Cooking from home can be a great way to save money, and in the last year has become a necessity for most of us. Pasta and rice get boring pretty quickly we know. Many people, us included, have decided to spare our taste buds and learn to cook. 

Like learning any new skill, learning to cook is an overwhelming concept. That’s why we’ve put together this article, we want to help you get the ball rolling. 

Let’s dive right into how to become a great self-taught chef in the comfort of your own home… 

Practice 

We’ll get the boring tip out of the way first. Like with any skill the best way to improve your cooking skills is to practice. 

Malcolm Gladwell claims that we should spend at least 10,000 hours practicing to become an expert in something. It may not take that long, but practice is a sure-fire and fundamental element of becoming a good cook.  

Collect recipes 

Whether it’s through cookbooks, or by saving online recipes, having a wealth of recipes to draw from will help you challenge yourself and improve your skills. Using different ingredients and techniques will help you get to grips with the fundamentals of cooking in a practical way. 

Websites like Pinterest are great places to find tasty recipes, otherwise, head down to your local bookstore – they’ll have tonnes of recommendations for you. 

Get the right equipment

Whilst it is possible to cook good food with poor quality equipment, it is a lot less stressful to use the right tools. 

For example, getting ovenproof frying pans can open a whole new world of cooking techniques to you (you haven’t lived until you’ve tried an over baked omelet). 

It’s hard to know where to start building your kitchen collection. We found asking the passionate cooks in our lives what they think is essential. We also did a lot of research in places like The Family Kitchen Now.

We’d recommend starting off with a good set of non-stick frying pans, and a slow cooker.  

Check out an at-home cooking course 

We can hear some of you asking, if there are so many ways to learn how to cook at home, why do culinary schools still exist? 

Well, over many, many years the art of cooking has been developed and honed. Taking a cooking class allows you to build on the discoveries made by others, rather than starting completely from scratch. This is the benefit of studying cooking and attending culinary schools. 

The good news for you home chefs is that there are so many online resources that go part way to replicating this experience. The even better news is that a lot of these resources are free. 

By purchasing courses like the range from Masterclass you can take classes designed and taught by world-class chefs. Chefs like Aaron Franklin (the BBQ king) and Gordon Ramsey (of Hell’s Kitchen fame), who we mere home chefs could never hope to get lessons from otherwise. 

The downside to purchasing online courses is that they can be expensive. 

A cheaper alternative to this is to buy a cookbook that will teach you how to cook. Here are some of our favorites: 

• A modern way to cook – by Anna Jones. This book will change the way you look at vegetables. Not only is this book full of delicious recipes, but it will also spark your imagination and have you dreaming up recipes of your own 
• The Kitchen Diaries – Nigel Slater. Part cookbook, part reflection on the joys of cooking and the previous year. The Kitchen Diaries is a series by Nigel Slater that will teach you how to build recipes around what you have to hand. Plus it’s hard not to fall in love with cooking when you read Nigel’s work. 
• The Roasting Tin – Rukmini Iyer. This series is based on the concept that it is possible to make delicious meals in one roasting tin, with little to no preparation. This book is filled with some of the easiest and tastiest recipes we’ve ever cooked. 
•  5 Ingredients – by Jamie Oliver. Jamie wasn’t the first to come up with this concept, but he was the one that brought it to the forefront of people’s minds. More ingredients don’t make a better meal. It’s that simple. This book is filled to the brim with recipes that use 5 ingredients or less. They’re the perfect things to whip up when you’re tired and hungry. 
•  How to Cook, Complete – by Dehlia Smith. Is any cookbook list complete without this masterpiece? The answer is no. This is one of the all-time great cookbooks. This book is about to turn 22 and still, nothing has come close to replacing it. Anyone who wants to cook well should own this book. 

After you’ve picked yourself up a copy of Dehlia Smiths’ book it’s time to head to youtube. The website has thousands of free videos, full of great advice on how to cook from home. Because it is so easy to make a Youtube video it gives us access to so many voices and cooking styles that we wouldn’t normally come across. 

Here are some of our favorite cooking channels: 

• Cooking with Dog – although Dog is sadly no longer with us, if you’re looking for a great introduction to the world of Asian cooking then check out this channel. Whether you want to give restaurant, street food, or sushi these guys have you covered. 
•  Cooking with Chetna – Chenta is a former contestant on the uber popular Great British Bake Off, Chetna’s channel is the place to go when you want to cook some Indian cuisine. Covering a wide range of dishes from across India, Chetna’s channel is a treasure trove of delicious recipes. 
• Pick Up Limes – if you want healthy recipes coupled with mindfulness advice, check out Pick Up Limes. The host of Pick Up Limes is a doctor and dietician, who believes that eating well and being kind to ourselves will lead to greater happiness. The majority of her recipes are vegetarian and packed full of healthy ingredients. It’s hard to not love a chef who wants to help you improve your life, and make some delicious food along the way. 
• Binging with Babish – interested in learning how to make a royale with cheese, or Hogwarts’ pumpkin pie then head over to Binging with Babish. Babish creates and experiments with famous foods from TV and movies. On top of his TV and film series Babish also has a series on cooking basics – like how to correctly hold a knife or the perfect way to cook a stake. 

Extra tips 

The tips above will be of great help, but there are always more ways to improve. Here are some bonus tips that will help you improve your cooking: 

• You should start with simple recipes and techniques. Try to master those before you move on to something more complicated
• Take your new skill seriously. Reflect on how each meal went. Make notes and learn from your mistakes. 
• Using fresh ingredients will give you a better taste (but frozen fruits and vegetables are a great way to keep costs down) 
• Measure out ALL your ingredients before you start cooking 
• Read the recipe multiple times before you start cooking 
• Make the most of all the good cooks in your life – ask them questions, steal their recipes 
• Clean up as you go, you’ll never see a chef with a messy station