Cooking: Self-Teaching and the Creative Process

Essay by sardiddleUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, April 2006

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Cooking is a skill that I have always had an interest in learning. When I decided to take on the challenge of teaching myself how to cook, I underestimated its complexity. Although I came across many obstacles, I was able to overcome these obstacles with patience, persistence, and the desire to achieve my goal. Throughout my learning process, I found that the knowledge of my peak learning times, how I most enjoy learning new skills, and my personal intelligences were all helpful in achieving my goal. However, the knowledge of how I tackle new topics was not helpful to my self- directed learning project.

Upon first receiving the self-directed learning assignment, I was not sure what I wanted to learn. Most of the skills that I had an interest in learning either would have taken longer than a single semester to learn or would have required an instructor. For example, the ideas that came into my head upon receiving the assignment were belly-dancing, salsa dancing, playing the piano, et cetera.

Learning how to dance would have required that I had an instructor or dance partner, while learning how to play the piano would have required a greater amount of time.

After examining several different options, I decided that cooking would be an excellent skill to learn for my self-directed learning project because it would be far more useful in my future than any of the other options. I will be moving to the east coast soon after I graduate, which means that I will no longer have my mother cooking for me. In addition, I will not be able to afford to eat out for three meals a day, every day, and I certainly do not want to survive on Ramen noodles. Second, little is more satisfying to me than...