Like others, I was scared to start cooking as well. I only watched my mother cook while I was growing up and never really had the need to cook myself. Now that my mother can no longer cook and I’m the only Chinese person around for my kids, I had to learn how to cook myself. To my surprise, it’s actually not that hard to cook once you get a few techniques down, the right tools and the right ingredients. After that, Chinese food is actually really easy to cook (but like most things, hard to master!). Here’s a list of what I think you need to get started.