Whether you’re learning to cook for yourself, your significant other or your whole family, keep these 10 tips in mind as you brave the kitchen.

1. Establish a Routine

Practice. Like anything, learning to cook well requires practice. If you are serious about your cooking, you have to commit to doing it regularly. Try to prepare all of your meals on your own for at least one week to get yourself fully immersed in the kitchen. Simply approaching cooking with a positive mind-set and a “can-do” attitude will make the process seem a lot easier. You might even have some fun!

2. Start With Basic Recipes

In the midst of your newfound passion for cooking, and especially if you are pleased with your progress, you might get carried away and attempt an impressive dish like paella or baked Alaska. However, these dishes are only so impressive because they are quite challenging recipes that you should wait to attempt until you’ve developed your cooking skills a bit more. Instead, the best way to improve your cooking is to begin with the basics, such as pasta or a stir-fry.

3. Simple is Best

Because you’re sticking with basic recipes, you can keep your cooking equipment simple, too. When you first start learning to cook at home, all you need is the bare minimum of cooking supplies. Spare yourself from purchasing a bunch of fancy kitchen gadgets and focus on mastering the cooking tools you already have instead. 

4. Check Your Spice Collection

To make tasty dishes full of flavour, you will need a sizable spice collection. Most notably, you will need to make sure to have these essentials always on hand:

Sea salt

Black pepper

Garlic powder (fresh garlic if preferred)

Curry powder

Paprika

Basil

Parsley

These base spices will help you create delicious, well-seasoned dishes. Fresh onions are also a staple item for many dishes, keep these stored naturally in a vegetable basket where possible.  As you become more adept, you will naturally acquire more spices for a wider range of cuisines.

5. Invest in a Set of Pans

Regardless of what you plan on cooking, a high-quality set of pans is a necessity. Purchasing pans from a reliable brand will prevent you from finding pieces of coating from cheap pans in your food and avoid disappointing results. Remember that old saying ‘a bad worker always blames his tools!’ To start, make sure you have a frying pan, sauté pan, stockpot and cast iron skillet in your cooking arsenal. 

6. Ensure Knives Are Sharp

Just like a reliable set of pans is a must, well-made knives are crucial for good cooking. Using a high-quality, sharp knife in the kitchen can save you from frustration as well as potential injuries from trying to saw away at something with a dull or blunted knife. For beginners, a chef’s knife, a paring knife and a serrated bread knife are the entire cutlery you will need.

7. Prepare

Before you start cooking, get out all the supplies you’ll need and measure all of your ingredients. Doing this will make the entire cooking process go smoother by saving you from continually washing your hands to retrieve, measure and add in a new ingredient. You will also want to make sure you preheat the oven whenever necessary before diving into prepping a recipe.

8. Cook in Bulk

Even if you fall in love with cooking throughout the learning process, there will be days you don’t have the time or motivation to whip up a full meal from scratch. Cooking some meals in bulk so you have enough leftovers to store in the freezer will provide you with a good back-up dinner plan for those busy days.

9. Follow the Recipe

In general, it’s best to wait to go off-recipe until you’ve become more confident with your cooking.  As you keep following recipe ingredients, measurements and instructions exactly, you’ll start to learn how different components work together and what can be substituted for certain ingredients. Eventually, you’ll be able to modify adapt and change recipes, to suit your taste and to create your own custom variations.

10. Be Patient With Yourself

Even experienced chefs can sometimes find unexpected things can still pop up out of nowhere and ruin a meal. Although it can be frustrating to see all that time and energy go down the drain, keep in mind that cooking is a learning process and don’t give up. Instead, focus on learning something each time you cook by figuring out what worked and what didn’t, which will make you into a better chef for the future.

Enjoy the journey!