"A recipe is not a formula"

This provocative quote from Zester Daily is so aligned with how I think that I wanted to share it with you:

A recipe is not a formula. A recipe is an inspirational aide to guide a cook to reach higher, to prepare food that will dazzle others and make them happy and to do that the cookbook author needs to help them in the decision to make the dish in the first place. It's not just about ingredients. A recipe should have a soul, as it's about the material expression of a culinary culture.

- Clifford A. Wright

H/T: Dianne Jacob.

Comments

[Sharon Lippincott]

Some people are able to use a recipe as inspiration -- I only keep a book open on the rare occasions I'm baking sweet things or complicated and unfamiliar ethnic fare. It does matter then. But others would starve without formulas for frying hamburgers. To each her own, and vive la difference!