When I first learned to cook, my father was always my tester. What I remember most about cooking for him was the anticipation of finding out whether he actually liked it; this took too long.
Once he had gotten hungry, he would walk into the kitchen and sit at the table. Then he'd say, "Baby, whacha cookin'?" I would answer, and then he'd say, "Let me try it." I'd fix (in AAVE, southern style, that means to prepare) a plate and sit it in front of him; then, he'd dig in.
One particular afternoon, I had prepared steak w/gravy and rice, along with some green beans. The rice was extremely mushy, and the steak had not cooked long enough. I had seen my mother smother (in AAVE, that means to cover with a lid) steak with onions and seasonings. Her steak would fall apart (in a good way) every time she fixed it. It would be so tender, you could sit your fork on it and with little or no effort on your part, the fork would slice the steak. Anyhow, that night, I had prepared dinner.
So, as my father began to fork the steak, he couldn't slice it. That was an indication of my first mistake. I hadn't let it cook long enough. He asked me for a steak knife after not being able to cut the meat. After some success, he popped it in his mouth, chewing very slowly, almost as if he were savouring the taste. But all the while, he had this strange look on his face. As naive as I was, I couldn't wait for him to tell me how much he enjoyed it. He only looked at me and smiled as he plowed through my dinner.
After he had cleaned his plate, leaving few food particles, he turned and said to me, "Baby, if you expect a man to marry you, you've gotta stay in the kitchen a lit' longer." And I replied, "So, did it taste good?" "The steak was kinda hard to get through," he replied, "but I'm still here."
Every time I think about this moment. I laugh out loud. Nowadays, I know that I'm not an elegant chef , but my family likes it whenever I cook, whatever I cook, and when friends drop by, I've been able to get an "mmmmm...good" every now and then. So, I'm doing something right.