Q: Where do I start if I don't cook?Response by Elena O'Brien

ANSWER: Knowing where to start can be a tad intimidating if you don't cook. Becoming a better cook starts with being willing to try. I've been cooking since I was a kid. That's many years of trial and error under my belt. I have had many successes and quite a few failures along the path to cooking greatness.

If you’re just willing to try, you're off to a great start. Beginning with some basic recipes such as learning to make yummy sandwiches, hearty soups and refreshing salads are great introductory dishes that will assist in the build-up of your culinary confidence.

Here are few additional pieces of advice for how to get started today, even if you’ve never cooked in the past.

1. Believe that you will learn to cook.

This is the first step to getting in the game. Visual you can do this. Otherwise you're setting your brain up to psyche yourself out. This first thought around believing in yourself is very basic, but critical to get becoming great at anything in life.

2. Look up a recipe for something you are very familiar with and love to eat.

If you love the dish, you're going to try harder to make it right. Don't pick something that doesn't excite you. If you're not excited about the meal, you'll get frustrated while trying to learn to prepare something that makes you shrug with boredom and go, "Eh."

3. Get prepared!

You may need to purchase a cooking item you don't have handy or ingredients that aren't in your house. If you don't have the right tools or all the ingredients you will be forced to stop in the middle of trying to prepare a dish.

It's also helpful to watch a video or two on how something is made. The internet is a beautiful thing if you're trying to research and increase your knowledge. You can learn oodles of great techniques and tips by watching only a couple minutes of "How To."

4. Give yourself time to prepare and make the dish.

Don't rush yourself. Block plenty of time to make the meal. Who cares if you read a recipe and it says, "Prep Time: 10 minutes; Cook Time 30 minutes" but it takes you 90 minutes?

If you watch certain celebrity chefs who claim it's only 30 minutes, it's really not for the average person. They're flying around the kitchen, chopping like pros and have made the meal you are seeing several times.

In addition all the ingredients are typically set-up for them. All the cookware is already on the stove. Even some of the prep work has already been completed prior to the camera saying, "Action!"

Give yourself time to enjoy the learning process. If you're in a rush, your food will be mush.

5. Some times things don't work out.

Even if you're good at it, there are days when things just don't work out in the kitchen. It happens to the best of them. You can ask any person you know who cooks to name a time when their dish didn't work out. They will have so many stories and some will bring you to your knees with laughter.

Therefore, don't be too hard on yourself as you learn this new cooking language. No one would expect you to master a language in a day. No one expects you to be a master chef overnight.