I'm not sure how to describe it but in my mind there are different flavor profiles, and in general I know what spices can get me to those flavors. I know how different stuff behaves, so I can manipulate consistency/texture, either with starches/gelatins/etc or stuff like rice/potatoes/grains. I kinda look at it like a set of tools, pieces to fit together that get at my flavor based problems.

I have some dishes I like to regularly make, that change a little now and then because the recipes mostly live in my head. I also make it a point to look in the spice cabinet even if what I'm making is simple - a little garlic powder in the grilled cheese is not something folks expect but they sure do like it. I usually buy a bunch of basic ingredients, and eventually an idea comes along and I put it all together. I'm confident if you turned me loose in someone's kitchen we'd make it to Flavortown, one way or another.

I feel confident in the kitchen. Toss me some ingredients and I can probably make a good meal out of it off the cuff.

Framing:

I grew up having an interest in many things, cooking being one of them. My mom and most other women in my family (almost always the women; I am male) always home cooked meals, and I absorbed a lot from them. My first recipe I learned was salmon and carrots in foil, to go in a toaster oven. It was a nice latch key kid meal.

Fast forward to my teens, and my parents continued encouraging independent cooking. I began working in restaurants, learning more from chefs and cooks. I often watched cooking shows. In college, I was eager to find a place with a kitchen so I could cook, though I still often didn't.

Life took its turns and I ended up not in a position to cook for a few years. I lost interest, until I was able to get a place of my own again. I was still an infrequent home cook, sticking to recipes I knew and rarely if ever branching out.

At some point, I decided to invest in Blue Apron back when it was still pretty small and new in the early 10s. It challenged me to try new recipes, which meant new methods, ingredients, styles... It was eye opening for me. I used that for a year or so before I began branching out on my own.

Things kicked into high gear with covid, I had more time available at home and more time to experiment and try things out. I found some awesome cooking channels on YouTube and learned a plethora of techniques. Most importantly, I learned the why behind what I was doing. This allowed me freedom to improvise.

Now, people rave about my cooking and clamor for leftovers. Luckily, I love sharing! The true joy in cooking for me is seeing the happiness I can create for others.

My Dad was and still is the cook, but he never trained me or showed me anything. Granted, I also didn't have much interest. But even as I got older, I was consistently discouraged from trying to use the stove or anything and at something like age 12 I tried to make pasta in the coffee pot... My Mom also discouraged me from using knives and things. I don't do this now with my own kids. If they express interest and I'm not in a hurry, I do my best to include them, having them chop things with the knife (they're 7 and 4), stir things on the stove, turn the stove up or down, etc.

When my wife (then girlfriend) and I moved in together, my choice was Cook or Clean and since I hated Cleaning, I chose to cook. Now I'm 40 and have been cooking for about 16-17 years and it's become something I very much enjoy and am good at; though I'm not convinced it's not just because I know how to properly salt a meal. I don't mind cooking large meals for when my large family comes over (cooking for 15+ people), though I do find it stressful.

I do cook every night of the week, the only exception really being Thursdays, which is pizza night so I get to just throw a couple of pizzas in and call it a day. Though I usually make a salad to go with it, so...

I didn't grow up in a very "cooky" household, but it was pretty well split between parents, with my dad doing a little more (he was also unemployed/stay-at-home parent).

In college i would cook with my girlfriend because it was fun. Generally not on my own though.

But after college, when i started getting paid like an actual adult from a corporate job, I began to cook a lot more. It was fun with my roommate, but I also discovered it was an excellent way to date. Much cheaper than going out, no fear of being ghosted (since i was home already), easy to segue into other activities, and relaxed atmosphere. And, I could bank the photos of the food for using in online dating profiles.

Once i had a steady girlfriend (now wife) we cooked a lot, but generally stuck to recipes (America's Test Kitchen). Now 10 years later, we still mostly stick to ATK. But my wife has generally eclipsed me in cooking-- both in skill and interest. I still cook occassionally, and don't mind filling in when she is tired or busy or just doesn't want to do it. Our meals are usually one main item, and possibly a simple salad. We aren't doing sides or multiple courses. We are always in the kitchen together though, because I do dishes while she cooks.

I have friends (men) that are certainly better cooks than me, especially when it comes to meats, but also with baking bread and grilling etc.

I think I'm definitely above average for men, but I'm average among my friend group.

I grew up helping my mom cook and learning on my own. By the time I was in high school I could cook eggs (multiple ways), hamburgers, chili, and box mac and cheese without guidance, among other things. My parents were able to be out late at night if needed (anniversaries, award dinners, that sort of thing) and they knew me and my siblings would be fed.

In college, I started experimenting with more complex dishes while subleasing from some friends over the summer. I was on a very limited budget, so I started getting the most out of what I had. This is when I learned to make mac and cheese from scratch, spaghetti carbonara, chili without a recipe (which was more impressive to me at the time, I had always followed recipes before), and half a dozen other dishes I've probably forgotten. I repeated this the next summer while subleasing, then when I got my own apartment I continued to learn to cook new dishes. I still remember the pork tenderloin and sweet potatoes my girlfriend at the time and I made after three months together. I also distinctly remember asking for a slow cooker for Christmas because my budget was still so restricted.

Now I'm the host and cook for D&D nights twice a month, as well as the more gourmet cook between my wife and me. I can fairly comfortably put together a meal of roast chicken, potatoes, salad, and homemade bread for a group of 8, and my go-to "I don't know what to cook" meal is still carbonara. After the first time I try a recipe (I always follow the recipe the first time), I usually experiment with it and find ways to improve it to my and my wife's particular tastes. My dad thinks that I eat better than most of his coworkers who have stay at home wives, which is a compliment I am proud to accept. My closest friends (who are not part of said D&D group) are just as good, if not better. One hosts our annual Christmas parties and takes care of all the main traditional dishes, and another is smoking a brisket this weekend and invited all of us over to partake. I'm blessed to have opportunities to learn, but also to have friends who cook just as well and inspire me to try to out-do them.

I grew up in a household where my grandfather did most of the cooking. My grandmother did the baking. I personally didn't really cook until after I graduated college. I found some random approachable recipes online and gave them a try and HEY! They kinda worked!

I didn't cook too much until I got married though. Once I moved in my wife, I also found myself unemployed as I had moved countries to be with her. I became a house husband and felt that I needed to be productive while I searched for a job, and took on cooking duties. Turns out, I got pretty good at it. My variety of dishes is driven by my wife's desire for a unique variety of tastes. It pushed me from serving generic mid class American meals to exploring various flavors from cultures all over the world.

Ultimately, I learned though YouTube. Honestly it's been a great source of information: from the weird experiments of Babish to the food mythbusting of French Guy Alex. There's also the history element of Tasting History and Townsends, providing context into how people cooked before modern technology, and also how to properly perform some good cooking techniques from professionals like Gordon Ramsay. Because of this, I'd say I'm a solid intermediate and capable of cooking just about anything thrown at me and I have a variety of information that I could learn from and experiment with.

I couldn't imagine myself doing this before the internet. Without confirmation of the progress in videos, I likely would have screwed up a few times, got frustrated and quit, resigning myself to a life of takeout and hoping I find a spouse that could cook for themselves and feed me in the process. Now? I'm someone who apparently is the envy of people at my wife's workplace when she brings in lunches. I've also gotten comments from female coworkers when I say I'm the primary cook along the lines of: "Oh how nice that would be, I wish my husband would do that." I wouldn't trade that ability to break down just some of society's gender roles for anything. It's empowering.