There's a difference I think between preparing food, reheating food, using a skillet, cooking spaghetti, grilling hamburgers, and learning how to cook food from scratch and using recepiets.
Dude, this ain't 4chan. Take a chill pill. Marcatron, I learnt my skills from two places - my mum and student recipe books. Also, practice!
You know, I am in exactly the same boat as you. I just turned 36 and currently unemployed and looking for work. I quit my last job where I worked for 3-1/2 years as sales to be with my family and I really want to change career to one that is fulfilling and pays well and I am looking at all those 9-5ers with low starting pay and asking myself if I want to do sales for rest of my life. Trouble is I am considered too old to change careers for most people and unless I want to go back to school I don't think I can find a decent job at my age. I'd love to try cooking but like people also posted, it's a job that takes away your holidays, weekends, and your birthdays with low starting salary as well as it's a mightly repetitive and boring job to begin with unless you are a master chef with your own restaurant. I can't even cook the stuff you can so I am a even lousier cook than you are, but I definitely want to learn the trade even if it's only for my family. Heh, you'll be surprised at how many of us are out there. Cooking definitely takes lots of time and dedication, not to mention it requires passion and unafraid of failure. I don't have an audience to cook for and since I am no longer single I can't use a few hours to cook for myself. What'll my family eat then? You are absolutely right. I think I may do some of those trades you talked about (with education if needed) if I can make an above average salary with high ceiling and good benefits. I've been going back and forth with what I want to do with rest of my life and the things I have considered (a cook, a pilot, owner of small business) don't seem to suit me very well or is too old to get into at my age. I wish there's a time machine to take me back 15 years so I can reinvest my time into a better career than a sales. Oh well.
Biggest part is I feel embarrassed that I can't even grill a hot-dog. I thought every man by his 30's should at least know how to use a grill. I'm sure it's pretty simple, but I just haven't done it yet. As for a career, I sometimes feel like I'm too late to start one. I'm for sure no 9-5er by any means, and that said I don't know what to do. I just now received an e-mail from our neighbors who has a senior couple that needs help maintaining their lawn and doing snow-removal. That at least would be something. I've thought a lot about those on-line businesses that you see advertised, but 99% of them are a load of crap. I'd be happy with some sort of computer job. After all, I'm at my computer practically 24/7 anyway, would be nice to get paid for it. I just feel lost at my age.
i can cook decently- i spent time with dad on weekends with his National Guard Unit (he was a Mess Sgt) and i learned from that. by the time i was 10, i was making yeast rolls, lasagna, meatloaf, casseroles from scratch. there are recipes that i haven't tackled, and some that i have tackled just once or twice because they are so touchy, but it didn't DQ me from the kitchen. I love eating brittle, homemade candies and divinity, but when you need to know the weather outside to make a good batch, that takes the fun out of it. but i made those things because they were recipes i had been given by great grandmothers who had been cooking all their lives. a tradion. honestly, basic, elementary cooking isn't that hard and you can even look good doing it. all you need to do is avoid overextending yourself (juggle too many things at once) and prep work is a must before you begin. the only excuse any man past the age of 18 should have for not knowing how to cook is that he was raised by wolves and danced with a bear named Baloo. i have one suggestion for anybody. buy a cookbook aimed at kids. make a few dishes from it and gain confidence. i use one from the late 70s (that my mom bought me) with my nieces to make lunches during the summer. it works.
When I started college a few years back, "tech-school" my mom bought me a book. It was called something like, "Help, my Apartment has a Kitchen!" Sadly, I never opened it and I have no clue where it is today. I'd like to learn how to make a simple omelette for breakfast! LOL!
In my area no one wants to hire Culinary kids, they prefer cooks and chefs with real experience. It may just be this areas' cooking schools but all our culinary programs produce are egomaniacal primadonna's with no real cooking skill. They can sharpen their knives well however.
I find The Next Foodnetwork star to be stupid, really only Guy has made it big. Speaking of which, Guy is my favorite chef, I just never see his show on much.
Guy's Triple D* is on an awful lot, and on weekends they run mini-marathons. Guy's Big Bite is harder to catch for me, but he never fails to create dishes i would seriously try. speaking of Triple D, I downloaded a recipe from that show for Cordon Bleu and plan to make it soon. *Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.
Yeah I watch Triple D a ton, and i alwaso watch that new show he hosts on NBC, Minute to win it. Big bite is the one I never see on.But then again, I never see ANY of the Next foodnetwork star's shows on,they are always on at terrible times. And, am I the only one who hates Giada Delerentez and Rachel Ray?