Well... I was allowed to make food for myself and snack as I wished, sure. We had stuff that they knew I knew how to make and snack ingredients and the like. And later when I knew how to bake, I was allowed to bake, but this was after I had been taught to bake by my mom from age 5 and had baked for years with her as an assistant first. I doubt I'd've gotten in trouble if I spoiled some ingredients by mistake, particularly in that context, but it was a context of knowing how to make specific things and deviating from them, not a context of making things up at random. I definitely wouldn't have used a bunch of ingredients worth a bunch of money in quantities adequate to offer them to a parent for a meal without discussing it with them first - it wouldn't even have occurred to me to do that.