Why I Learned to Cook

Why I Learned to Cook

Heidi HeadshotI cook because it brings people together. Eating makes people happy. And when the food is good, people are even happier. Eat, drink, love, laugh and live well are essential ingredients for a good life.

I share my cooking techniques and ideas because I want people to experience good food. And the love and laughter that eating and drinking together brings. Or the simple action of self-care of feeding one’s self well. Good food is about feeding the soul.

So many of us aren’t taught to cook. We just bumble through it the best we can, working to feed ourselves. We eat fast food; we buy the processed food at the store. All because it makes life easier and we don’t know any better. But it’s time to take it back to the basics.

Just something as simple as changing the order of how you add the ingredients to the pan, can and does make a huge difference in how the flavors of a dish can come together. Or using local ingredients straight from the garden. Cooking is not hard. We avoid it because we don’t know any better.

I want to change that. I want you to enjoy the beauty of simple good food, made with a few ingredients and lots of love. I want you to love and care for not only your body, but to nurture your soul with beautiful flavors. And in the end, if you share with others, you’ll be passing along lots of love, making the world a better place. I truly believe if more people ate together, the world would be a more kind, loving place, with less violence.

Reasons Why I Learned to Cook

I learned to cook because I love good food. I also saw how it brought people together. All my family would show up for Christmas at my Grandmother’s house. They would talk, laugh and enjoy her cooking. It was always a beautiful time of joy. I love that feeling.

I also wanted to get healthier. I started realizing I was poisoning my body. Reading the food labels is an eye-opening experience, once you realize many of the ingredients are added chemicals, fats and salts. Even something as simple as orange juice, is pulled apart and put back together so that each container tastes the same. I was shocked!

Finally, I love the beauty of the food served in fine dining restaurants. We eat with our eyes as well as our stomachs. It is always so beautiful to look at and then to feel those delicate combinations of flavors sliding around on the tongue…yum.

My First Cooking Experience

My first cooking experience, came when I was around six years old. It was a disaster!

I wanted a fried egg. My parents didn’t want to be interrupted. My dad told me to go make the egg myself and leave them alone.

I remember going into the kitchen, tugging one of my mom’s heavy cast iron skillets onto the stove, with the help of a stool. Standing on the stool and my tippy toes, I turned on the burner and poured oil into the pan, the way I had seen my parents do it. I tapped the egg against the side of the skillet, breaking it into the smoking oil. Egg shell floated on top, I removed what I could and flipped the egg. It was so charred and blackened, it was inedible. And by that point, my parents were in the kitchen yelling because the place was filled with smoke. I got sent outside…still hungry.

My parents never did teach me to cook. I learned a few basic things by watching them, before I turned to my mother’s cookbooks for learning. Unfortunately, she only used cookbooks like the famous Betty Crocker and those type of books. It wasn’t until much later in life that I turned to the Internet for more research on learning to cook outside of using those horrible cans of cream of mushroom soup and packets of flavoring to coat the outside of food with.

People already thought I was a good cook. My friends and family loved to eat at my house. But I knew better. I wanted more. I wanted to create the beautiful food I ate in restaurants. I wanted better food at home.

Since then, I’ve been on a learning expedition. I’ve learned from professional chefs, home cooks and by traveling. In fact, I’m still learning. I believe learning is a process that never ends. And now, I want to pass along what I’ve learned to you.

I want you to experience food in a magical way. And to know it is possible to eat tasty food at home without huge effort. Some of what I’ll share will be complicated for those days you’re feeling up to the challenge. And the rest will be easy dishes that take little time or effort for those days you just don’t have time.

And please don’t be afraid to ask questions or make requests. I want you to get what you need from this experience. If I’m not sharing what you need or want. Then please let me know. After all, this is not just about me, it’s about you as well.

So let’s get to enjoying life and food together. Let’s get to living well.


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