Let’s be honest. Cooking, especially when you’re just starting out, can feel like an ambush. (especially when you have your kidlings running around, chasing each other or trying to salvage snacks, RIGHT BEFORE DINNER)
One moment you’re standing there, hungry, reheating some noodles in a chipped mug, and the next, you’re expected to understand what mise en place means, how to hold a knife properly, and why the tomato sauce you just made somehow tastes like a watery mistake. But here’s the thing that makes all of this okay: you don’t need a shiny kitchen, the newest gadgets, or even an arsenal of spices. What you need, more than anything else, is a few steady tricks that actually work, some ingredients you trust, and the ability to accept that messing it up a few times is just part of how you get better.
Having a well stocked pantry might seem like a small thing, but when it comes to cooking regularly, it makes all the difference in the world. Think about what you actually use, what meals you come back to, and stock up on those staples. Olive oil, sea salt, a couple of types of pasta, canned beans like chickpeas or kidney, a jar of crushed tomatoes that didn’t cost the earth, these are small things that can unlock whole meals. Throw in garlic powder and onion powder for flavour, maybe some brown rice or quinoa for substance, and a can of coconut milk for those moments when you want something creamy but don’t want to fuss. Keep your pantry organized in a way that makes sense to you. Label things if it helps. Try to rotate older ingredients to the front so you actually use them before they go stale. It might not be glamorous, but it saves you from that 6pm panic where nothing’s defrosted and your stomach’s yelling.
Leafy greens, while not always the headliner, can be slipped into more meals than you think without turning it into a salad situation. Spinach stirred into your pasta sauce? Easy. Kale scattered on top of homemade pizza? Surprisingly good. Collard greens sautéed next to whatever protein you’ve got? That works too. Even if the recipe doesn’t specifically call for it, your body probably will thank you.

When it comes to kitchen tools, it’s tempting to believe that you need everything you see on a cooking show, but that’s just not true. Start small and start smart. Get yourself a chef’s knife that fits your hand comfortably and makes you feel safe when you use it. Add a wood or bamboo cutting board that won’t wreck your blades, a saucepan with a decent lid, and a non-stick skillet that you promise to treat gently. Use silicone or wooden utensils with it, they don’t cost much and they’ll keep your cookware from turning into a flaky mess. A pair of tongs, some measuring cups, and a spatula that doesn’t melt if you forget it near the burner round out the basics. You don’t need more than that to cook well.

Cooking terms can be confusing, especially when recipes throw them at you like you’re supposed to already know. Broiling means heat comes from above; grilling means heat comes from below. Boiling means a full, aggressive rolling bubble, great for things like pasta or potatoes, while simmering is a gentler heat, better for soups or sauces where you want time to let flavours come together. Roasting uses dry heat to bring out the sweetness in vegetables, or to make meat crispy on the outside while staying juicy inside. Flip halfway through. And if you’re roasting meat, give it time to rest once it’s out of the oven
PS
It keeps the juices in and stops it from drying out.
Always read your recipe from start to finish before you begin. It sounds basic, but it’s easy to skip. Some steps take longer than you think, like letting dough rest for two hours or marinating something ahead of time. Make sure you understand what each step involves, and take a second to look up anything unfamiliar. A lot of food blogs come with videos now, and sometimes the video shows you something the written steps don’t, like the texture you’re looking for, or what colour the onions should be when they’re “translucent.”
Before you even start heating your pan, set up your ingredients. This is what mise en place means: measuring out, chopping, and organizing everything you’re going to need so that when things start moving quickly, you don’t freeze or fumble. It cuts down on the stress, and it helps prevent silly mistakes like forgetting the garlic until it’s too late to matter. And while you cook, taste as you go. This isn’t baking. You have room to adjust things. Maybe it needs more garlic. Maybe it needs less salt. Maybe it just needs a splash of pasta water to bring everything together. Trust yourself and listen to your food as it cooks.
Substitutions happen more often than we admit. You forget an ingredient or can’t find something at the store, and suddenly you need a workaround. If you’re out of raspberries, strawberries often do just fine. If romaine isn’t in your fridge, iceberg will work. Can’t find fresh herbs? Use dried—just remember the ratio: one teaspoon dried for every tablespoon fresh. It helps to keep a small cheat sheet of swaps on your fridge, just something you can glance at without digging through Google every time.
Cooking asks for patience more than perfection. When you cram a bunch of mushrooms into a pan, they steam instead of brown. When you slice meat too early, the juices run out instead of staying put. When you try to rush a sauce, it ends up tasting flat. Give things time to do what they need to. Let the sauce simmer. Let the meat rest. Let yourself make something slow.
Most of all, keep trying. That’s the whole thing. Practice makes dinner. Set yourself small, realistic goals—like cooking one new recipe every week or learning how to make a tomato sauce that actually tastes like tomatoes. You’ll burn things. You’ll undercook rice. You’ll forget to salt the pasta water. But over time, these become less like mistakes and more like steps in a longer learning curve. There’s a kind of quiet joy in that. Not the performative kind you post online, but the quiet joy of feeding yourself something you made with your own hands. Something that didn’t exist until you pulled it out of your pantry, chopped, stirred, and tasted.
And if nothing goes right today? Toast with butter still counts. 🙂