At what age did you start cooking/getting involved with food?

When I got my easy bake oven.

Mid-20's I think. The Food Channel was popular with some great shows like Emeril/Mario Batali/Bobby Flay/Alton Brown and their various cooking shows, and I really got into trying new dishes, playing around with different ingredients/spices, asking for cooking related gifts at Christmas etc.
The interest lasted for years, but over the course of the last few years I got really busy with work and life and haven't really cooked anything. Plus the Food Channel isn't as good anymore as it once was. Seems like they go more for pretty faces or gimmicks than legitimate cooking shows with legitimate chefs these days.
I am having more time free up nowadays and I'm looking to get back into it again. I do miss it.

After my divorce in 2008. I was 28. I got disgusted (and broke) from eating out twice a day, every day. I started by calling my mother and asking how to make some of my favorite things she cooked while I was growing up. Then it escalated from there.

pretty early, maybe when I was 9 or so. My mom was actually really great with letting me experiment. I learned my lesson on why cake needs flour pretty quick

I started you, probably 8 or 9 stiring pots and watching my mom and helping her out..... opening cans, adding butter salt, stiring rouxs. Been cooking ever since, I'm 35 now and I think I'm a damn fine cook. I do need to learn how to make her Crawfish Bisque though.

As a 10-15 year old I didn't bother watching mom cook dinner because there really isn't much to a liver cheese sammich.

On weekends I watched my dad very closely. I saw how he made gumbo, jambalaya, crabs, crawfish etouffee, catfish courtbullion, bisque, various bbq, etc. I didn't help. He didn't want help. I just wanted to watch and learn. I asked questions and he gave answers about what he was doing. I remembered all of it except drop biscuits. I've tried different methods but none tasted like dad's.

If someone has a fool proof recipe for drop biscuits I'd love to have it.

In college I started cooking when I moved out of the dorm at age 20. I couldn't afford restaurants. I made a lot of meat balls and spaghetti. College friends really liked it since I was the only guy who could cook.

In my mid 20s I started watching a lot of TV cooking shows. I loved experimenting with their recipes. If something didn't work I considered it a learning experience and I have never been afraid to try something against the grain just to see if it works.

I spent a lot of time with my great grandmother when I was younger. They were poor, and had to raise/grow most of their food. That's where I first got the bug. Tending the garden, killing chickens for fresh meat. Good times.

My SO started at like 18, I think. And he's basically a chef now.

Around 12.