How to be a good cook..my take..

1. Be curious (Dennis the Menace kinds.."what happens if you push this red button?")
   
2. In line with the above point, innovate, try creating your own recipes (these create disasters from time to time, but are a good source of energy to try and improvise the next time). I for one hate wasting food, so if there are leftovers, you will find me creating something out of them, for personal consumption only, unless approved by the FDA (aka Family playing Devil's Advocate!) ;)
   
3. Learn to eat your mistakes as they say. Try not to subject family to it too much ;) Retain a sense of humor about them, no one is born with being a good cook, one just gets there..trial and error. :)
4. Go by instinct. Even as a novice cook, one tends to have gut feelings about what ingredients are likely to go together and what are not, listen to your instinct. I realize for example, that my instinct about cooking comes from watching a) my mother cook b) watching/reading recipes. These tend to get absorbed unconsciously and might emerge when one tries cooking oneself.
5. The first couple of times, its going to be rough trying to cook up a meal, but working with someone who is good at it, or asking them questions, or even just observing them is a good way to learn. For example, last weekend I re-learnt how to make a tomato dal, in a traditional Andhra way, it was vastly different than the way I am accustomed to making it. I realized I need to observe more keenly about how stuff is made, and yes get the right ingredients for it.
   
6. All of us like food and enjoy eating, over time if we are aware, we can eat and tell what possible ingredients go into the making of a certain dish, and perhaps even figure out which of the ingredients was fried, roasted, sauteed, etc. Good way to figure out a recipe. :)
7. Keep trying! ;)