Where do you get your new cooking ideas from?

I get my inspiration all over & we eat new (to us) things all the time.

If I love a dish I eat in a restaurant I will work on it at home. Generally what blows me away are the vegetable side dishes. After eating at Salt Grill on a cruise I started roasted pumpkin in curry spiced oil. Burnt butter broccolini was inspired by Thievery in Sydney and Roasted carrots on a slick of tahini sauce sprinkled with dukkah was inspired by Union Bank in Orange (rural New South Wales) between lockdowns we supported local Asian & Turkish, Pakistani & Persian restaurants and I've been making a lot of M.E stuff recently and so have some of my friends.

I read cook books for pleasure but haven’t cooked much out of them for a long time. I collect them though. Well I try not to actually but I get them as gifts.
Latest acquisitions were both of Josh Nilands fish cook books. He took out a James Beard award for one of them. My niece, inspired by a documentary she saw recently sent me this
71408


It’s wonderful. Very chatty. As soon as I had read through a couple of randomly selected pages I could see his influence on modern chefs with an Italian bent - like Nigella & J.O.

Seafood for me is usually inspired by my childhood memories. Dad loved to fish & Mum loved to cook. More memories from friends and neighbours of my childhood as well. As young as 4 I would manage to be at my Macedonian neighbours when food was being prepared.

Ok. That’s probably enough from me but I find this topic of inspiration fascinating.


Edit - just one more - I recently saw someone on Instagram make a sort of unusual stir fry with Tom yum paste where you add the dry noodles straight to the pan, then add water and let the noodles suck it all up until it becomes a “dry” noodle dish. Had to make it ASAP. It was fantastic.
 
I always enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen. Although I have nothing against recipes and use them quite often, I like gathering good ideas, cooking methods and flavor pairings from these recipes more.

Speaking of recipes, I really like visual ones: Youtube videos or step-by-step guides with photos. Devil is often in detail, so seeing someone cook answers many questions at once.

Few years ago, I found the "Flavor Bible" book. For those who don't know it, it's a great book with lists of good food combinations. There are no recipes there, and you are free to cook the suggested products as you like. With the book's help I came up with some nice dish ideas. And cooking such is quite satisfying, because it makes your creative side happy.

Finally, I felt that I want to go further in food pairing: not just match 2 ingredients, but match 3 or 4, or start with what I have in the fridge and see what goes best with that. And since I am a developer, that's something I am currently working on. This service will allow finding the best product combinations based on information gathered from various books and online recipes.

Actually, I am very interested in whether other people would find such a cooking method useful.
 
Inspiration can come from anywhere. I rarely need to "decide" what to eat because there's just so many possible sources of inspiration.
  • watching cookings shows on youtube
  • seeing what catches my eye at the store
  • going to a farmer's market and buying something that seems interesting - with no immediate ideas of what to do with it
  • remembering that I haven't used <random kitchen gadget> in a long time
  • a new season or holiday coming and wanting to make the dishes associated with it
  • having a meal at a restaurant and wanting to recreate a similar flavor
But all of that pales in comparison to the Master of kitchen inspiration, the One Rule to which all others bow:
  • because it's in my fridge and it'll go bad if I don't use it
 
evll_z said:
Few years ago, I found the "Flavor Bible" book. For those who don't know it, it's a great book with lists of good food combinations. There are no recipes there, and you are free to cook the suggested products as you like. With the book's help I came up with some nice dish ideas. And cooking such is quite satisfying, because it makes your creative side happy.
Click to expand...
Any written source of information is always useful when you´re trying to develop flavour profiles and your own palate. It´s a great idea to start off with some established combinations, and then move, gradually, to your own ideas. Over time, you´ll start thinking: " ok, how about I mix this protein with x,y,z?" and you´ll give it a go, decide whether you like it or not, and then move on, because you will remember what things taste like and what other things might combine well.
 
My wife historically doesn't approve of my experiments in the kitchen, but that probably only pertains to my experiments where I throw random stuff together in a pot to try and save a penny or use up pantry remainders. She doesn't seem to mind as much when I am roughly basing my efforts off a recipe found online or in print.
I enjoy experiencing new tastes when we travel and sometimes that "inspires" me to recreate a dish. Last time I was on vacation I very brazenly introduced myself to the hotel chef and said "My wife and I have had your market salad 3 nights in a row and we love it! Would you mind telling me what's in it?" To my shock and delight he smiled, thanked me for the compliment, and actually gave me the ingredient list!
 
FowlersFreeTime said:
My wife historically doesn't approve of my experiments in the kitchen, but that probably only pertains to my experiments where I throw random stuff together in a pot to try and save a penny or use up pantry remainders. She doesn't seem to mind as much when I am roughly basing my efforts off a recipe found online or in print.
I enjoy experiencing new tastes when we travel and sometimes that "inspires" me to recreate a dish. Last time I was on vacation I very brazenly introduced myself to the hotel chef and said "My wife and I have had your market salad 3 nights in a row and we love it! Would you mind telling me what's in it?" To my shock and delight he smiled, thanked me for the compliment, and actually gave me the ingredient list!
Click to expand...
In 4 words - my wife´s the same!
And as for introducing myself to the chef, I´m shameless. Always do it if I can. I did so in every restaurant in Mexico, last time I was there. The chefs absolutely love it.
 
FowlersFreeTime said:
My wife historically doesn't approve of my experiments in the kitchen, but that probably only pertains to my experiments where I throw random stuff together in a pot to try and save a penny or use up pantry remainders. She doesn't seem to mind as much when I am roughly basing my efforts off a recipe found online or in print.
I enjoy experiencing new tastes when we travel and sometimes that "inspires" me to recreate a dish. Last time I was on vacation I very brazenly introduced myself to the hotel chef and said "My wife and I have had your market salad 3 nights in a row and we love it! Would you mind telling me what's in it?" To my shock and delight he smiled, thanked me for the compliment, and actually gave me the ingredient list!
Click to expand...
Making stuff up with pantry/fridge remainders with no relation to any recipe is pretty much my modus operandi, so I'm quite thankful the Mrs. lets me indulge! I do leave her out of my more "questionable" experiments though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom