Recipes versus ingredients
Winkletter • 7 Jan 2025 •
I watch a cooking show on YouTube where professional chefs cook alongside normal home cooks. And even though the normal cooks have prepared a lot of dishes on the show, there’s still a vast difference between their approach versus the chef. The home cooks tend to start with recipes and make substitutions based on what’s available. The chefs, on the other hand, start with ingredients, pairing the textures and flavors, before they start thinking about what kind of dish they can make.
The home cook says, “I’m making {recipe}, but I’m substituting {ingredient} for {ingredient}.” The chef says, “I’m pan frying {ingredient} and adding a bit of {ingredient} and making a kind of {recipe}.”
This shows a fundamental difference between creator and a consumer. The consumer is used to seeing finished patterns. They tend to eat more dishes than they create. Meanwhile, the creators spend more time building things from their constituent parts, tasting as they go. It reminds me of a writing quote:
“For writers, the primary unit of discourse is the sentence; for readers, the primary unit of thought is the paragraph.”
– George Gopen, Gopen’s Reader Expectation Approach to the English Language
A writer works with ingredients. A reader consumes the finished dish.
Comments
Another difference I noticed between professional chefs and home cooks (through the show Master Chef) is that chefs tend to prep their workspace and work calmly, whereas the home cooks are all over the place and are figuring things out as they go along.
@therealbrandonwilson Oh yeah, some chefs are like that. I’ve seen others who tailor the meal to the person eating. Maybe the top tier chef (or writer) is able to combine the consumer’s expectations and the creator’s expertise.
@haideralmosawi And the chefs clean as they go, moving things back into place when they’re done.
Many chefs fail to account for picky eaters. I substitute ingredients all the time because I don’t like what was called for in the recipe, regardless of what some expert thinks are the right pairings of flavors. I do like your analogy to writing.