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.
You don't need Montreal steak seasoning on everything.
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.
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.
