My mom is decent at cooking, she can follow a recipe and even make a few things on the fly. However she doesn’t believe in salt or anything “exotic” (which could be something nearby, like Cajun seasoning)

Dad is decent at grilling, he’s more agnostic when it comes to salt. He changes his mind about what he likes and what he doesn’t like, sometimes within the same meal, so it’s really hard to cook for him.

I will eat pretty much anything, but I rarely get to explore new foods or revisit foods my parents deem “exotic” or “salty”

Unfortunately this includes specific brands/types of food and seasonings/condiments. For example, French’s is the only type of mustard that tastes good. Heinz is the preferred ketchup. Hellmann’s, the mayo. God forbid someone buys the salt that doesn’t have the girl with the umbrella on it. Most veggies are preferred frozen, definitely never canned. Steak HAS to be “fresh” and at least 1.5" thick (or something). No preseasoned meats, those are too salty. Don’t get the wrong butter, it’s too salty. Don’t tell them you’re making chili and then give them white chicken chili. Beef, pork, or chicken ONLY. Anything else is “gamey”/disgusting/weird. Only use yellow onions. Don’t make mashed potatoes with anything other than russets. Unless they’re instant, then it HAS to be the red potatoes. But not the seasoned packets. Don’t bake anything with bacon wrapped around it. But, please bake the bacon instead of frying it in a skillet. No turkey, especially not ground turkey. Unless it’s Thanksgiving, then you have to bake one. With stuffing. But not that stuffing. Simply Orange orange juice ONLY. And it has to have pulp. One brand/type of coffee ONLY. Unless it’s instant, then get this other one. No boxed wine, yuck! Except when the doctor tells them to drink wine, then they MUST have it because the other wines are too dry/bitter/sweet/???. No Asian food. EXCEPT that one dish we had that one time 10 years ago, that was good, what was that again? Mexican food is DELICIOUS, but only from this one restaurant, and it has to be the fajitas, a burrito, or a few tacos. But not fish tacos. And certainly not street tacos - they’re too small. Unless my sibling wants street tacos, then everyone LOVES them. Oh, and we LOVE Italian food, but only if it’s regular spaghetti noodles or penne pasta. None of that rigatoni spiraly shelly shit. Unless it’s pasta salad - then it has to be the multicolored spirals. Or mac and cheese - then it has to be the mini shells. And only KD. None of that Velveeta crap.

…I could go on, but I fear I have revealed too much lol

save me

Fun times!

My mom is amazing. My dad eats tomato soup out of the can, cold.

My mom was always on weird diets growing up and never let us have real butter and she never seasoned anything. Now my sister and I, adults, have adopted a French-level respect for butter in all things. I am fat but enjoy my food a lot more now that it tastes of food.

Both of my parents are great at cooking. My dad is awesome at practical, healthy, well-balanced meals, and he did most of the day-to-day cooking when I was growing up. My mom absolutely loves to cook but can never just make a straightforward meal - she plans an entire elaborate dining experience from soup to nuts with drinks included. She has a huge library of cookbooks and every time she makes a recipe, she writes notes and feedback in the margin next to the recipe.

I’m more like my dad, but now and again I like making a more elaborate meal, mostly for special occasions. I’m exceedingly glad they taught me to cook - it’s such a basic life skill! Some parents never teach their kids, and those kids become adults who can’t make much more than scrambled eggs or pasta.

I am a much better cook than my parents barring two exceptions, my mother is an incredible baker and my dad is a master with an old school barrel smoker (his smoked salmon/trout and ribs are amazing). Outside of those two specialties though neither can cook for shit, I legitimately though I hated pasta and steak until I started cooking for myself at 15.

My mother has been dead for many years, so now I can safely say that she was an awful cook. I still can barely eat vegetables.

I learned how to cook from my mom, but in my humble opinion I have surpassed her. My dad, lol he would starve if he had to cook for himself.

My mom can cook. My dad is decent. They both can’t cook my steak right tho.

As a kid I always thought that I didn’t like steak and pork chops.

Turns out, those things are delightful if you stop cooking them once they reach a safe internal temperature.

My mom can cook well, especially Indian food, but as my parents get older their meals are more bland and simple. They might do it up on special occasions, but we’re all getting to the ages where me and my siblings do most of the cooking at family events.

The kids have sort of surpassed the parents. Millennials are all such fucking foodies lol it’s almost embarrassing 😋

My mom is an awesome cook.
My dad used to be pretty good at “improv-dishes”, but his effort had been lacking for the past decade after he died.

I didn’t think so when I was growing up, but when I moved out I realised that it was extremely plain food.

My parents were in their formative years in Britain in the '70s, so they grew up living on tinned food and I guess they just never moved away from that. That said, Sunday dinners were always made fresh - they were the best!

I learned how to cook out of self defense…

True story… my sister and I were at our grandparents house and gramma was in the kitchen peeling potatoes.

My sister, six years old, goes “Oh! What are those?”

Me: “Those are ‘potatoes’, that’s where french fries come from…”

Yeah, mom didn’t cook. Dad literally couldn’t make toast. The only reason we had ice cubes was because the recipe had been handed down from father to son…

My father was a short order cook for a time, so he could make things (mostly breakfast) just fine while he was alive.

Mother was fine, mostly self taught (grandmother wasn’t great) but she thinks her meatloaf was bad. I remember nothing about it so it could not be bad. I remember the bad childhood food. Some neighbors cooking was horrific.

My mom doesn’t believe in using salt when cooking. She’s actually a decent cook but she tends to make somewhat bland food.