When I chop veggies, I think of my dad. He used to spend many a Sunday night cooking up a storm. It was during the time he was obsessed with using a wok that I learned how to use a knife to chop all kinds of vegetables. As I got older, I learned from him how to make the perfect iced coffee and to always remove a stirrer from a cocktail. All important skills — thanks, Murray! Here’s what other dietitians have learned about cooking from their dads:
1. Be patient and flexible.
Samantha Cassetty, a registered dietitian nutritionist in New York City, told me that she used to spend time on the weekends fishing with her father until he died in her mid-20s. “Though I suspect my dad’s hobby inspired my love of fresh seafood, beyond that, I think fishing teaches you the ability to accept any outcome,” she says. For example, if you don’t catch a fish, you have to adjust your dinner plans. That’s something my own dad and I learned when we went fishing. Our solution? To go to the supermarket and bring back store-bought fish for my mom, and pretend we caught it.
As Cassetty puts it: “Cooking is like actual fishing. Both practices involve planning ahead, having patience for the process and accepting that no matter what happens — since not every dish will be a winner — it was a worthwhile experience.”
[See: 9 Cooking Tricks That Will Make Everyone Think You’re a Great Chef.]
2. Cook extra.
Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietitian nutritionist and author of “The Superfood Swap,” learned from her dad to always make more than you think you need. “It was a great thing to learn because today, this attitude gives me leftovers for lunch or dinner the next day,” she says. “Cook once; eat twice.” Great motto, Dawn and Herb!
3. Fire up the grill.
My dad taught me how to use the grill — and often, the food of choice was hot dogs. (He didn’t know then I’d become a nutritionist.) For Tara Collingwood, a sports dietitian in Orlando, her dad’s grilling picks were (and still are) shish kebab skewers. “My dad taught me the ins and outs of grilling, [as well as] how to grill on charcoal, a gas grill and even a campfire,” she says. They both still use lean meats like steak, chicken and shrimp — and tons of veggies, of course — to create their skewers. Collingwood’s dad also taught her which foods take longer to grill, which ones are really quick and how to apply marinade to maximize flavor.
Robin Plotkin, a registered dietitian and culinary nutritionist, also reports learning a lot about grilling from her dad — but not in the way you think. “I’m grateful that my dad taught me how to not cook steak,” she says. “In the dead of winter with freezing temps and feet of snow, dad would be outside grilling our T-bone steaks to a degree of charred I’d come to know as normal.” It wasn’t until Plotkin was much older that she learned the proper temperature and doneness of beef, for her, is a beautiful medium rare. “To this day, I appreciate beef that’s cooked properly,” she adds. It’s funny what our parents can teach us unintentionally.
[See: 8 Unusual Grilling Ideas, From Chickpeas to Grilled Lemonade.]
4. Start your dinner with a salad.
“My dad was the one who insisted on our family weekday dinners starting with a simple salad of greens and veggies,” says Rachel Begun, a registered dietitian nutritionist, chef and co-founder of The Modern Loaf. She remembers helping her dad prepare the salad with whatever vegetables were in the fridge. “To this day, I eat a green salad in some way, shape or form almost every single day, and I have no doubt this healthy habit started with our childhood family dinners,” she says. Ditto in the Gans house.
5. Limit food waste.
“I’m pretty sure I gained none of my cooking skills or nutritious eating habits from my dad, but I did learn how to ‘clean your plate,'” says Jackie Newgent, a registered dietitian nutritionist, private cooking coach and author of “The All-Natural Diabetes Cookbook.” While that advice isn’t always the best when it comes to weight management, it’s excellent when it comes to limiting food waste, she adds. “I give my father lots of credit for my creativity today in preventing food waste and having a positive impact on the environment,” Newgent says.
6. Make dishes from scratch.
Cynthia Sass, a registered dietitian nutritionist and a New York City- and Los Angeles-based performance dietitian, learned how to make homemade ice cream from her dad. “Making something from scratch that I had previously thought of as [only] coming from the store had a big impact on me,” she says. “Even though I make a much healthier and dairy-free version of ice cream these days, I still get excited about making it from scratch, in addition to a number of other DIY dishes. It’s like science meets magic!”
7. Be a smart food shopper.
Bonnie Taub-Dix, a registered dietitian nutritionist, media consultant and creator of BetterThanDieting.com, says her dad taught her how to shop for food. “We used to walk down the aisles together which, in retrospect, could have been the springboard for what blossomed into my love of food shopping, my strong belief that the supermarket is a giant classroom for all ages and the stimulus for writing my book, ‘Read It Before You Eat It: Taking You from Label to Table,'” Taub-Dix says. “Ever since my own children were able to sit in a shopping cart, I brought them to the store with me and to this day, they love to grocery shop, cook and, of course, eat healthfully.”
[See: 7 Ways to Hack Your Grocery Trip for Weight Loss.]
8. Use chopsticks like a pro.
“So many of the ‘life skills’ I rely on today are things my dad taught me, but one of the hardest-to-master food skills he taught me was how to use chopsticks,” says Regan Jones, a registered dietitian nutritionist and host of the podcast, “This Unmillenial Life.” “I honestly never sit down to eat sushi as an adult [without thinking] about my dad,” she adds. “It may not be the same as your mom teaching you to sew or bake a cake, but it’s a skill that I think is just as important.” I agree. While I didn’t learn how to use chopsticks from my dad, I did learn that skill from an old boyfriend. I wonder if he has taught his daughter.
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If It Weren’t for Dad, I Wouldn’t Know This About Food originally appeared on usnews.com
