Making Food Your Own
Advice from a professional chef on how to use cookbooks in your kitchen.
I haven’t followed a recipe to the T in what feels like a million years, but I do love reading recipes and collecting cookbooks. If you are fairly comfortable in the kitchen you shouldn’t follow recipes either. Here’s why:
You’re cooking should be your own. It should express who you are, your tastes and flavors, and what you like.
My thinking is,
Why would you make someone else’s food?!
I know what you’re thinking: ‘But how will I know the correct amounts to use?’
When I’m making a new dish, I’ll look at 6, or 8, or 10 different recipes as well as drawing from the times I’ve eaten that dish. I think of the flavors I want to replicate.
Looking at different recipes can help you figure out flavor profiles, textures, and ingredients that create specific dishes.
One more thing: Taste, Taste, Taste. If you are not already in the habit of tasting your ingredients and tasting at the different stages of cooking, start now.
But you’re afraid, right? You don’t want to mess up dinner.
Let me tell ya somethin’. You need to step out of your comfort zone and just do it! You’re not gonna screw up the dish that badly. If you look at a few recipes and they are calling for between 1/2 and 3 cups of tomatoes you’re gonna know not to use 16!
I look at recipes, knowing what I like I can see that one may have too much sage or not enough garlic (there’s never enough garlic) and I adjust them to my own taste. There’s no reason why you can’t do that too.
Cooking is an art. Cooking can be a reflection of who you are. It’s one way we can express love which is more reason to personalize it and make it your own. When we’re cooking for our family or friends, we can cook knowing their tastes, their likes, and adjust our recipes to please their palettes.
No rule says we must follow recipes to the T! Think of them as guides. Read and research about dishes. Devour those cookbooks by all means, but make your cooking your own!
About the Author
Father Moses is one of the founders of Holy Resurrection Monastery where he has been the main chef since 1995. His journey to the monastery can be attributed in part to his career as a chef. Having worked in New York hotels and restaurants, owning his own catering business, and being a chef on private yachts, has allowed Father Moses to be able to serve the brothers and numerous guests of Holy Resurrection Monastery delicious, soul-feeding hospitality!
