Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I was a vegan training at the Natural Gourmet Cookery School and though we didn't make traditional stocks and sauces (we made a corn-based "hollandaise" and a soy mlk "bechemel", for example) we had to learn about the classics. Just hearing the teacher talk about it and looking at the pages of information made something come over me. Months later, no longer vegan, I ended up at the French Culinary Institute, learning the French classics.

January 18, 2003. Trio in Evanstan, Ill. Eight-course Grant Achatz tasting menu. I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. The first time I understood what it meant to cook -- and eat -- at a level that high.

I've always loved food, but it wasn't until I quit smoking cold turkey 14 years ago that my palate, formerly mired in tar, awakened. I needed something to do with my hands, as any ex-smoker will tell you, so I started chopping vegetables and never looked back.

One of the first meals I remember taking me to new ecstatic levels was when Tom Colicchio hit his prime at Gramercy Tavern.

it was not really a meal, but more of a LACK of meals that turned me into a foodie. I was constantly being disappointed by the lack of lovingly created GOOD food, so I learned to cook my own. Who wants to go out to eat when you can have your own gourmet food in the comfort of your own home?

I was a high school intern working for the international division of a large company. When guests arrived from our international offices we would take them out for a meal. The first Japanese visitor we had we went to a new Sushi place. As someone who grew up being fed shake and bake pork chops, mcdonalds, hot dish, and spaghetti-O's. This was a awakening.

I am seeing my family this weekend and my parents are taking us all out to ... *sigh* ... Red Lobster... suppose that is a step up from Old Country Buffet. I am balancing it out by hitting an awesome new asian restaurant the night before.

I remember being at Scout Camp as a kid and a retired Army cook cooked up the best scrambled eggs I'd eat, or have eaten, since. Couldn't believe something so simple could taste so good. Later on, I was posted to Germany and got (by miracle) permission to move off-base. I arrived at my apartment on Saturday afternoon with no cookware and no skills. Went hungry for a day and a half and bought some cookware and started trying things. They were not good but I kept at it. Later, I got posted to England and was furious at the quality of food (in the countryside, at least, and nevermind the ridiculous prices they charged for crap) and there, in 1998, started reading cookbooks, watching cooking shows and so on, out of desperation. I also credit watching Jacques Pepin and, yes, Martin Yan, on PBS in the States for a beginning understanding of how to prepare food. Not cook it -- but the basic preparation.

My father always cooked steak until it had no color left so I never thought it was that great. A trip to a picnic where a man grilled a steak after it had marinated in olive oil and spices opened my eyes to how good it could be. I didn't have chinese food until college and I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. An uncle taught me how to cook and to enjoy food while I was in college too. I now have many of his cookbooks given to me when he died. What a pleasure to look through them.

My freshman year of college, spring semester - my roommate and some of her friends convinced me to go out to a nearby sushi restaurant with them. I'd never had sushi before because the thought of raw fish skeeved me like no other. Three hours and two sake bombs later, I was addicted (I eat sushi at least once a week when I'm at school, now). It made me realize how much I was missing out on just by going on assumptions. I'm still not the world's greatest cook (or even close, heh) but I'm still trying. =)