Who inspired you/Whom do you inspire?

[TastyReuben]

We've probably touched on this in a roundabout way before, but here it is put directly:

Who inspired you to first start cooking for yourself and eventually others (if that's your thing)? Was it even an inspirational thing, or was it something you just grew into naturally, and it seemed as obvious to you as learning to walk?

Carrying it further, is there anyone you've in turn inspired to pick up the culinary gauntlet? Could be a younger family member, or a friend, or anyone really.

I'll answer for myself later, I've just noticed the time and I've got to get to the grocery store! Make haste! Make haste!

 

[kaneohegirlinaz]

The only reason I wanted to learn to cook/bake/grill/home can, etc was that my Mother is a horrible cook, AND she admits to!
As a small child, I wanted to make my own food, hers was that bad, and we were forced to eat it.

I have memories going back to when I was 3 years old and my Mother not letting me get up from the dinner table until I finished those gawd-awful slimy-mushy-disgusting Brussel Sprouts, egad!

But I was made to wait until I could reach the stove, unassisted aka no chair or stool. I think I was maybe 7 years old.

I am a totally self taught home cook, mainly because Mom wasn't the only one who couldn't cook! Not one person in my extended family can cook to this day.
Well, let me re-state that ... here's the first person that I inspired to learn to cook, my Father.
He went into forced retirement and was bored I guess; he took on the task of making the family's evening meals most nights.
He got pretty good. Sadly, he did not live a long life, he was gone by the age of 61.

As to others that I've touched with the magic spatula, two good girl friends and my younger sister. They try, but they don't have the desire to make a lovely dish/meal, just edible, but ya know I'll take that. Prior, none of them had any interest in cooking, they thought that it was a waste of time ... order out was their mantra.

 

[The Velvet Curtain]

Nobody inspired me when I was growing up, food at home was good, but very predictable. Then, one month after my 18th birthday I was dumped, all alone 100 miles from home with just a couple of pans and a shared kitchen. I learned to cook good food on a budget really quickly - I had no choice.
By my second year at Uni I was certainly competent, then this new cookery show appeared on the tv. Not the stilted, kitchen/ studio based pot stirring we were used to from Delia and Fanny, but a flamboyant , bon viveur who drove sports cars, cooked on the beaches, drank copiously and was followed by an air of mild disorder. Keith Floyd showed me that cooking could be energetic, spontaneous and most importantly, fun. So I will note him as my first main inspiration.

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

I don't know if I've shared this on this forum before, but here's the only reason I started learning to cook was to ingratiate myself to my mother.
In highschool my grades started to drop and my mom would often get upset with me. I'm a people-pleaser by nature, so I couldn't leave her unhappy with me! I would kind of walk sheepishly into the kitchen and ask my mom if I could help her cook. Prior to this the only cooking I could do was make scrambled eggs or Kraft Mac & Cheese (love that blue box!). It started with just doing the dishes or peeling the garlic for her, but as I got older mom would trust me with more tasks and eventually I graduated to the unofficial rank of "mother's sous-chef". [EDIT] Around this time my father also taught me how to properly sharpen kitchen knives, another quality life lesson!

Fast forward to college and cooking on my own gave me a way to have a taste of home whenever I got home-sick.

Now I steal recipes from my mother and her sisters with nods of approval haha!

 

[karadekoolaid]

I was a "wierd" eater when I went to Uni - I only ate minced beef, chicken breast and prawns. Into a dorm and I decided it would be easier to declare myself a "vegetarian". THAT was a poor choice as well, so I started cooking for myself.
1977, I was given my first, genuine-Indian-cuisine cookbook, and I couldn´t believe the huge range of dishes in it and the enormous difference between those dishes and the predictable "curries" at the local Indian Curry House.
So I cooked - and being gregarious by nature, expanded my repertoire to other cuisines.
Cut to 2001, when I quit corporate life and decided to cook for a living. I started giving courses, did some live demos - one of my ex-students is now Executive Chef at a classy restaurant in Chile.
Pass on the knowledge - it´s useless if it dies with you!

 

[TastyReuben]

To continue my opening post:

I don't know of anyone who directly "inspired" me to cook. My paternal grandmother didn't like to cook at all, my maternal grandmother was a good cook, and my mom was an ok cook. I just know that I preferred hanging out in the kitchen over working outside, and when I got into my teen years, I enjoyed "cooking" - meaning making things I liked from box mixes, mainly.

When I left home, I found that my meager cooking skills were still better than most of the other guys I knew, and that the young women appreciated a young man who could cook a little, and that encouraged me a little more, and it was around that time, mid/late-80's, I started watching some cooking shows. I mainly remember Jacques Pepin as the first chef who's name I knew.

From there, I just wanted to get better for myself, I liked the idea of looking at something somewhat involved and seeing if I could do it.

Whether I've inspired anyone else...maybe, but indirectly. We don't have kids, but some of my niblings do like to cook, and they've been around when I've been cooking, so maybe that rubbed off a little on them, one more so than the others.

 

[NailBat]

It's Alton Brown's fault that I cook. One day during the olden times, when the show Good Eats was on its original run, I randomly came across an episode and was hooked. I didn't have any desire to cook right away, but watching that show definitely planted some seeds. I think I skipped over a lot of struggles that people have with cooking because of the fundamentals I learned from that show.

Who I've inspired? To an extent, my wife. She didn't have much interest in cooking before meeting me, but learned the art of no-recipe cooking by just watching what I did.

 

[Backbay]

Both my grandmothers, a Great Aunt and my Mom were great cooks. Nothing extra ordinary but, everything from snacks to every day meals to holiday parties - the food was always good. I just took to naturally hanging in the kitchen /helping and picked up my love of cooking from all of them.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

cooking was a necessity my mother can't cook, my ex-step father considered himself a good cook and yes, compared to his mother, he was a 5 star chef, but compared to my mother's mum (my Grannie) whom I lived with for a while and after that every school holiday and every Wednesday after school during term time, I was at her home. it was the only time we were every fed properly. where someone actually asked us (brother 1 & I) what we wanted and the only person who when I declared at the age of 11 that I was going to go vegetarian, supported me and actually bought cookery books and learnt to cook vegetarian food for me rather than my parents approach of here's the jacket potato, the non-vegetarian cheese is in the fridge, grate it yourself.

my Grannie actually went vegetarian for a while as well. She'd allowed me to help in the kitchen from an early age. she taught me all sorts and encouraged me. when I started Cookery at school (not home economics), she was patient with me and said if that's the way the school want it, but this is the way I've always done it and how my mother showed me, and she'd leave me to choose which I preferred (invariably her method).
during my school years she would feed me on Wednesdays when we were with her, and always send me home with something for Thursday because she knew I was cooking for everyone else (I had a young brother & sister by then who I was raising) and eating wasn't on my list of priorities. (I was anorexic for 4 of my 7 school years with the school recording what I ate).

When I left for university, my Grannie would write out my favorite recipes and send them to me, or give then to me when I visited. I have her cookery folder now even though most of it isn't vegetarian let alone vegan...

so I guess my Grannie inspired me. I cooked for my grandfather after her death, cooking his favorites (ironically vegetable lasagne & cheese scones) and ensuring he had plenty in the freezer once a month, until my back have up on me and suddenly he was more mobile than me.

so I guess my Grannie inspired me and I cooked from necessity because my mother couldn't and still can't cook for her life.

hubby on the other hand was raised by a mother that can cook and once she got the hang of vegetarian was fine. Vegan challenges her, but she's learnt to ask because she (mostly) understands it's not a choice I made being allergic to dairy. luckily all of his brothers and he can cook and cook well, so university was great fun because both of us wanted to cook and living in the same house meant we could pitch in together and save money etc. both of us had jobs in catering as well, both actually cooking, not just cleaning or waiting on.

but I've not really got anyone to pass it on to. though my youngest brother actually went on to be a chef for over a decade before going to university and retraining. it certainly wasn't his father that inspired him to do that...