People sometimes think of cooking as just memorizing methods and rescipies and the buying those things. But you quickly just 'know' what ingredients and favors

People sometimes think of cooking as just memorizing methods and rescipies and the buying those things. But you quickly just 'know' what ingredients and favors are good together and can identify most of the ingredients in something you eat at a restaurant and have a decent idea how to prepare something similar. I don't buy a bunch of portioned ingredients for a set of rescipies, just a lot of basic ingredients and some wild cards to keep it interesting. As long as you have a good set of spices, oils, and garnishes you can find some way to prepare your random leftover ingredients into something pretty good. I remember just hanging out with my mom/dad/grandparents when I was a kid watching and helping them cook. I always thought that was pretty standard along with watching and learning about all kinds of other household tasks. Is that not the case anymore? It just seems like such a basic life skill.