What’s better than ordering your favourite meal from a take out? Making it yourself! And as we know, nothing beats a home-cooked meal! Even if you have never cooked anything beyond grilled cheese, improving your cooking skills can seriously improve your quality of life.
Learning cooking as a skill is a great choice for anyone, it helps us increase our knowledge of different cuisines and flavours around the world. You will realise pretty quickly that good food can be just as convenient and quickly available as most of the junk food alternatives. Becoming more aware of how meals are constructed means you will pay more attention to what you eat which will result in smarter, more delicious, and healthy choices.
Cooking is less expensive compared to eating at restaurants, fast food joints and school cafeterias. Not to mention, spending money on pre-packaged meals gets too expensive for a young adult or families on a budget. You have the control over your menu and can pick exactly what you want to eat at every meal. Preparing fresh foods will put necessary nutrition into your diet and increase your energy and quality of health in the short and long run.
You will learn proper planning and preparation skills to see a task through while contributing in a positive way to the health of your family and friends. Cooking can also help boost your self-esteem. Cooking activities are a great way to express your artistry. You are the master of the canvas. From learning how to cut vegetables and fruits quickly or garnishing the dish in an attractive way etc. Try new things! You can always eat your mistakes. Mmm, yes, those delicious mistakes! Cooking can help you practice subjects like science, reading and math, and will increase your critical thinking. Cooking is great way to relieve stress after a hard day of school or work.
So, how to start?
You can buy a cook book: invest in a good cookbook that is presented in easy-to-understand style and goes through the most basic recipes, with scope to get adventurous as confidence levels rise.
Attend a cookery class: getting together with a group of other people who are in the same boat as you create camaraderie and support for each other’s efforts. It’s amazing how quickly group bonding and praise can raise confidence levels in the kitchen!
Searching for recipes online: arguably the easiest way would be to search for any dish you would like to cook online and you will get tons of websites with different recipes and tricks and tips to cook it.
Practice cooking: as we all know, practice makes perfect. Nothing gives you a better experience in cooking than doing it over and over again till you get it right. And believe me, if the interest levels are there in the first place, it won’t take long for you to be impressing yourself. Confidence builds confidence. It all starts from there.
So why sit idle, get up and cook that dish you love!
ANGELINA
2ND YEAR STUDENT (B. TECH-AI & ML)
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
SUSHANT UNIVERSITY
FAQs
All in all, cooking is an incredibly important skill to have. It can make you more independent, and on top of cutting down your weekly costs on food, it can allow you to cook more of what you actually want to eat instead of what's just lying around. It's truly a skill everyone should seek to learn and hone.
What are the life skills of cooking? ›
There are many life skills required and developed by planning, organizing, purchasing food, and preparing snacks & meals which are part of cooking. In addition, there are many learning outcomes such as; healthy eating habits, taking direction, creativity, working with others, safety and responsibility.
What is the most important skill in cooking? ›
Knife Skills
This is the first and foremost skill set that you learn in culinary school. It will also be one of the most tested skills during the trade test of a job interview.
How is cooking related to life? ›
In cooking, as in life, we rush through things because we're trying to get to a certain place. But along the way, we forget to look around and notice the things that happen between the beginning and the end — what we've learned about the dish, how we could have adjusted things along the way.
What life lessons does cooking teach? ›
Life Lessons from a Professional Kitchen
- Communicate clearly (and don't take criticism personally). ...
- Teamwork is essential. ...
- There is always something productive to do. ...
- Clean is calm. ...
- Don't (over)apologize. ...
- Challenge brings change.
Cooking certainly changed our ancestors' lives for the better. Heat makes food softer, so less time is needed for chewing. It also releases more calories. Mice fed cooked food get fatter than those fed equivalent raw calories.
How does cooking improve quality of life? ›
Preparing fresh foods will put necessary nutrition into your diet and increase your energy and quality of health in the short and long run. You will learn proper planning and preparation skills to see a task through while contributing in a positive way to the health of your family and friends.
Is cooking a daily living skill? ›
Gaining knowledge of various life skills can benefit an individual's ability to manage daily tasks on their own, such as cooking meals, cleaning, budgeting finances, maintaining personal hygiene, managing medication, and much more.
What is the value of learning to cook? ›
Learning to cook may help your children overcome picky eating habits. Children who are finicky about what they eat may be more inclined to try foods if they prepared or assisted in making them. They might also develop a sense of pride and accomplishment about the things that they have created.
Is cooking a skill or a talent? ›
Cooking is a technical skill that can be learned and improved with practice and education. It involves using various techniques and methods to prepare and cook food.
Cooking skills have been referred to as the ability to perform tasks related to the preparation of food, which requires preliminary procedures to its cooking, such as washing, peeling, and chopping [ 1. The state of cooking in England: The relationship of cooking skills to food choice. Br Food J.
Why is cooking important in our life? ›
By cooking for yourself, you can ensure that you and your family eat fresh, wholesome meals. This can help you to look and feel healthier, boost your energy, stabilize your weight and mood, and improve your sleep and resilience to stress. It can also help you to save money.
How is cooking an essential life skill? ›
Here's how cooking can also teach you life skills.
- Math. Did you ever think that cooking could be a fun and delicious way to teach kids basic mathematics? ...
- Reading and Comprehension. ...
- Time Management. ...
- Teamwork. ...
- Nutritional Knowledge. ...
- Creativity. ...
- Responsibility and Confidence.
Food is one of life's most basic necessities. Relying on someone else to prepare your meals be they restaurant meals, take out/deliveries or prepared convenience foods such as frozen pizzas and entrees is far from being self-reliant. So yes cooking is a survival skill.
Why is it important to cook food? ›
Inadequate cooking is a common cause of food poisoning. Cross-contamination from raw to cooked foods, such as from hands, chopping boards or utensils, can also cause food poisoning. Most foods, especially meat, poultry, fish and eggs, should be cooked thoroughly to kill most types of food poisoning bacteria.
Why is cooking for others important? ›
Yet cooking for others has been proven to provide mental health benefits beyond just bonding with loved ones. The act of preparing meals might seem selfless, but it's also a way to build confidence, self-esteem, and forge connections. Feeling connected to others is a cornerstone of being human.
Why are culinary skills important? ›
Studying culinary arts will help you expand your horizons in many ways. Not only will it help you become a professional chef, it will give you a deeper appreciation for food as culture, food as art, your health and more, all of which you can pass on to your customers through your own culinary efforts.
