How to create a dish

Yes, cooking is creative. But what does that mean?

I am often asked how I cook, like I do, by people I cook for. This leads me to think about this question a fair bit because I cook often, so I am trying to express some thoughts in the hope that they may be helpful. I don't cook from recipes, so this will not be the sort of thoughts you will find in a recipe book. I'm not saying that I have any issues with recipes or that my way of creating a dish is better. Cooking is just something I have always done intuitively, so that is the only way I know how to explain it. I don't consider myself to have many chef skills, but I can shed some light on how I cook and my process for anyone who wants to be a more confident cook. Where to start? 

It's interesting to me because it is something that I have always been confident at and intuitively drawn to. 

So, this is where my answer starts. 

1. Confidence: Confidence is tremendously essential. Having confidence in the kitchen will allow your creativity to flow freely. Confidence will lead you to fix whatever may not be going to plan when cooking. Who needs a plan anyway? If you have the confidence to vibe with the process and make it up as you go along, the finished product will always be exactly how it was 'supposed to be.' Lay your dish down with pride. What is it? I don't know, but it's delicious, To my taste.

That leads us nicely to the second part of my answer. 

2. Taste, well, use all of your senses. Stay connected to your senses. Smell, touch, rip, and feel your way to a finished dish. Use your senses to lead the dish to new places. Use touch to know how to cut your vegetables and what bits are best for another dish. Trust your gut. Trust what smells good and looks good and what might need an extra something. Let your appetite and intuition lead your flavours in new directions. Let your stomach and taste buds have the authority; trust them, trust it; your body loves you. It's much more of a friend to you than a recipe could ever be.

3. Imagination. It is not revolutionary to say that cooking is creative. But what does that mean? How is cooking creative? For me, using my imagination is imagining what food will taste like. I am eating it first with my mind. I am thinking through the textures and how they might bite together. I am tasting the creaminess and sweetness to consider how it could pair well with a particular ingredient. What do I want to eat? To be ace at imagining food, you must be good at eating food! It must occupy ample space in your heart, mind, and memory. To imagine a delicious plate of food, one must have eaten a lot. One needs a bank of flavours and tastes to draw on. A bank of flavour profiles smells, and textures imprinted on your tongue.

4. Selon le marché, i.e., just at the French do let your produce choose you. Go to the market and choose what to cook from what looks good that day. If you shop this way, your dishes will often be creative by design. You might go for produce that you are not super familiar with. Limit and Restrict yourself. Limitation, in my eyes, is one of the most remarkable ways to spark creativity. 

So go forth and eat. Fill your plate with what your heart desires. And that's all I have to say on the matter. Perhaps it's infuriating. But if you understand even a bit of where I am coming from, the chances are that you are already an ace cook.

Mackeral niçoiseish salad with blood oranges shared in Norfolk

Sardines, dill caper salsa Verde. Nectarine feta and burnt butter shared in Berlin