Kitchen As The Place Of Inspiration — Even For A Writer

Some people create recipes, then there are those who follow them. And the rest are people like me.

I found myself contemplating this concept at some point today, in between finishing the mushroom ‘marsala’ sauce and onion-nutmeg flavoured rice.

It somehow rings true that there are these three groups of people. Those who live for and love to experiment. They seem to be naturally gifted with a talent for trying things constantly and seamlessly. The process as well as the result comes somehow easily to them. Then some don’t friend experimenting so much, they look for and prefer structure, and the guidelines they can follow give them a sense of peace. As testing anything new inevitably comes with a high risk of getting the unwanted result, or making a mistake somewhere in the middle. And then, we’ve got the third group. The ‘inbetweeners’ who take a bit of both worlds, maybe the best bits and out of that, try creating miracles.

I am such an inbetweener. And in the past few months, my kitchen has become a place of inspiration and an ashram for attempting experiments.

I am not much of a guideline person for its best and the worst. I like to know about guidelines, but that’s about it. To know how they look, so I — most of the time — create my rules that seem to be a better fit.

I, however, used to live with the very best example of a guideline person. She was a housewife with two kids and an amazing cook! Only that she followed the guidelines way too much. Imagine making a soup, you’ve got all the main ingredients, but you realize one of the least important spices is missing. The one you only need 1/4 a teaspoon of. So, she used to panic, and run to a shop every time this has happened. And this was a working pattern going way beyond the food creations.

When it comes to cooking, I love to learn as well as to improvise.

I tend to explore the variety of cooking styles and techniques including diverse food combinations and cuisines from all various cooks around the world. And I do follow the main guidelines about what the ingredients basically do, ie. oil for baking and frying, salt and butter to add the flavour, flour or onion to thicken the sauces, eggs to connect them all. But then, I take what I just learned, add some creativity, and sprinkle it with what’s within my means.

The last couple of weeks, mostly due to COVID and the extreme panic of people in this country when things were getting serious, my household got to a state where getting some of the simplest ingredients such as rice, pasta, potatoes, couscous, eggs, flour or bread, became a luxury.

So, this, more than anytime before, propelled me to take experimenting to another level.

I learned about many new ways of combining food differently and tried what I’d not have thought of before. Such as using the vegetable in a different proportion, as a side or making them in a new way (steaming, baking or roasting instead of cooking), replacing missing flour with milled oats or nuts, and even making 10 very different cakes by using a single template!

I combined my knowledge and creativity with that of my flatmate, who thinks and cooks differently (she’s more on the strict recipe following side), and as we say today, ‘together we are a perfect cook!’

So this, what at the very beginning felt solely like one dreadful and limiting experience, was incredibly enriching and knowledge bearing!

Looking back, I see I’ve learned a lot about the food and cooking but beyond that, I’ve even grown mindset-wise.

And apparently, the process — my expanded way of seeing how creation happens and improvising — still continues.

Today, I’ve chosen to make an Aubergine Marsala dish as an alternative to well-known Chicken Marsala, mostly because we had no chicken left and the aubergine was expiring. It was a risk taken as the way aubergine acts in a sauce is very different from the way chicken would. I also had no Marsala wine, fresh parsley, double whipped cream, sour cream, or creme fraiche (yup, honestly), but by now I discern that this ain’t a show stopper for me!

And, in the end, I can plausibly say that yes, the experimenting was worth it. I loved the meal, the unique combination of tastes, and also the fact that I have gone beyond the known to taste the unknown.

I could wrap this up here, but let me expand it a bit beyond the cooking and baking world.

Can we possibly transfer this awareness as a skill to the way we see and do other things, such as writing?

I think we surely can!

The guidelines are of course good to have to build some foundation and confidence to continue practising. However, they shouldn’t be our show stoppers.

We can well go beyond what we know and already master, to explore, challenge ourselves, and for instance, write about what feels a bit new, risky, or challenging. What do we have to lose anyway? But if we don’t explore our horizons, what’s the point then? Won’t we miss out on something? Such as a transformational experience of experimenting?

I leave the answer to you.

Thanks for being with me till the end. It was again a pleasure to share my vibrant inner world full of thoughts.

Lucy ❤

This is what I do when I am not cooking or writing. Connect With Me for a personal conversation.

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