My favorite little cousin, whose mother does not cook in any real sense, came over to my house for dinner last night. I knew she was coming so I made all her favorites, and she gushingly called me a great cook. As I was not reared by coyotes I thanked her for the compliment and left it at that. But I don’t really believe it, as I am, by my own estimation, a merely adequate cook.
Here is how I rank cooking skill:
Does not cook at all; all meals, including Rice Krispies & milk, must be prepared by others, possibly by court order.
Capable of pouring milk over cereal alone, or of making toast in a toaster.
Capable of preparing frozen meals whose only steps are “remove from freezer,” “cut open plastic cover,” and “place in oven for X minutes.”
Capable of actualizing simple recipes – omelets, pancakes, etc – from scratch; has about a half a dozen such memorized, but otherwise has to consult the cookbook every time, and must keep cookbook open throughout process.
Has many complex recipes memorized. When trying a new recipe must consult cookbook at the beginning but has sufficient knowledge of cooking principles not to need it throughout. Does not create new recipes.
Same as (4) except for ability to create new recipes on the fly, but does not do so regularly or systematically.
Same as (5), but creates new recipes regularly and systematically.
Same as (6), but has won at least one award for a new recipe; could conceivably run a restaurant kitchen.
I’m about a 5 on this scale; workmanlike, but not creative as a cook, and it is creativity that marks a great cook in my opinion. My aunt J is a great cook; I’m merely adequate.
But that’s just me. How do you judge a great cook? Would you consider yourself one?
I come from several generations of good cooks and my daughter is a chef. Everyone tells me I’m a good cook.
I think what makes a person a good cook are technique and being able to use whatever you have on hand. For that you need knowledge of a variety of ingredients and seasonings and how to use them as well.
I’d also rate myself as a 5. I can follow a recipe, but I mostly consider them more as guidelines, and I hardly ever make anything without putting at least something of my own stamp on it.
At least, when I’m cooking more than one serving at a time. Being a bachelor, cooking is more often a matter of “open can, pour into saucepan, heat, serve”. Doing more than that isn’t usually worth it for a single person eating a single meal.
I’m probably a 5, but I don’t have many complex recipes memorized, which may disqualify me at level 4 and make me a 3. On the other hand, I actually have run a restaurant kitchen, and I have won an award for a dish I created using my own recipe, or more specifically, using no recipe. But the award was based simply on a tasting of the dish, and not specifically for the recipe itself.
I don’t think I’m rateable on your scale. Typically I follow recipes I find online or read in Cooks Illustrated. Frankly I don’t rate robotic following of a printed recipe much higher than thawing a frozen dinner, YMMV. Sometimes I make something by combining concepts from a number of recipes to make a flavor that is very different. I’ve had people lavish praise on me for these sorts of dishes – “ZOMG, you should be a chef” But I have borked that process severely, and made something that is only barely edible. Or even inedible. Such that people would rather go hungry than eat something so tasteless.
I wouldn’t rank things the same way as you. I’m somewhere between a 3 and a 5:
-I’ve got a fair number of recipes I can do from scratch; but
-I love trying out new recipes and do so when I can; and
-I generally follow a recipe slavishly the first time I try it; but
-I’ve gotten to the point where if I see a flaw in a recipe I’ll usually ignore it; and
-I know how to use a variety of basic techniques; and
-I often mess around with new ideas in my recipes. What if I make my famous dill bread with a poppyseed crust? How does it change these cookies if I use a different nut as the base? How do different vegetables affect the flavor of the chicken stock?
My wife suggests that you can’t be a truly great cook until you’re a grandma (or, I suppose, a grandpa), and I think there’s some truth to that. Truly excellent cooking takes a lifetime to master.
I like cooking for its own sake–hence my frequent baking* of desserts I have no intention of eating myself–which perhaps differentiates us. And in addition to finding the process both interesting and relaxing, making meals from scratch allows me to get exactly what I want, made exactly as I think it should be made, which is rarely the case in a restaurant. Also, when I was bachelor, the can-saucepan thing made me feel terribly lonely.
I hate eating alone. I think I’ve mentioned before that, when my wife & child are away and I’m home alone for the day, I’ll make a great big meal and leave the apartment door open to lure my neighbors in.
You don’t have to use my scale. One of the thread questions was “What makes a great cook in your eyes?”
I can’t agree. One of my best friends from college was, at the tender age of 22, a great cook: constantly making up new recipes which more often than not were absolutely wonderful.
I’m a solid 6. I only look for recipes if I’m using a completely unfamiliar ingredient, and even then I just read a few to get a general idea of complements and contrasts and then create my own dish. I cook dinner nearly every night and rarely repeat a recipe precisely.
A recent example is crab bisque. I had a bunch of leftover crab shells and a bit of meat and decided to make crab bisque. I knew how wanted it to look and taste, but decided to consult a few recipes. I looked at five or six and decided they were all rubbish and just struck out on my own. It was great, and the only disappointing thing was my inability to share a recipe with our dinner guests when they requested it.
I’d probably rate myself a 5 or a 6, depending on how motivated I’m feeling on a given day. The one area I think I really lack, that your poll doesn’t address, is presentation. I’ve never really gotten the hang of serving food that’s prettier than ‘heap of delicious on a plate’.
From the thread title, I was going to call myself a 0, but reading your criteria, I’m actually a 2. I regularly pour milk on cereal and toast bagels in a toaster oven, and I have been known to cook a frozen pizza in the oven.
I have taken actual cooking classes, but I am clearly lacking some basic skill that allows recipes to be properly translated into edible food. The sad thing is that my mother is a great cook, so I can’t even blame it on heredity.
I guess I’m a 6, unless you count my win last night at a very casual “Chopped” type competition as an award for a recipe :p. Even then, there’s no way I could run a restaurant kitchen. And honestly, I think that there’s a world of difference between being a good cook and running a restaurant kitchen - being able to cook for a small group of people has nowhere near the same skillset as being able to consistently put out 200+ dishes a night at high quality.
I’d say about half my cooking is me just deciding I want “dish X” tonight and making it. Sometimes I’ll consult a few recipes or look around on the web, but a lot of time I won’t, especially if I’m cooking my core areas.
The other half the time I’m following recipes because I’m not familiar with a certain technique/ingredients/whatever, or I just found a recipe that looks good so I’m going to do it.
I have a lot of stuff in my head - techniques, ratios, etc - so I have a lot to go on, even without any references.
A 7 on your scale. My awards were for variations of a traditional recipes, but I haven’t entered a lot of contests. And I have run a couple of restaurant kitchens. I think it’s largely a matter of experience on top of basic knowledge, and anyone from a 3 rating on this scale and upward could do the same thing with enough experience.
3) Capable of actualizing simple recipes – omelets, pancakes, etc – from scratch; has about a half a dozen such memorized, but otherwise has to consult the cookbook every time, and must keep cookbook open throughout process.
This is me.
6) Same as (5), but creates new recipes regularly and systematically.
This is my SO.
Now I am a decent cook and my few recipes are very good, but what it takes to be a very good cook is love. And I just don’t have it. I could care less what I’m cooking and TBH if I was living on my own would probably be 90% vegetarian anyway. I just don’t care that much about food. Sure, I like it, and I eat it, and I like good foods…but honestly I am just as happy with leftover pizza.
My SO simply cannot comprehend this. I don’t mean he doesn’t try. I mean it doesn’t even seem to register in his brain when I say…I DON’T CARE WHAT I EAT (as long as it’s somewhat healthy). To him food is a form of showing love. To me, it’s just a necessity, I have to eat to live, who cares what I eat?
So because of that, and because he cooks so much better than me, I am not really inclined to improve my skills. Why bother? It would take me ten years to maybe reach his level, and I’m just not that interested.
