“Anyone can cook.” I take chef Gusteau’s famous motto from Ratatouille seriously. If you can hold a knife and read, then you can cook. That’s really all there is to it at the most basic level. Even if you’re a busy student with no experience in the kitchen, I promise you have the time to make one home-cooked meal for yourself a week. Think of it as a form of self-care: you’re taking time out of your day to nourish your body with something delicious just for you. Make yourself a priority in 2021.

Due to some challenging circumstances, I decided to stay in town for winter break. My flatmates were able to travel home, and I didn’t know many people staying over break, so that meant I was suddenly left with a lot of time on my hands to spend however I wanted. I kept myself busy between reading, podcasts, and taking up needlepoint, but I often found myself planning out my days around what I wanted to cook and eat. I think this is partly because food can be a source of great comfort, both in preparing and eating it. For example, I find the act of chopping vegetables deeply calming, and I love having the creative outlet to experiment with new meals.

Regardless of your situation, many people have more time on their hands during lockdown, and cooking is a perfect hobby to get into. So here I’ve compiled some of my best tips to get any beginner into the kitchen and creating impressive meals (even if the only one you’re impressing is yourself!)

Safety First

Learn how to hold a knife. I could describe it here, but it’s easiest if you watch a chef’s demonstration video and practice along with them. It might not necessarily be the most natural position for you, but it’s something you will get used to as you go along, and it will help you have as much control over the blade as possible, minimizing accidents. Just go slowly at first until you get the technique down. It’s also important to keep your knife sharp. It may seem counterintuitive, but a sharp knife is far safer than a dull one because you have more control.

If you are a person who eats meat, it’s also vitally important that you know how to handle and cook it so that you don’t poison anyone. It’s always better to be safe. Specifically, if you’re dealing with chicken, eggs, or pork, just assume they’re contaminated until they’re fully cooked. This means disinfecting the surfaces and tools that come in contact with the raw ingredients. (By this point in the pandemic, we should all be well familiar with disinfecting).

Taste as You Go

This is the best way to make sure you end up with something delicious. If it’s tasting good all along the way, chances are the final product will too. The only exception to this is if what you’re making has raw meat or eggs in it, and in this case, just taste after these ingredients have cooked fully. It’s also excellent practice to season everything—all the time. Pretty much anything savory should have some salt and black pepper in it. Just remember to season a little bit at a time, you can always add more, but it’s hard to go back.

Learn What Flavors Go Together

This is the key to branching out into lots of different cuisines. Each region of the world has certain spices and produce that grow there and naturally make up many of their dishes. If you do just a little bit of Googling before you dive into a new kind of cooking, you’ll better be able to improvise because you’ll know flavor combinations that have been tried and tested by others for thousands of years. Of course, cooking for yourself is all about making food that you enjoy eating, and it’s okay to go hors piste to combine untraditional flavors that you like. (But if you’re adding mushrooms and peas to your egg yolk-based pasta sauce, maybe don’t call it “carbonara.”)

Read the Recipe

I cannot overemphasize the importance of this one. Read the recipe in full. Before you start cooking, aside from seeing if you have all the necessary ingredients and equipment, it’s so helpful to know exactly what you’ll need to be doing and when. I said earlier that if you can read, you can cook, but you need to actually read. Trust me on this one.

Do one thing well

A good place to start can be with your favorite meal. Read a few recipes for it and find one (or a combination of a few) that seem manageable to you. Then just make it over and over again until you’ve mastered it. If you make mistakes along the way, then learn from them!

Keep Your Pantry Stocked

You’d be surprised how many different dishes you can make when you have a few dried herbs, some citrus, a vegetable or two, tinned tomatoes and beans, and some grains or pasta.

Assorted Tips and Tricks

-Add citrus juices at the end of cooking so that it doesn’t become bitter.

-Dried herbs can be added at the beginning of cooking, fresh herbs at the end.

-If you’re making something elaborate, plan out the timings of each element so you know what to start on first and what you can work on while something else is cooking.

-Add garlic, dried herbs, pepper flakes, or other seasonings to cold oil in a cold pan and slowly heat them before adding whatever else you’re sauteing. This will flavor the oil (and therefore everything else you’re cooking in it) and stops the garlic from burning.

-Cream and butter make things taste better; they just do. I don’t make the rules.

The Internet Is Your Friend

YouTube is full of professional chefs spilling all their secrets to you, for free! (“Basics with Babish” is a great series for beginner cooks that’s very popular and has a high production value. Gordon Ramsay and Jacques Pepin have some good instructional videos as well.) You can also find inspiration and recipes on Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, etc. Of course, be critical about who has made the content and if they actually know what they’re doing. (After all, the only qualifications you need to post are a phone and wifi.) Major publications like Bon Appétit, New York Times Cooking, and BBC Good Food are always a safe bet.

Go slow, start small and HAVE FUN!