What makes a great cook?

My co-sister is an awesome awesome cook. Whatever she makes, tastes soooo good. We all have access to the same information on recipes, cooking tips etc etc, but some ladies shine head and shoulders above everyone else in their cooking skills. The stuff that they make is universally praised.

That made me wonder as to what are the qualities of a great cook? Are they more patient or do they have more sense of smell and taste or have better taste buds or have more attention to detail or have more experience or are they just born great? Look forward to all your thoughts on this.

Varshini

Cookery is an art and if any person has got some taste and interest to culinary things it is a blessing for his/her own house and society.There is a proverb I have heard that a wife can enter the heart of her husband thru nice cooking of his favourite dishes.If you have got the interest to learn cooking,and nowadays a lot of openings are there like television,computer,etc for a lady (and even for a man) for experimenting in this field.While cooking,if you put your heart and soul into the work,you can definitely become a nice cook.I also admit that therearesome people who are born cooks.I am very much interested in vegetarian cooking and daily i used to browse the net in the computer for various cookery sites and if i find any new dishes,i will try to cook it immediately.sometimes it may become flop,even then i won't fail.i will try again until it becomes of taste.Anyhow i am of opinion that if you have got a will and taste in cookery,you can be a nice cook.

Dear bipasu and varshini,

Cooking is not that hard a thing to learn. For some it is inborn and for some it hard earned talent. That is " practise makes a man perfect" .
Anyone can become a good cook. When you start doing something , what do you do?? try to learn and understand what it is , study about it and then start doing it. There should be love, concentration and imagination in this . ie we should have love for the people we cook for. Without that , we do it for our duty sake, it'll never come out well. That's why only amma's cooking wins hands down everywhere. "my mother's cooking" is the mantra in all household, not all the mothers are born experts.
Learn the recipe well, try to understand what it is and how it is made. Spare some thought for it. Think if your family will like it or not. All the ingredients should be there. Start by following the recipe line by line. You'll get it.
Imagination is needed because , whatever you do , if something is missing , you should be able to find out what is missing and correct it. You need imagination also to change the recipe as our family likes.
It is a slow process and you can also do it.
Love
Latha

Hai,
the main ingredient to be a good cook is to have interest. That is vital for cooking. I have seen many people cooking for years, but the food is not tasty. They 'just cook'. We must have an interest to make the dish very tasty and there should also be love in the labour. Otherwise, whatever we cook, it will not have much taste. That is the reason that we take one or two dosa in hotels but at home we eat more than that at one go.
I have heard that even great cooks, in old time and present , eat food prepared by their wives, even though they prepare a feast.

hai,
Cooking is a talent starts from a good teacher when young, and if they could inspire the life long habit of pleasing in u..which is most important..I always remember the satisfied looks of people who i serve..mmm pramaadam is something very tough initially but in the long run of ur perseviarance on the subject will lead u to top it off with ease..i had all my teachers as men..surprised, not in these days but that time women forbid and did all for the men folk...my grandfather was my tutor at the age of 13 he taught me how to do mysore rasam..and it came out damn good..so he said dont pour down the dhall that is there at the bottom it has all th protein..and peerkanga bhajji his fav...then it was my father who and all the uncles, they cooked a lot because my grandma that is my father's mother kept delivering babies they were total 9 of them.2died....and all sons so they learnt how to cook..my father taught me how to meticulously arrange the necessary items first in small katoris to be used and not search when the oil is hot...then there were many cooks exposure due to my perippas post in the railways...where i learnt all the regional receipes as they were very obliging and all men...some would not part but most did looking at my enthusiasm...then came the last man to teach some of kerala preparation as i married into palghat iyers...my father in law a hotelier taught me all the nuances to bring out the better taste...whether it was idli or avial and the keeramolaguttal which i had to master if i wanted to please him...i could go on ..if there is a yearning to learn the art of cooking... i think u will have so many good teachers..from there on it is experimenting with trial and error and achieving the acquired and mastered taste....and it is madness too. hobby anything u name...regards sunkan

Dears,

Goog Guides are a must when you learn cooking. I started learning very late, since I never had to learn or do anything at my parents' place. Only after I got married I started, with my husbands help (ie in tasting and complaining) .I tried my level best to make him happy and then the kids started, amma do this do that.. So one by one came to me and there I go... Now I have a name .. That is enough for me, but the interest is there to keep trying ..
Latha

Dear All,
I have learnt a secret from my mother. She is a very good cook and we have relished everything that she makes. The same when I have tried in the beginning I have not got the same tastes. I asked her her secret ingredient.

U know the secret ingredient gave me? It was love and affection she had for all of us is that secret ingredient. More over I have seen her cook only telling all the slokams she knew. Even we all interrupt her a lot she never shouts or gets distracts from what she is doing. Thus came all the recipies with a great taste. The same I have seen with my Mother In Law too.

I know follow the same except during my periods and lo my daughter now relishes all that I cook. But still she too is my mother's great fan and always compares my cooking with my mother's and says that I cant match her and she asks me to learn from her.

RajmiArun