More specifically: you should know how to cook at least well enough to feed yourself in a healthy and bearable way. Anything past that is bonus. (I do recommend going further though.)
Pictured: man making hot red wine with a couple steel bars on the panini press
He spilt the zalt or zepper in the background too.
There’s a pepper mill in the foreground, so the one in the background is likely black zalt.
Zoinks
Honestly, bread is a good start for something beyond defrosting frozen food on a cookie sheet in the oven.
Water, flour, yeast, and a bit of honey/sugar to start the yeast. Simple ingredients and you sit on your ass gaming/reading for most of it.
And it’s a confidence booster.
In my 15 years living for myself I developed a pretty solid cooking skill, nothing too fancy but enough to supply myself with healthy, diverse food. However I never baked a bread and hate baking in general - to me it’s a whole different story than cooking. This might be a regional thing, as in Germany we have great bread everywhere available so bread baking is more of a hobby thing.
I’d suggest to learn how to cook the basic things first. Learn how to cook essential things like eggs, pasta, rice, potatoes etc. Doesn’t sound hard, but for people who never tried before it’s a barrier. Then learn how to cut and prepare veggies, how to cook them, how to fry them. Then try out standard sauces, tomato sauce etc. Aand learn how to use salt and pepper (which is enough for the start). When you cooked your first pasta with tomato sauce just try yourself out and extend your repertoire with all the other standard things.Of course that’s the view of western kitchen.
Jim Lahey’s no knead bread is dead simple.
You can tell this man is a master chef because his Heinz ketchup is flowing so freely
If you got the basics covered, I recommend Julia Child videos on YouTube, tv cooking in the 50s and 60s, french cuisine, very tasty, much butter, but oh-so-good. And quite simple.
