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In reply to the discussion: Why Is Mario Batali on Food Stamps? [View all]hifiguy
(33,688 posts)When I was in my late teens, it was just my widowed mom and I. She worked full time. I groused about dinner a few times and she told me "well, you cook then. Anyone who can read can learn to cook!"
I started out slowly, doctoring up Hamburger Helper mixes to make them taste better and playing around with simple dishes. It was fun, so I laid my hands on a couple of cookbooks and started working through them. There was the odd disaster here and there, but more often than not careful attention to a recipe yielded a tasty dish and my mom happily relinquished the kitchen to me. I then moved on to French and Italian food via Craig Claiborne's Times cookbooks and eventually to serious Chinese cooking, which became my favorite cuisine.
Never had a cooking lesson in my life, and I am a damned good amateur chef. All because I took the time to learn.