50 Home Cooks Share What Dishes They Make That Taste Better Than At Restaurants

Bored Panda asked Jessica (@thepieous) how someone who's made a habit of eating at restaurants and ordering food at home can enjoy the process of cooking and baking at home more.

She explained to us that opting for restaurants and ordering take-outs over home cooking comes down to two main things: namely, a lack of time and a lack of ability.

"The latter excuse is the easiest one to overcome—there are a plethora of cooking tutorials online, and meal kits with simple-to-follow instructions that can make home cooking a breeze for anyone," Jessica told us in an email.

However, the former excuse can be a tad trickier. Jessica opened up that she often falls prey to the 'I don’t have enough time to cook/get groceries tonight, I’m just going to order in' trap. "But as rising costs and shrinking budgets start to shift our internal calculus, suddenly spending that extra 40 minutes to cook a meal doesn’t seem as tough a pill to swallow as spending the extra fifty bucks on Uber Eats again!" she said.

"For those unaccustomed to cooking for themselves, turning the process into a 'team sport' can make the whole undertaking more pleasant. Even people who live alone can join with friends in weekly meal planning and splitting bulk purchases of groceries from the big box stores to save money. And for those with a little more disposable income, joining a friend for a couple of evening cooking classes can be a really fun way to up your kitchen game and expand your cooking repertoire!" Jessica suggested.

"Once you have a stable of about five simple but tasty meals that you can reliably whip up in under an hour, you are well on your way to weaning yourself off of your expensive take-out habit… and bonus, your food is always guaranteed to arrive hot!"

We were interested in getting to grips with the main fears that might drive some newcomers away from the kitchen. Jessica noted that past negative experiences with cooking can be a deterrent.

"If you’ve ever set off every smoke detector in your house and had to air out your couch cushions on the porch after a failed stir fry attempt, you may think twice about approaching your stove again! But oftentimes with people who insist that 'they cannot cook,' the real culprit is a lack of focus," she told Bored Panda.

"People who are naturally a little absent-minded, or even ADHD, may need a little extra help in the form of timers and apps to help them multitask. Try using your phone to set timers with alert titles like 'defrost the beef now' and 'turn off the stove now' while you cook, and stick to simple, one-pot recipes that use minimal steps, minimal equipment, and minimal time!"

Then, Jessica said, as you get more comfortable with the process and start to enjoy your cooking more, you can try out more complex recipes. "There’s a whole universe of flavors and experiences out there waiting for you once you decide to take that first step on the culinary road."

You don’t have to be a gastronomic genius or a Michelin star chef to make delicious food at home. Of course, it helps if you have a natural affinity for cooking and baking, but at the end of the day, practice makes perfect. The more time you spend in the kitchen, the more techniques and dishes you try, and the more open you are to learning from your mistakes, the better you’ll do.

The vast majority of people are going to be bad at something they’re new to. So, if all you can do is make toast and can barely fry an egg, you shouldn’t be discouraged. Start with making very simple dishes with easy-to-follow recipes and few ingredients. Then, slowly work your way up over the following weeks, months, and years.

From our perspective, dining out is a great experience, but we still value homemade chili, curry, English breakfast, and avocado toast more than anything made by pro chefs. There’s a deep sense of pleasure in making some dishes yourself with small twists that you enjoy. For example, it was a game-changer when we started adding just a bit of dark chocolate to our chili.

Food & Wine suggests that some of the dishes that every beginner should learn to cook are roast chicken, cream-based soups, homemade pizzas, roasted fish, and pasta carbonara. Some other simple(r) dishes include risotto, apple pie, rib-eye steaks, spaghetti bolognese, garden salad, scrambled eggs, and fried sandwiches.

These are fairly straightforward dishes that are hard to mess up. And, again, the more you practice, the tastier you’ll make them. At first, follow the recipes you find online to the letter, without taking any, erm, creative liberties or making random ingredient substitutions. And after you’ve gotten things right a few times, then you can start experimenting a bit with different ingredients, spices, measurements, and techniques.

According to chef Andrew Zimmern, you should read the recipe twice before cooking, no matter your level of expertise in the kitchen. "99% of all mistakes can be resolved by understanding the process," he told TastingTable.

The more you think things through, the less room for error. For one, you won’t have to rush to the store in the middle of cooking to get the ingredients you realized you need. Meanwhile, thoroughly reading the recipe means that you’ll know what the entire process looks like, what timings you have to be aware of, and what tools you’ll need.

Zimmern also suggests sharpening your basic cooking techniques, which are “a must when it comes to life skills and personal wellness.”

Some of these skills are things like making eggs, steaming veggies, grilling fish, and roasting chicken. Once you’ve got the fundamentals down, you can then move on to more complex things.