Where and when did you learn to cook? It usually starts with your mom or your grandmother. Both of those women figured prominently in my culinary education. One of my grandmothers could not cook at all. We were much more likely to go out to dinner when visiting in Florida. But my grandmother from Indiana thought of herself as a competent cook. She was not above using frozen halibut fillets from the good fishermen at Gorton's. She would really overcook the dry frozen fillets. It was pretty awful. She did put out a pretty excellent cheese tray before dinner; one that was good enough for an eleven year old in 1971.