Wondering How to Learn to Cook in 2025?
The answer is not about you, but who you make friends with…
What have Jamie Oliver and Raymond Blanc got in common? They are both described on t’internet as self-taught chefs.
However, I’m sure that if we asked them how to learn to cook they wouldn’t recommend doing it completely alone.
Because it’s a fact that they both had their inspiration, mentors and friends in food to help them nurture their talents.
But what about us mere mortals, the little people at home who want to make a half-decent meal once in a while? Who can help us to cook?
Well, let’s start by asking another, slightly bonkers question.
Can monkeys learn to cook?
Yes! According to Smithsonian Magazine, our primate cousins certainly can learn to cook. They don’t actually heat up the meals themselves, but when some folks did a pretty impressive experiment involving a fake microwave and some nifty meal swapping in primate enclosures, observers saw that monkeys
Understand the difference between cooked food and raw
Know that they prefer cooked to raw
And would rather suffer the inconvenience of waiting for cooked food than chomp down sooner on the raw stuff
Cool eh?
And I reckon that it goes for us humans too: the appreciation of food that’s been prepared, cooked and beautifully presented is the impetus to learn to cook – whether we’re keen beans or unsure pawpaws.
The love of food certainly gave me a reason to learn how to make it. But first, I had to make a new friend.
How to learn to cook: make friends with a cookbook
As an ex ‘can’t cook, won’t cook’ type of gal, I know I definitely needed someone to help inspire me into the kitchen to make more than just a cup of coffee and a piece of toast.
Several people got me into creating my own food IRL – my husband, my friends, some childhood memories of baking with mum...
But the friends who helped me start from scratch were the cookbooks in our kitchen. And to get started, I needed to make friends with just one.
The first one that helped me was How to Be a Curry Legend by The Spicery - I implore you to check out that link there and give ‘em a go. It’s enlightening stuff!
And my most recent one is Extra Good Things by the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen – a book containing zingy, comforting recipes with little extra side flavours that you can use on other dishes too.
The top 3 benefits of making friends with just one cookbook
You can stock up on a pantryful of the right ingredients (and rarely let any go to waste)
You’ll learn the writer’s language and with each recipe, understand more about cooking
A good cookbook writer will explain processes so that you can eventually start to spread your wings
A vibrant, zingy, crunchy salad from Extra Good Things by the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen
So, if this monkey can learn to cook, anyone can
As a food copywriter, I’ve always loved eating food, describing it elaborately and generally extolling the virtues of an amazing morsel.
But I can honestly say that I never thought I would or could cook.
Ten years ago, if you’d have asked me how to learn to cook I’d have said, ‘Why bother? Someone else can do it for you!’. (I know that’s daft: someone needs to learn to cook so there are people to do it for others.)
But since making friends with one great recipe book at a time, going at my own pace, and cooking for the love of food itself, I’ve learned that it’s not all as scary as I once thought.
Hiya, I’m Kate, a freelance copywriter from Sussex who loves discussing food and mental health. If you liked how I just wrote and or my writing made you interested in getting to know me more, that means we might be a good match!
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