I think for me, it all started in grade school during Home Economics classes. It's when I learned how to assess the quality of ingredients, budgeting, use cooking tools, and also basic cooking methods/techniques.

I started dabbling in the kitchen as early as 9 or 10 years old (I'm 31 now), helping the folks at home when they cook.. Then progressed to cooking my own dishes and basically running the home's kitchen at around 14 y/o. Since my mom was working, I remember her giving me a weekly budget and she leaves it to me what to cook. So I learned how to plan our meals accordingly and go to the market to buy the ingredients myself.