Learn to cook brown rice with a little salt and butter or olive oil. Learn to boil noodles properly or saute onions right. Once you get those basics down, you'll be all good and feel more confident.
I always have a good quality extra virgin olive oil. A cheap quality oil will end up cheapening your dishes. And I love sweetening my dishes with maple syrup. It has a bit of a bitter kick at the end that works wonderfully in savory dishes.
You don't need Montreal steak seasoning on everything.
I buy soy sauce and flavor it five different ways: with sake, mirin, sugar, kombu and bonito flakes. I use them on lots of dishes at home.
My least favorite ingredient to cook with is black pepper.
I'm pretty awesome at making salad dressings.
I like rice, as long as they let me put my own stuff on it. You can bring me white rice or brown rice; just let me doctor it up.
Spices, of course, are essential.
A lot of people are kind of snobby about garlic powder and onion powder. I happen to love them.
