Growing up, I constantly saw my mom cooking and baking in the kitchen. It was something I saw almost every day, if not everyday. She would be making something at any time of the day. I grew up watching her cook and helping her sometimes. It was always very fun being able to make something and have a finishing product that you could be proud of. As I got older, I got more interested in learning how to cook for myself. It's not something that is hard as long as you follow the recipe and directions. I was lucky that I found cooking interesting, because some people don't and won't bother to learn cooking for basic needs.
Knowing how to cook is very important because, as you get older, you aren't always around people who can make you food and going out every night gets expensive and isn't very practical. Being able to fix yourself meals whenever you need to is something everyone should be able to do. Whether it's heading off to college or moving into your first place, meal preperation should be something you're capable of achieving. Maybe it's something as simple as making a grilled cheese or eggs or mac and cheese; maybe it's being able to cook spicy, creamy tomato coconut chicken and lime cilantro rice. It doesn't have to be something restaurant worthy, just make sure it's edible, but being able to have some knowledge on cooking will make having to do it easier and an option.
Even if you have the tiniest amount of knowledge on cooking, I've found that when people have some idea rather than none, they feel more motivated to try and cook a more complicated dish because they feel that they can do it if they just put their mind to it, instead of not even trying because they're afraid to fail at it. Whether or not you like cooking, I think that it can be agreed that it is a useful thing to be able to do.
Know how to use kitchen utensils and knowing the proper times and temperatures for foods to be cooked at is essential. When we're all grown up and have our own kids, we can't expect them to cook for us; we have to be able to show them we can make them their meals. We need to be able to show them what we know and teach them what we have learned so far, so that we can help them have a basic knowledge for when they grow up. We want them to be able to feed themselves when we are no longer there to do it for them. Just like we did, like a tradition, we want to make sure they can at least cook something to keep them alive and healthy so they can pass it all down and then so on and so forth.
