I totally sympathize. Having a mother who is a cook's cook, I know a lot of things but almost none of them from my own experience, which doesn't make for confidence!

On the other hand, it can be fun once you start to get the basics down.

But chopping is a lot harder than they make it look! All those cooking shows with perfectly julienned veggies sitting around in bowls and they never actually show you how to get them that way.