The disadvantage of starting alone: picking up the intangibles (seasoning, knowing the basic food prep techniques that are commonly stated without explanation,

The disadvantage of starting alone: picking up the intangibles (seasoning, knowing the basic food prep techniques that are commonly stated without explanation, recognizing what tools/ingredients you need that recipes often omit, etc.), and scaling the ingredients/cooking down. (Better: just cook for 2-4 and have leftovers.) The advantage of starting alone: you don't have to cater to anybody else's tastes! Pick the most ridiculously delicious thing you can think of that fits your time/skill/price budgets, and cook that. HN is not precisely known for its culinary excellence, but if you're looking to get started with some particular dish or kind of dish, geeks who cook would probably be happy to give you some more specific pointers! I might also recommend something like Blue Apron if you want to just have a bunch of food pushed your way with recipes and start just trying stuff out! Not sure what they have in the UK along those lines though.