Learn to Cook · A Down and Dirty Guide to Cooking (For People Who Never Learned How)

5 Reasons You Should Learn To Cook!

You will be richer. Dude, it’s fucking expensive to be going to restaurants all the time, especially if you’re dating someone and you gotta pay for two people. A home cooked meal is way more impressive to most people than a strange place with dim lighting and a jazz band. Just light some candles in your apartment, put on some Hootie, and make some spaghetti and meat balls. Done! For like a quarter of the cost of Olive Garden.

You will be healthier. Even if you aren’t eating at McDonald’s every day, you still can’t ever really know what you are eating unless you watched it get made. At any restaurant, you have very little control over what you are putting into your body. Own your body and take responsibility for feeding it well.

You will get laid more. Cooking good food is sexy.

You will feel more like a grown-up human being. Cooking food is a basic human activity that adults should to be able to do. Like driving a car, handling liquor, and holding down a job.

You will be more independent. Depending on someone else for sustenance is like having to pay for air AND leave your house to get it three times a day.

You may not think you are a “natural cook”. I maintain that all that means is that you didn’t grow up doing it every day. If you’d been playing piano every day since you were 5, you’d be a bad ass right now, not because you’re a “natural” but because you learned how to do it. Even if you’ve never cooked, you can still start now and be awesome at it pretty quickly. You don’t require any innate talent to be a good cook some day soon.

Lots of people have told me they’ve tried teaching themselves to cook from regular cookbooks. It doesn’t seem to work so well. There’s a ton of unfamiliar terminology and it’s intimidating. But, whatever. You can do this. I’ll teach you the words and techniques you need to know to cook basic meals.