Learning cooking like you learned programming, part I
A good programmer is an engineer. Just as you can apply the skills of a scientist or a Bayesian to many domains, the skills of an engineer are broadly applicable to other creative works like writing, woodworking, cosplay, or in this case, cooking.
There's just one problem: I've never learned engineering formally, so I can't tell you what the principles are. All I can do is map the introductory concepts of cooking onto the introductory concepts of programming.
Getting to Hello World
Writing out a program that prints "Hello world" is a rite of passage for anyone learning how to code. This has a couple of purposes. The first is to give confidence. The second is to set up your build environment. The last is to give the basic understanding of syntax.
The same concepts translate to cooking. You want a small success that gives you confidence to do more complicated things. You want to check your build environment — pots, pans, seasoning, spices, ingredient storage, knife, chopping board. You want familiarity with some basic skills.