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Practice simple things first. I started with lasagna. I used those no boil noodles and followed the directions on the box using bottled sauce and packaged cheese. You know what? It was great! Even though I've advanced way beyond then since then, I still sometimes make it on my husband's request. He's been eating it for 10 years now and I don't think he realizes that it takes 5 min to assemble... Oh, and if you're worried about cooking meat and getting it right, my first attempts were meatless. I built my confidence gradually and now I roast chickens, sauté fish, you name it.

here are a few of my fave tips:
1. i recently discovered that pre-fried, dried shallots, onions, and garlic that you can find in Asian stores taste as good as ones you fry when trying to add flavor to a stew. forget all that slicing and frying and carmelizing, i will buy the store prepared kind from now on.
2. if you want butter taste in something, butter flavored Pam is more buttery than real butter. butter delivers richness, but the scent is stronger in butter flavored Pam
3. everything tastes better when carmelized. baking things to give them a slightly carmelized crust makes things taste MUCH BETTER

here is a weird thing i do--i make chocolate pork chop sauce by combining chocolate syrup with ketchep (roughly 1:1 ratio) it is an interesting combination and you would never guess it came from those two things

I don't want to be redundant - there is some good stuff here. I would add two things:

1) Learn WHY ingredient A is preferred over similar ingredient B, why steps are done in a particular order, at a particular temperature, etc. This way, if it goes wrong, you will be able to taste or see the problem and know exactly how you want to modify it next time, or maybe you can even salvage it. Someone already mentioned Alton Brown, I will also throw in my favorite resource: a cookbook called "The Best Recipe" which is associated with Cooks illustrated. The premise is that the authors make the same recipe (pancakes, roast chicken, you name it) a bzillion ways and explain the effect of varying all the variables, then finally list the "best" way and why.

2) If cooking for others to impress, just add extra butter and/or cream. Makes everyone happy. Except my FIL who is lactose intolerant. ;)

- Identify a circle of willing regular tasters, who will give you uncensored feedback.
- Throw Kirmizi Biber (hot turkish pepper flakes - great find from Kalustyans) on everything.
- If that fails, douse with Lea&Perrins Worcestershire sauce!

Couple of things that I recommend to people who ask me for advice:
1. Recipes can have mistakes in them. Have a good source for them. Read them thoroughly. Not to get too corny but imagine making the dish in your mind as you read the recipe. try to understand it. Typically, you'll find the process you're reading will appear in other recipes. There is a reason they do. It Works! Figure out the concept and apply that to other recipes.
2. Taste as you cook. Taste what adding the listed spices/herbs, wine, butter, cream, etc. does to your dish.
3. Mise en place. Have everything ready before you start.
4. Clean as you cook. Wipe up spills, put things away. Sounds like more work but it keeps your space set up for the process of cooking.
5. Afterwards, get comments...honest ones. Save those recipes and write notes on them to help the next time you make them.
6. Your hands on your best tool in the kitchen. Learn how to use them: how to whisk, how to use a knife, how to peel, pare and prepare.
7. As people wrote above, start with good ingredients.

THE TOP SECRET TO AFTER TASTE IS TO USE A LITTLE CAYENNE. I USE IT ON ALMOST EVERY THING. I BELIEVES IT OPENS THE TASTE-BUDS ON YOUR TONGUE AND THAT GIVES YOU THE LASTING FLAVOR. OLD CHEF

Mise en place and always read through a recipe several times before beginning.

What's my strange, secret and personal cooking tip?

Well, not too strange, nor personal, but a lot of people don't know about this little trick. When preparing meat to BBQ the night before with a rub, those in the know rub the meat with a light coat of mustard before applying the dry rub. When smoked or grilled slow and low, the mustard helps form that nice bark on the outside of the meat.

...and no, you can't taste any of the mustard flavor. It just helps hold the rub on as well as create the bark I mentioned.

garlic and wine

Try to get a good handle on your most basic skills-- scrambled eggs, making pasta, making a roux, etc and other basic dishes/skills. Most of the more complicated dishes will probably require a knowledge of those rudimentary skills and they will make your dish even better! ie, a well cooked pasta with the right toothiness and salt added to the cooking water will elevate the dish and bring out the flavours of your sauce!

There is magic when you remove the food from the pan. I pour off the liquids from a roast turkey, deglaze the pan with a grape-based spirit (brandy/port/marsala - don't know if whiskey, or sake... would work?), add crushed green peppercorns, then meld in cranberry jelly. It gives the sauce for the Thanksgiving bird a different zing.

Deglazing leverages your culinary chops. I get more compliments than effort merits by using the re-hydration waters from sun-dried tomatoes, and from dried mushrooms, used in another night's recipe... which I freeze in ice trays.

Try deglazing a pan - in which you cooked your flank (or other) steak - with the iced cube of water from when you cooked an earlier reecipe with dried morels/shiitake/etc. The ice cube trays make for convenient portion control. Also good for surplus caramelized onions.

Your date/guests won't need to know you "cheated", but will be glad you did. You can "pre-load" work in the kitchen, and deliver flavor they will think should or must have taken hours behind a hot stove.

The secret to doing anything well is to do it with passion. If your not into it, it won't be your best, so only cook the things you want to cook when you want to cook them.