How to think like a cook (for beginners!)

If you’re completely new to cooking it all may seem really daunting. You get swamped by recipes and cooking videos. Now recipes are fabulous for what they are, a guide to recreate a dish that someone has already made.

I want to urge you to start to think like a cook. This is what will give you the confidence to put the recipe book down, to invent new dishes and to know what to do to correct any mistake you will make. And you WILL  make mistakes.

I remember as a child being given a recipe for a tea loaf, and being diligent (in those days!) I followed the recipe fully and completely without it really occuring to me that having 1.5 pints of tea was a super large amount of tea. Anyway to cut a long story short this tea loaf was very sloppy and didn’t work. I should have known, I should have thought that doesn’t sound right, but in those days I just did what it said in the recipe, in the same way my own daughter will put a pizza in the oven for 18 minutes if that is what it says on the packet, regardless whether or not the oven is on fire after 15 or whether it looks pale and pasty after 25 mins 😀 So it’s good to think whether the recipe makes sense. I fell foul of this when I was attempting to make slow cooked rice pudding a while ago. The recipe wanted a whole 500g packet of rice, to serve just 4 people, plus only used a pint of milk. I didn’t sense check it and created nutmeg and rice flavoured concrete! I later learned that it is a good idea to think about what the recipe is asking and to change the amounts to a more sensible amount if that makes more sense!

To think like a cook means that you’ll take inspiration from all over the place, restaurant menus, that delicious dish you had at your friends house last week, that recipe in a magazine or newspaper supplement, or that luscious looking thing from TikTok and learn to look out for the taste of the ingredients within the dish. This can take some practice but next time someone feeds you something, take a minute to figure out what flavours you can taste. Reflect on what you do and don’t like about the dish. Could it have done with a touch more (or less!) of salt, or a little extra chilli? Can you taste the garlic that was described on the menu or could it have done with an extra clove or two?

If you’re able to think like a cook you’ll be able to conjure up simple but tasty dishes from whatever ingredients you have in the fridge and cupboards which is a good way of saving money on your food shopping, and great for days when you really cannot be bothered to go to the shop to buy more food. Think of those days when it’s raining profusely and you don’t want to brave the shops, if you’re able to conjure up a meal from whatever ingredients you already have you will not have to face the rain!

Another great thing about thinking like a cook is that you will learn to listen to your own intution. Your inner knowing. I find writing recipes difficult because normally I just add a dollop of this and a splash of that and a pinch of something else until something within me says stop! Often you just know when something needs longer, or taking out, or more seasoning or is simply lacking something. But being aware of what something should look or taste like can be a really useful skill to hone.

My mission

My mission is to help guide you to know when something is cooked, when it needs longer, also how to tell when something is ripe, or what kind of things to look out for when choosing food, as this isn’t something that recipes usually cover. I know that with meat, the flavour is generally in the fat, so if you want a flavoursome piece of meat, having at least a little rippling of fat will give it an extra whoomph of flavour that a very lean piece simply won’t have.

I am also keen to share with you what I have found out over the years about when to spend a little more on a premium product and when a cheaper alternative will be just the ticket. One of my key finds has to be the very cheap (formerly 20p!) dry spaghetti. It’s normally found on the bottom shelf (and now costs about 38p!) but it seems to be just the same as the expensive stuff, so definitely a swap.

 One last thing – learning to cook is a process, each time you cook something you get more data to work with. What went well, what could have been better, how much it fed, how long it took, what you’d do next time. Please don’t beat yourself up when things go wrong or if it doesn’t look or taste like something off Masterchef! Just start with a simple recipe, and let your confidence grow. 

Good luck!