I think this has more to do with what kind of restaurants you go to

I meal prep for the week on sunday and make food for the week. Every week what I make is as good or better than the restaurant version. This week is Kenji Lopez’s cochinita pibíl with which I make tacos. It is very good and took me like 3hrs to cook over the weekend.

Yeah this is what I don’t get. Of course the first 2-3 times you try, it might be bad, but use your senses! Use ingredients you like, try adding a little something, look, taste, put more if you like, stop if you don’t. If the texture seems weird, try to correct it (add a liquid if it’s to dense, let cook if it’s too liquid). Get that feedback loop running!

It does not take very many tries to start cooking better than a restaurant.

Goddam it must be some lousy restaurants in your area.
My wife cooks really good food, and I love her food. But a proper restaurant with a proper chef, they are better than good, they are professionals and also professionals at picking fresh produce and good cuts to use.

But I agree, it’s pretty easy to learn to cook a decent meal.

And the best part is you can make sure that only your favorite ingredients get in there.

It also means the food will have less variation. To appreciate good cooking properly, you need variation.

Ive refused to ever eat at an olive garden for goodness, goin on 20 years now because anything on their menu, I can make better

I started using “Chef’s Plate” a little more than a year ago. I love knowing that my food was not mishandled and is cooked to my liking every time. It’s convenient that I dont need much grocery shopping and the quality of my meals are waaayyyy better than takeout.

Where the heck do you live 😁, I mean better than takeout okay but in general better than a restaurant? No way.

I have been slim my whole life apart from that one year I perfected mac & cheese.

Oh my dog, yes. An ex made amazing lasagnas, better than I have ever tasted before or since, and in really large quantities … but it was going to give me a heart attack if I carried on having it twice a week.

We broke up after a couple of years, though, so instead of a heart attack I just had a broken heart instead :')

Make Mediterranean salad, cannot eat too much of that stuff (and you can vary it wildly too).

Start with soup. Soup is easy to get good at, and teaches you techniques that are critical for other dishes.

Then do sauces (which are just soups in a top-hat), inc making a roux.

With classical cooking techniquesyou turn boring steamed veg and grilled chicken into grilled veg and steamed chicken with a mushroom sauce.

I remember making a broccoli and cheese casserole. It was simple enough but I done gone and fucked it up.

The broccoli was chopped proper, the cheese was dense (more of a brick/ball than a sauce when I tossed it in the oven) and then I saw a cup of milk in my mise en place still sitting there. no wonder the cheese was… Bricklike?

I was very new to cooking. So I just opened up the oven in a panic and splashed the milk on top of the casserole. It was bad. The broccoli almost cooked, the milk heated up and evaporated a little, and there was this sense clump of cheese and exerting what goes in roux but milk.

It was poverty days, but I had to throw it out it was so bad. I made a bowl of cereal (dry, since the last of my milk was now broccoli) and went to bed. It’s important to know when you’re beaten.

Anyways, if there is a food you like a lot, it’s worth learning to cook. I almost have my gyro recipe finished (the secret ingredient is bacon)

It really is and has been over the years

I’ve been cooking good food for a long long time, I mostly shared this because one of my friends is quite early in his journey of learning to cook lol

By constantly complaining they’re broke.

I’ve lost count of the number of people I know tangentially who complain about not having any money yet talk about constantly ordering DoorDash for some cookies or other frivolous crap.

My boss doesn’t even own silverware, he eats out 3 meals a day EVERY day.

Some people can afford it so they never cook.

There used to be a Chinese takeaway near a place I lived who sold food so cheaply that it was cheaper than cooking at home

Depends where you live too. In some countries it’s almost the same price eating out as cooking your own meals.

yep.

Or way more worse

I only eat out like once MAYBE twice a month anymore.

That shit’s expensive!

I kind of want to try it now, though. It’s a thing to fry rice before you cook it, so maybe you can also do that with oatmeal?

Hell yeah!

The journey of learning to cook has so many awesome things in it!

Just wait until you jump into baking, that one also has so many awesome stops in it!

It’s straight up bliss that first time it happens!

Nothing wrong with that

The prep work is why I usually stick to simple dishes in large quantities.

Lots of left overs are always a perk.

I grow oregano in my garden and it booms big this time of year, I put it in everything, I also have mexican mint that just gives and gives

growing herbs is a wonderful way to practicehow to use them

My dog complains when we have a new bag of dog biscuit but still give her stale biscuit from the open bag.

No need to No True Doberman the discussion. There are plenty of picky dogs in the world.

Some dogs (like people) are more particular about their food. Your pet might be bored with their current diet or may have developed an aversion to the way their food tastes, looks, or feels. Additionally, dogs receiving frequent treats or table scraps may become reluctant to eat their regular dog food, in the hopes that a better-tasting treat will be coming along shortly.

https://www.greatpetcare.com/dog-behavior/reasons-your-dog-is-a-picky-eater/