[0] https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Salt-Fat-Acid-Heat/Sa...
For cooking then for me it's cook repeatedly. Like most things, the more you do it the better you get as you learn what works, what does not, what you like, how your oven/hob/pans work (because they all vary).
I must have a dozen or more 'cookery' books but they can't tell me how hot is hot, how my pans conduct heat, how different my oven is to theirs.
Keep cooking and maybe start by perfecting a food you love.
I love their recipe articles because they discuss what worked, what didn't, and why in the process of developing the recipe.
I rarely cook from recipes, but I have gotten an amazing number of good ideas and techniques from Cook's over the years.
This helped me understand what role each ingredient and cooking step actually does. Similarly, they have great advice on efficiency so that cooking doesn't take as long or as much work.
Working with professional chefs in a higher end restaurant is by far the best way to learn. One unique, homely skill that I picked up from Sun-Tues experience, is how to craft tasty recipes from the ingredients and leftovers at hand, which is more about having a recipe repertoire. A good cooking game is to take one main, and one flavoror, ingredient and craft a recipe from those.
https://github.com/slowernews/notebook/blob/master/on-cookin...
It's called Sage Cooking (https://www.sage.cooking)
I'm a beginner/intermediate. I started with Japanese curry from a box: https://youtu.be/2T_Sh2jKf3M
Then moved on to no-knead bread: https://youtu.be/13Ah9ES2yTU also baguettes: https://youtu.be/Q2rLPq8oYCc
When I want to learn something, I'll watch many videos, then pick one, eg on carving a turkey: https://youtu.be/iAe7-GpV98E
This series has lots of theory: https://youtu.be/Z9L-tJxPTGY
I had this at a restaurant, so I wanted to make a version at home (much cheaper) https://youtu.be/fpes-A0BO_Q different recipe: https://lideylikes.com/pasta-alla-buttera/
Someone made this at a chili cookoff. I asked them for the recipe, and it was Martha's: https://www.marthastewart.com/315258/30-minute-chili
I really liked the cookies at Specialty's; I found this: https://wearychef.com/recipe/black-and-white-cookies/
I love these eggs. My gf and I had eggs at a restaurant the other day, we both agreed mine are better: https://youtu.be/AsDj0JJxMXo
Lately, I'm working on my Turkish coffee game using my gf's cezve.