Describe he evolution of your cooking/eating habits (ingredients, hamburger, grilled)

[jtur88]

Do you still cook/eat the way your mother did? Or did you develop your own style when first on your own? Or has it been a slow, gradual process of acquisition? Or was there a spouse or an experience that made you have an abrupt shift?

For me, it's hard to nail down. My mom was from an immigrant family, and was a young mom during the depression, and I still retain her frugality and minimalism and self-reliance when it comes to food. Then I went to college in the deep south, exposed to a whole new cuisine. Then I married a midwestern meat-and-potatoes girl. Then I traveled the world and exposed myself to that amazing variety of unknown things eaten with chopsticks or right-hand-only fingers or uncooked right out of the ocean.

I'd say that, after all that, I still aim for well-balanced simple minimalist meals, but with any ingredient that's readily and cheaply available.

[gentlearts]

I think I cook like my mother and grandmother did; a meat, potato and vegetable family. I am open to trying new cuisines, but nothing too exotic. I make just plain fresh ingredients cooked with the know how of 40+ years of cooking.
Just give me a nice grilled piece of meat of fish, a fresh salad and some tender crisp vegetables and I'm a happy camper.

[Attrill]

I think it definitely starts with your family. Both my grandmothers loved to have me help them, and I learned a lot of traditional German and British dishes (as well as basic techniques) from helping them make Sunday dinners.

My parents thought cooking was important and I had to start cooking one dinner a week when I turned 12. They were obsessed with Julia Child at the time (even met her a few times) and pushed me towards French style cooking. I pushed back against that, and was up for cooking anything that wasn't "Frenchy". Our family was very close friends with two other families that had big parties where the patriarchs of the family cooked everything, so I ended up learning a lot of Italian and Armenian dishes from them (and also got into cooking over wood fires).

I also did a little bit of work in professional kitchens, doing a work study job as a prep chef (basically chopping for hours on end) and cooking family style meals for 50-90 people for a hut system in the White Mountains. That was my basic experience before I had my first apartment with my own kitchen.

Around that time "The Way To Cook" by Julia Child and "On Food and Cooking" by Harold McGee came out, and over 25 years later they remain the foundation for how I think about cooking. Along the way I also learned a lot from Steven Raichlen's books and shows, "The Balthazar Cookbook", and Michael Ruhlman's books. For the last few years I've found Mallman's "Seven Fires" cookbook to be incredibly inspirational, and have been cooking a lot from the "Ottolenghi" cookbook. There are loads of other books, shows, and friends that I've learned from, but those ones have really stuck with me.

In general I think my parents and grandparents taught me the basics, and to be fearless in the kitchen. Ever since then I've always been looking for new ways to cook and plan on continuing to do that until I die.

[Caligula1]

I had no idea how to cook different, I'm an awesome cook like my Grandfather before me...It is all stick your ribs meat and potatos though... not at all healthy...

I am learning though

[stan4]

Used to eat a lot of meat and general American crap.

Now I eat more like my mother - heavier on the veg and fruit and legumes, more spices, etc.

[Caligula1]

I cook like I was taught, meat-corn-mashed and gravy.... a pound of butter and salt...
I am doing better though, salad, fruits

[Ginge McFantaPants]

My brothers and I had to fend for ourselves quite young, so we started out making pre-packed foods that were hard to screw up, like Hamburger Helper or Rice-A-Roni. One of my brothers got a hold of some Betty Crocker cookbooks, and we just took it from there. I remember cooking a holiday dinner from scratch when I was 11 or so, which turned out great except for the pumpkin pie: I was so proud of pureeing my own pumpkin, rolling out my own crust... my one mistake was forgetting to add the sugar!

I'm into cooking different international cuisines, particularly "peasant foods" because they are usually easy to adapt to vegetarian meals. I'm also pretty handy with tofu

[CCc girl]

1-18>ate like my mom
18-19>ate like a poor college kid
19-41>became a parnter>tried to emulate my mom/Mrs. Cleaver
452-44>became a vegetarian and ruined my health, gained weight
45-present>went low carb, reversed all my health issues and lost all the weight

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by CCc girl

1-18>ate like my mom
18-19>ate like a poor college kid
19-41>became a parnter>tried to emulate my mom/Mrs. Cleaver
452-44>became a vegetarian and ruined my health, gained weight
45-present>went low carb, reversed all my health issues and lost all the weight

this makes sense - the low carbs


18-27
ate frugally, mostly meats

27-35 ate out 3-4 times a week on very rich foods

35- present
eat what I like, try to eat more healthy, less carbs and sugars,,,,but I love my desserts
high protein, low carbs,, eat lots of meats

my bloodwork is great, bloodpressure is great,
im over 50, no allergies, not taking any pills

my health-nut... germaphobe friends, are all on different medications ,

[jade408]

I always liked to be adventurous in some things, even as a kid. I liked watching fooking shows in my teens, particularly ones with ethnic cuisines.

My mom always clipped recipes she never used. Lol.

Our staples growing up included some unexpected stuff. My parents are from the south, and my dad is from a rice growing part. We grew up eating rice with basically every meal, so cuisines with rice were areas my mom might be more imterested in. We regularly had curry, stirfry and teriyaki chicken. In addition to the more southern things like fried chicken, pork chops, fish and bbq. My favorite was always curry and teriyaki chicken from age 6 or 7 on. I always put soy sauce on my rice. I didn't like gravy.

Once I went to college, i lived in a town with a wide variety of foods and tried everything in the rice based cuisines. Not too excited about "european" food. I found French, especially haute cuisine wasn't for me. There is a lot of mediocre italian out there.

When I started cooking (moving out of the dorms) I realized that some of the staples I grew up with were not well adaptable to being a single or someone who doesn't have a lot of time. I learned to make fast adaptions in "fusion" ways. I love trying new spices and have a pretty well developed palette. I experiment in the kitchen a lot. I am terrible at following recipes.

I guess ans experiment based on my own insitutional knowledge and experience. I have also tried a lot of different ingredients that we didn't use growing up. But the for at of my plate is still similar to the one i had growing up in different proportions. I do eat less starch than growing up. Most days at dinner i have meat and veggies and something else.