Cooking as a hobby is interesting and fun. You take pleasure in the process of cooking and not just in the moments of eating your final food. When cooking stops following mere instructions on the recipes and starts being a creative expression. Grocery shopping becomes a joy as you start thinking of the wonderful food you can make with the ingredients. Cooking as a hobby is learning all about cooking. That includes the cooking techniques involved, how to shop for ingredients and the utensils and supplies required.

I started to cook when I got married, setup my own home and family. And because I needed to cook for my family, I took up cooking classes. I did some sporadic cooking over the weekends. As years passed, raising kids and holding on to a full time job simply means life gotten a lot busier. Home cooking was outsourced to my home helper. For decades, I have forgotten that cooking is an interesting and fun activity. As I am now transitioning into semi-retirement, I am reconsidering to cook as a pastime again. Especially during this Covid19 pandemic situation where all in my family is working from home, I am starting to cook as a hobby.

Cooking as a hobby is interesting to try out new recipes or cuisines

Cooking is an experimental journey. You put your hands into trying many different types of recipes and cuisines. You customize the recipes according to your own taste and liking. There are so many online recipes available which you can easily download and either use as reference or adapt your own versions. Cooking has indeed evolved and there seemed to have more scope for creativity nowadays. Some examples are Dalgona coffee and using frozen prata to make Egg tarts crust.  These are popular on the Internet during recent Covid19 lockdown.

Is fun to cook for family and friends

It is enjoyable to cook for your family, friends or just yourself. It allows us to connect with each other over time and distance. We cook for those we love. Certain food and flavors can transport us back in time and evoke memories of those who had nurtured us. As we combine all the ingredients together to give flavor to the food makes one really happy. You will enjoy the whole process of cooking from chopping to cooking to the final tasting of the food. You can also involve the children in the cooking process and have a fun time bonding together. Hearing from those who enjoyed my cooking is so encouraging. As a result it motivates me to want to cook even better the next time.

Is a great way to explore different cultures

Trying new food from different cultures can lead you to find new favorite dishes. It can also lead you to a deeper appreciation of that culture and their people as food and culture are interconnected. You can expand your horizons and taste of the world from the comfort of your kitchen.

Cooking as a hobby is eating healthy

Cooking for yourself means you know and control what exactly goes into the food you eat. Those with dietary restrictions, cooking for yourself is the best option for nutritious and safe meals. You can add or substitute fresh ingredients into your meals to be healthy, rather than using processed foodstuff. You can include in more fruits or veggies into your meals to have a healthy diet. As in Asian cooking, the sauces used tend to have high sodium or sugar content. You can moderate and adjust the amount to be used sparingly. This will also provide an opportunity to learn about the nutrients available in what you eat. You know how you prepared and cooked the food, you do not have to worry about food poisoning (assuming that you have practiced good food preparation hygiene!).

Cooking is therapeutic and good for the brain

Cooking can be a relaxing and engaging activity. Allowing myself to have lots of time to source the ingredients, prepare them and making into a delicious meal de-stressed me, and put me into a better mood and calms the mind. The brain gets simulated with the type of workout it needs to remain healthy. Researching recipes online compels me to organize and categorize, factoring details into the planning. Like one daughter hates beans, another hates chicken – requires me to remember and solve problems. When ingredients required in the recipes are not available, it requires me to improvise. To work out and solve all these variety of scenarios benefits the brain and definitely improve cognition.

Is an inexpensive pastime

We all have basic utensils and ingredients at home to start with. Cooking requires very little resources to experiment and to test waters on your interest. There are many free online resources that you can research on. YouTube channels have self-explained videos that are of great help in learning cooking. You only need to have a passion for tasty food.

It is understandable that not everyone is going to be a cooking enthusiast. Cooking as a hobby requires time and patience. After the Covid19 pandemic lockdown measures are lifted, and life will gradually return back to some normalcy. As many of us will also return back to our hectic schedules, they will not have a lot of time to pursue cooking. But for those who wants to know how to start to learn cooking, pick up some tips from Learn to cook and discover a hobby.

Leave a Reply

About Salient

The Castle
Unit 345
2500 Castle Dr
Manhattan, NY

T: +216 (0)40 3629 4753
E: hello@themenectar.com