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-Darin

Well…here it is.  Anyone that knows me well knows that I’m quite prone to over-analyzing things to the point that I either talk myself out of them or the time has come and gone.  This has been no different!  It’s not exactly how I want it to look but I guess that will come with time.  If I wait to make it “perfect” it’s just never going to happen. 

Back when I started teaching at Cal Poly Pomona I found that the students in my class would often get frustrated when I would decide to do an impromptu special on the evening menu.  “You should have given us this recipe last quarter so we could learn it” was a familiar refrain.   Yeah…right!  Sure they would…I was once a student too and knew darn well that even if they had it a quarter earlier they were no more likely to have learned and understood it.  

The discourse would typically follow something like this:

Me:  “Did you learn to saute in your commercial food preparation class?

Student:  “yes”

Me:  “What did you make?”

Student: “A chicken breast and then we made a dijon cream sauce”

Me:  “Ok…so tonight we’re going to saute pork medallions and then do a port wine sauce.  If you know how to saute and make a pan sauce then you already know the recipe – we’re just switching pork for the chicken and port wine and red currant jelly for the white wine and mustard in the dijon sauce – case closed!”

All too often people get caught up in learning “recipes” rather than concepts.  A recipe is really nothing more than a recorded combination of techniques that have been paired with ingredients.  Understanding the ingredients that you’re working with and know what cooking and preparation techniques will bring out the best or desired qualities provides you with the ultimate creative control!

I will definitely be sharing recipes, but ultimately I hope to unlock the joy of cooking by going “Beyond the Recipe”.                         Please  join me for the journey and share your thoughts along the way.