My dad was a chef and owned a restaurant and since my Mom also helped out, my brother and I were often left to fend for ourselves for weekend dinners. At the beginning, my Mom would do the "mise-en-place", and then leave it for us to cook. Very basic stuff that we would finish cooking. Eventually, (around 11-12) I began to get interested in doing the cooking myself. I started experimenting with things that sounded interesting such as toad-in-the hole (my baby sister loved this and I would always use this to bribe her to be good) and apple strudel (what a disaster! - didn't get the concept of stretching the dough to be ultra thin - and thus to this day I don't do a lot of baking - too formulaic but would love to be able to bake bread/Chinese buns). I don't remember having a lot of cookbooks when I was a kid so I don't know where I found the recipes. I think I made up for it now because I've accumulated quite a few books over the years. I remember getting a kiddie kitchen grill for Christmas. I fried an egg or something out of curiosity but I found it to be so lame since I was already using a real stove. Unfortunately, I never really saw my Dad when I was younger because restaurant life is long and hectic as you all know. I've only started to get to know him in the last few years and have learnt some things from him but wish I could have learnt from him when he had more energy. I am the only one out of my two siblings who became really interested in food and its preparation.
