Do recipes make you a better cook?

One of my favorite things about summer is the food. It seems that we eat healthier in these months because it's so much easier to get food that is fresh. I vividly remember visiting the farm stands in Ohio where they grew sweet corn. We'd buy a bushel or two and immediately begin snacking on the way home! That sweet corn was like candy.

Yes- food is a vital part of what makes summer special.

Summer is also a time of tradition. Whether that is how you spend your summer, where you spend it, who is with you, or many other things, it also includes family recipes.

While they may not be family secrets, they tend to belong to a particular person. Mom's blackberry pie or Aunt Susan's corn casserole. Even a favorite marinade for those briskets here in the south!

Have you ever thought about whether having those recipes would make you a better cook?

Perhaps. But one chef says that the secret to recipes is not following them. Instead, it's about using them as a starting point, not a rule book.

His thoughts on the subject were prompted by a GPS guidance system. When chef Daniel Patterson bought a new car with the default feature of GPS and direction assistance, he resisted using it. And then, one day, he did, and before long, he became dependent on it like most of us. Even when going to places he went to frequently, he relied on it. He blindly followed the directions without notice of where he was going.

When he realized what was happening, it startled him, and he began asking himself where else in life he (we) might be doing the same thing. Of course, since he's a chef, he naturally looked first at his world. Hence the question about whether recipes make us better cooks.

Here's what he had to say on the subject:

"Part of the problem with recipes today is that they seem to be predicated on the idea that a good recipe should eliminate the possibility of mistakes. But here's a secret: Good cooks make mistakes all the time. They take wrong turns and end up in strange places. Their attention sharpens as they try to figure out where they are and how they got there. Eventually, they either reach their original destination or discover that wherever they stumbled into is really the best place to be. Sometimes it's important to get lost."

We are faced every day with "recipes."  Use these methods, these tools. Take each step in this order. Make sure you don't substitute anything, not if you want it to work! I'm sure you recognize and hear the message as much as I do in your life and work.
But what if that's not right? What if the best result happens when we follow his advice and use those "recipes" as a starting point and not a rule book? What if we start experimenting and venturing forward as creators and find our results? That has far more appeal to me.

Risky? Perhaps. But isn't that the case either way? I believe that creativity is where we make peace with risk.

Here's one final thought from Chef Daniel Patterson's wisdom:

"Cookbooks should teach us how to cook, not just follow instructions. By paying attention, a cook should be able to internalize the process, rendering the written recipes obsolete. The point of a recipe should be to help us find our own way."