Cook.Grow.Create

I have been a professional cook for the last 16 some odd years and I hate recipes.  I feel like that would be my opening line at a support group for people like me.  This is not to say that recipes are a bad thing, they can be great.  For the right person.  But when I am in the kitchen, I like to have the freedom to do as I wish.  I want to feel secure that if I go to the market and the tomatoes look like crap, my whole meal isn’t ruined. 

So how do I cook then?  I like to think of it as a choose your own adventure style.  I wake up, think about what I might like to make and decide on a launching pad.  Sometimes it’s a type of cuisine (mexican, italian…), but most often I begin with a protein.  So as I am brushing my teeth I toss around ideas.  Pork mmmm.  Fish ehh.   Tacos, nah did that last week.  Fresh pasta, hmm haven’t done it in a while.  Yeah I’ll make pasta.  Now for me when it comes to pasta the following thought is almost always lasagna.  For you it may be ravioli or canneloni.  So how do I write a recipe and give you the freedom to cook as you want?  Well I have a new thought.  That is to create a recipe without the hard fast rules, with freedom built in and with the discretion to manipulate it however you see fit.  Is anyone doing this?  I’m not sure.  When I google cooking guidelines instead of recipes, I don’t get very far.  The fifth google response was a link to something about the world of warcraft!  

I will give it a try.  If you happen to stumble by this post, feel free to let me know what you think.  Additionally I need a term for these launching pads (not recipes), so send me your ideas.

Thanks and enjoy!