Monday, March 11, 2013

My Philosophy: Cooking Genetics

I tend to be of the school of thought that every dish has a basic form which arises from the expectations of those eating that dish; a hamburger is sandwich-like, a soup is creamy or liquid-y, and so-on.That said, the beauty of this science, even its artistic essence, is in the uncountable variations that can be applied to a dish. In this way I think cooking is somewhat like genetics, except instead of chromosomes, a dish has basic ingredients that can be varied in type and quantity. Thus you can have two sandwiches that are each easily recognizable as such and have totally different flavor and texture profiles.

This mode of thinking guides my approach to cooking. Thus, I am rarely satisfied with simply opening the box and following the instructions. When I cook, I spend most of my time trying to discover unique variations. As such, you will notice when I talk about what I have made, I will generally stay away from talking about the specific amounts I used. My hope is that you will be inspired to discover new variations of your own. After all, is that not most of the fun in cooking?

No comments:

Post a Comment