How to start cooking if you've never done It before

Chegg
·8 min read
photo of a person standing in a home kitchen at a counter with a cutting board with food on it in front of them. There's a knife in their hand and they're looking at a tablet on the counter.
photo of a person standing in a home kitchen at a counter with a cutting board with food on it in front of them. There's a knife in their hand and they're looking at a tablet on the counter.

When I started college, I only had about two years of cooking experience. It was something I loved, making large, elaborate family meals. But I had never cooked for one.

I found myself in an apartment alone, with a grocery store about 10 minutes away, and decided to give solo cooking a shot. Little did I know how much money I would save, substituting expensive NYC restaurant-hopping for home-cooked meals, and how much fun I would have in the process.

If you have access to a kitchen with basic cooking equipment, you can start crafting exciting meals for yourself just like I did, even if your chef skills are so bad you’d be Gordon Ramsay’s No. 1 target.

Here’s how you can begin your cooking journey.

Invest in the right equipment and utensils

There’s no need to buy fancy grills, toaster ovens or matching ceramic pots to get your cooking off to a solid start. You need just a few essential tools that can be used and reused for your kitchen creations.

Your shopping list can include:

  • Wooden spoon

  • Turning spatula

  • Colander

  • Tongs

  • Vegetable peeler

  • Mixing bowl

  • Plastic cutting board

  • Whisk

  • Set of kitchen utensils (knife, fork, spoon, etc.)

  • Saucepan with lid

  • Kitchen scissors

  • Sharper knife for cutting produce

  • Set of measuring cups/spoons

  • Baking sheet/oven mitts, if access to an oven is available

  • Plates, cups, bowls and other servingware

  • Tupperware and plastic wrap for storing leftovers.


Beyond this list, buy items as you see fit. Most online and print recipes are prefaced with a list of needed equipment; it’s a good idea to reference this list and see if you need to get anything extra.

A quick trip to your local Goodwill or alternative resale store can prove to you that cooking doesn’t need to be an expensive hobby (and that your cups don’t have to match the color of your bowls). If you can’t find specific items there, you can always resort to Amazon, which has thousands of functional cooking items that won’t break the bank.

Sharpen your knife skills

Practically every recipe calls for a strong grasp of knife skills, and these can be the toughest to learn. Even the most seasoned chefs practice chops and slices on a regular basis to keep their coordination and speed intact.

Watch a few videos (like these!) to learn the basics:

Different foods call for different cutting and chopping methods as well as different kinds of knives. But if you only have one multifunctional kitchen knife, fear not (as long as it’s not too small for the item that needs a chop). I personally have one that looks something like this and allows for sturdy, durable handling of various ingredients.

To bake or not to bake?

If you have an oven on hand, this method of food prep is one of the easiest and most efficient: Just season your ingredient, lay it out on an oven-safe pan and let it do its thing for the next 45 minutes. However, not all dishes are fit to be baked. Baking has the advantages of eliminating the need for added fat (like oils used in pan-frying) to cook food and allowing for maximum flavor of the end result. Pan-frying, however, saves a lot of time, allows for more moisturized texture of any given food item and provides a certain crispness that cannot be achieved in the oven.

For baking, I recommend starting with these basics, which do very well in ovens:

  • Salmon (season with spices of choice and make sure to add a pat of butter on the orange, fleshy side)

  • Chicken (think: rotisserie)

  • Sweet potatoes (cut them up like fries and enjoy them as a snack)

  • Baked zucchini (top with cheese and Italian seasoning for a delectable meal)

Buy seasonally to save money

Grocery shopping seems simple enough, but picking what exactly to buy is a skill of its own.

Carefully peruse the ingredient list of any given recipe you plan on making and buy accordingly. Another good strategy is to purchase seasonal fruits and vegetables and then find recipes that incorporate them.

Seasonal produce is often fresher than food consumed out of season. In-season crops are harvested at the peak of their ripeness, meaning the quality of their flavor will be better than that of crops harvested before their time. Every season has tons of fruits and veggies at their peak, and you can easily find this information online.

Another bonus of buying seasonally is that the produce is much cheaper, since the costs of transporting it over long distances are minimized and supply is much greater than during the off-season.

Freeze your leftovers and buy canned items

To spare yourself frequent trips to the grocery store and ensure you have a constant supply of things to eat, store any leftover ingredients or meals in the freezer.

Different kinds of food can require different methods of freezing (consult this comprehensive guide on how to store various types of produce and reheat them properly for optimal flavor). For instance, vegetables can be frozen in a parchment-lined pan and, once they solidify, transferred to plastic bags for easier freezer storage. Soup can be stored in reusable containers and later thawed in a saucepan over stovetop heat or in a microwave.

Make sure you have enough reusable containers and plastic wrap for the task, which will allow you to enjoy that spiced couscous or lemon-braised salmon long after it leaves the stove.

Another method of stocking up and saving money is to supplement your fresh produce buys with cans of healthy foods that have a lengthy shelf life. You can incorporate ingredients like sweet corn, lima beans, chickpeas, tuna and more into a plethora of kitchen creations without worrying about these items starting to rot. As an added bonus, canned goods are cheaper than their “uncanned” counterparts, perfect for continuing your mission of saving money while cooking for yourself in college. My go-to canned-food-inspired dish is a tuna-chickpea casserole, blended with some noodles, baby peas (also out of a can!), carrots and a few other ingredients.

Begin with basic recipes and go from there

Before you’ve bought the ingredients and set out all of your kitchen tools, you should probably figure out what to cook. While you can certainly improvise your way into a meal using what you have on hand, recipes for any and all types of dishes are in abundance online.

Websites like Epicurious, Simply Recipes, Delish, and Allrecipes have dedicated Quick & Easy sections that will allow you to “break into” the cooking world with ease. Starting with simple one-pot meals, like a frittata, or “five-ingredient-or-less” options, like homemade fettuccine alfredo, will allow you to get the basics of the craft down. If you are a visual learner, most recipe websites offer detailed, step-by-step picture guides for how to cook a particular dish. YouTube channels like Tasty and Twisted show an even more in-depth look at the cooking process.

To make cooking less overwhelming, you can also try it with just two or three ingredients for the whole week. Pick up, say, bok choy, eggs and jasmine rice from the store. With just those foods, you’re set to make easy bibimbap for your lunches and dinners while eating bok choy omelets for breakfast. Or, start by creating a weekly menu in which each dish draws from the same pool of ingredients (without necessarily confining yourself to only two or three). For example, you can bake crispy plantain chips, use the leftovers for plantain/black bean tacos and then create microwave-steamed plantains topped with eggs for the morning. This cooking routine will show you just how versatile ingredients are and how little you need to get started in the kitchen.

Remember to approach cooking from a creative place. While baking often requires a rigid, rule-adhering attitude, cooking is a looser task. Minor mistakes like oversalting can be easily fixed with a splash of lemon juice, for instance.  

Some great starter recipes I’ve tried out, that take little preparation yet allow you to fully immerse yourself in the cooking include:

Cook with (or for) friends

Sharing the fruits of your labor can motivate you to cook. Enter: the potluck.

Invite your friends and roommates to cook with you. Have each person bring an ingredient or recipe, collaborate on the cooking and then eat your creations together. Your friends might also know kitchen skills that you’re unfamiliar with (and vice versa), so you can spend some time exchanging tips in between gossip and movie recommendations.

Happy cooking!

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