Most cooks try to learn by making dishes. Doesn't mean you can cook. It means you can make that dish. When you can cook is when you can go to a farmers market buy a bunch of stuff then go home and make something without looking at a recipe. Now you're cooking.
I want to sit with 80- and 90-year-old people more than anyone. They have played this game before. Not one of them has told me 'I wish I had more money.'
