I cannot express how much a rice cooker and an air fryer make things so much easier.

Get yourself a slow cooker. You can make crazy easy and tasty stuff with one. Most recipes just involve chopping up some ingredients and throwing them in the pot to cook for 8hrs.

Smoked paprika is a very nice spice.

If you have cats, they will be on the counters. Wash everything before cooking anything. Even if you don’t, probably still should.

Sometimes experiments taste bad. This is okay. We learn yes yes.

Honestly most home cooking is not very hard. You do need to be taught a few basic concepts, like how to chop vegetables, what different cooking methods like frying/sautéing/baking/roasting/etc refer to, but once you have the basic concepts down, you can do the majority of recipes you find online.

For learning the basics, there are quite a few cookbooks aimed at complete beginners. I was staying with a friend and rifling through her cookbooks—she had one aimed at students that spent time explaining all the basic cooking concepts at the start of the book before you get to the recipes.

Where the skill comes in is stopping following recipes and being able to come up with a dish that tastes good. It takes a while to learn good flavour combinations, when’s the right time to add an ingredient, how exactly to cook each ingredient, etc. But I would say a beginner can follow the majority of recipes I see shared around online. Just look for recipes that sound like something you actually want to eat. Read the instructions to check they don’t sound too hard, and then go for it. Good luck, and enjoy your cooking journey!

Soup is the garbage disposal for your fridge. As long as it’s not actively rotting, throw it in a pot and boil in for two hours, it will taste pretty good. The more different things you add, the better it tastes.

Any time you eat meat, keep the scraps/fat bits/bones, stick them in a container in your freezer. Toss that in the soup pot.

Chef John (FoodWishes) and Alton Brown on youtube are good resources. Chef John makes a lot of relatively simple homey-meals. Things you could take to a picnic, or serve at thanksgiving: potatoes au gratin, casseroles, that sort of thing. His oleo-saccharum lemonade is a winner. Alton brown is more of a food nerd. He often makes nostalgic things and always tries to elevate whatever he cooks to perfection.

I recommend starting with soup. It’s extraordinarily versatile and you can make large batches if you’ve got food storage (or hell, sometimes I just stick the whole pot in the fridge and dip in the ladle as-needed. does tie up the pot though.). Soup is an excellent way to use up many leftovers; fried rice is a good ‘refrigerator magnet’ too.

Yooooo this community slaps, what is going on? Literally every post a useful piece of advice. You rock!

Fellow non-cook that sometimes dabbles here: my favorite easy food prep is a pack of ramen, then add a whole bunch of stuff I like. I cook this according to the directions on the packet, but while it’s boiling I’ll add a teaspoon of my favorite hot sauce, some smoked tofu, maybe some kimchi, corn, beans, and/or whatever I’m in the mood for.

Pasta sauce: The jarred stuff is loaded with salt. Get 2 cans of diced tomatoes (I get sodium-free petite diced) and one 6oz can of tomato paste. Dump them in a pan to heat up and add black pepper, basil, oregano, and whatever other spices you want to taste. It’s nearly as easy and tastes way better.

Omelet: I tried finding the minute long video that taught me this a few years back but it’s now lost to the sea of how to omelet videos out there. Crack the egg(s) into a bowl and nothing else. Blend them with a fork or whisk. Heat the pan on the stove to 3, 4 max. Lower is better. Then throw enough butter on to melt across the pan, maybe a tbsp. Cover the surface with the melted butter, then dump the egg blend on top. You should use enough eggs to just barely cover the pan about a half centimeter thick. Let it cook all the way through, it can take a bit on the low heat, but it’s worth it. As it finishes cooking through throw some shredded cheese, spinach, or whatever on top. Fold it over however you like. I really wish I could find that video because it’s a lot easier to see than to read.

You might be tempted to go buy a bunch of equipment but you can get really far with the basics once you’ve learned good technique:

• a decent paring knife and 10" chef’s knife (Victorinox fibrox are decent quality and not too expensive as knives go)
• an end grain wood cutting board
• a medium sauce pan
• one or two sheet pans
• one 8" or 10" stainless steel skillet
• a spatula and some wooden spoons
• a pair of tongs
• stackable measuring cups and spoons

That will get you very far. If you find you’re enjoying cooking and want to improve your kit, you can add things as you need them (whisk, masher, boning knife, stock pot, etc.). Try to avoid buying unitaskers. You can mince garlic with a knife, so unless you’re mincing a ton of garlic, a garlic press is probably not a good investment because it only does one thing.

There are a ton of video tutorials for learning knife skills online but if you want something printed, Henkels has a Complete Book of Knife Skills that I’ve found very useful.

You’ll want to keep your knives sharp. You can learn to do it yourself with a double sided 400/1000 water stone and a video tutorial. A ceramic pull through sharpener will do in a pinch but they’re pretty hard on the knives. Metal pull through sharpeners will destroy the edges of your knives, so don’t buy one of those. Also don’t use anything motorized because the heat can damage the heat treat and wreck your knife.

You will read on the Internet that cast iron is the One True Material for skillets and frying pans. People who say this are in a cult. Cast iron pans are great for searing because they retain a lot of heat but stainless clad aluminum will give you better control and more even heating, Teflon will give you better non-stick performance, etc. Personally, I reach for my stainless steel skillet most often, which is why I recommended it above. You may also read that you should never wash cast iron with soap because it will ruin the seasoning. This is bunk. The seasoning is chemically bonded to the surface and you can’t scrub it away unless you’re physically removing material with hard abrasives or caustic chemicals. Soap and a scrubby will not hurt your pan. Do thoroughly dry anything cast iron after you wash it, as it will rust if you don’t.

There is probably a restaurant supply in your area and they are probably open to the public. That’s a great place to get things like skillets, sheet pans, racks, ramekins, tongs, etc.

Pick up (or borrow from the library) a cookbook that teaches cooking technique through recipes. These are some of my favourites:

• Ruhlmann’s Twenty - Michael Ruhlmann
• The Food Lab - J. Kenji Lopez-Alt
• Salt Fat Acid Heat - Samin Nosrat

Don’t be afraid to cut corners or make easy “cheat” dishes when you start out. Not everything has to be from scratch or top quality or take you all day to make. I’ve made recipes as hard as beef wellington and I’ve made microwave bean nachos and both hit in the right context. There’s a lot of pomposity in cooking and it’s good in its place, but at the end of the day its just something we do for fun. Don’t forget to have fun when you cook!

My favorite Youtuber is Binging with Babish, others will probably mention him; he is getting very popular in recent years. He is a lot of fun, wholesome, down to earth and the man can cook.

My favorite cookbook is The Flavor Matrix by James Briscione; it talks abot food synergy, pairings and a bit of food science. Overall a good intermediate read.

My favorite recipe is Babish’s level 10 cookies, which is my favorite dessert of all time.

My favorite dish is Bucatini Carbonara, a Central Italian pasta dish made with eggs, cheese, and pancetta or guanciale. Authentic carbonara is a true delight, but (don’t tell the Italians) you can make an easy version with bacon and onions that is pretty dang good.

The instant pot pressure cooker is extremely underrated. It can replace a rice cooker and can also make things like chicken tacos, baked/mashed potatoes, hard boiled eggs, oatmeal, and can slow cook in a pinch. Plus it cuts cooking time in half.

I recommend investing in a nicer rice cooker. The cheaper ones always burn the bottom. Them use some boxed broth or stock instead of water. You can throw in a can of chicken and add cheese at the end and you have easy chicken and rice.

It’s nice to see people taking an interest into new stuff, especially their food! Not every meal can (nor should) be a gourmet meal, but there are many easy and cheap options. I see many suggestions regarding rice and stews, both great base options, but might I recommend soups! I also highly recommend getting a hand blender to easily make good and nice-tasting soups (or smoothies in the summer :) ).

I’ll even throw in an easy recipe:

• 1kg tomatoes
• 1 zucchini/courgette
• 1 bell pepper or sweet pepper
• 2 onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1L of bouillon (water + bouillon cubes is the easiest)
• cooking oil (pref. olive oil) Optional additional spices:
• basil
• oregano
• sage
• thyme

Dice the onions and mince the garlic (or chop it finely). Cut the tomatoes, zucchini, and pepper into small pieces. Bake the onions, garlic, and bell pepper in some cooking oil on low-medium heat until the onions start to brown. Add the tomatoes and zucchini. Put the lid on the pot and leave for 5-10 minutes. If the tomatoes are soft and the skin starts to come loose, they’re good for the next step. Add the bouillon and any other optional spices and bring to a simmer. Boil for at least 30 minutes, but longer is perfectly fine. Blend the soup - be aware that it’s hot, so wear long sleeves and oven mitts. Serve immediately or keep it for a day to let the flavours set.

This is a great base soup that you can tweak as much as you like. Want a sweeter soup? Swap the pepper for some carrots or pumpkin! Want a more acidic and fresh taste? Add some white wine vinegar. You can also add some chickpeas or meatballs and vermicelli after blending if you want a more filling soup. Be sure to boil the soup for some time after blending in that case.

A couple of pieces of advice:

Treat recipes as lists of techniques

When you look at recipes, don’t just look at them as ‘instructions to make [insert meal here]’. Look at them as ways to prepare and cook [insert ingredient here] as well. Here is an ‘easy’ recipe for Ragù alla Bolognese (it’s a pretty crap Bolognese recipe to be honest, but it works for this example because it’s so simple). And, of course, it tells you how to make a very basic Bolognese sauce.

But it also tells you how to make a flavor base for a sauce using onion and garlic. It tells you how to get more flavour from the ground beef by browning it. It tells you how to enrich your sauce with red wine, and that you should let that simmer until the alcohol has mostly evaporated. It gives you some things you can add to a sauce to get more flavor: Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, and thyme. It tells you that you can get a richer, deeper flavor by simmering for a long time. Each of these techniques is transferable to other dishes.

You could, very easily, use the same recipe, but drop the wine, the Worcestershire, and the herbs. Add some cumin, paprika, chilli powder at the start, and beans towards the end, and garnish with chopped coriander/cilantro to make a simple chilli.

Or, ditch the wine, swap the Worcestershire and herbs for some ginger, cumin and garam masala, add peas at the end, and make a simple Keema Mutar curry.

The core of all three of those dishes (from three different continents!) is: Soften onion and garlic. Brown mince. Add tomatoes and cuisine-appropriate spices/herbs. Simmer. Add quick cooking veggies near the end.

If you treat recipes like this you learn techniques not just meals. Once you have a few techniques learned you’ll have the confidence to improvise because you know the fundamentals will work.

Mise en Place

When you’re feeling brave and trying something complex, or something you’ve never cooked before, try mise en place. This is the cheffy name for ‘getting everything ready’. One of the most stressful bits of cooking a new recipe is when you get to, eg: “Step 8. Add the fish sauce”, and you need to scroll back up the screen (if you’re using a website or an app) to look at how much fish sauce you need, then find the fish sauce, then find a measuring spoon, then scrolling back up again because you’ve already forgotten how much fish sauce you need, etc.

Instead, you work your way through the list of ingredients and measure everything out before you start any cooking. If the recipe lists chopped onion, get that onion, chop it, stick it in a bowl ready for when it’s needed. If multiple veggies are added at the same time, prepare them and put them in the same bowl. Where I live, takeaway Chinese food comes in little plastic tubs. I have a dozen or so of these that I use for this purpose. They’re free, stackable, washable, and a good size for most ingredients.

This has three huge benefits. Firstly, you double check you have everything you need before you start cooking (and have time to google ‘alternative to tomatillos’ or whatever, or get someone to run to the store to pick up what you need). Secondly it’s a lot easier to do all your veggie prep in one go, then meat prep in one go, and so on. And thirdly, it makes following the recipe so much more relaxed and easy because everything is ready to go and - if you’ve checked the recipe in advance as well - in the right order for when you need them. There’s not much more stress in the kitchen than suddenly realising that you need to add an ingredient now that will take five or ten minutes to clean and prepare! Doing your mise en place makes the cooking feel almost like cheating it becomes so easy.

Bonus advice

Keep your chopping boards segregated! I have one that I only use, and always use, for raw meat. I never use any of the others for raw meat, only veggies, cooked meats, etc. You do not want to prepare a salad on the same chopping board you used to cut up your raw chicken.