Professor: “One thing is to write down an existing recipe, but how do you create one from scratch?”
Chef Alex: “Several years ago, a woman submitted a recipe to one of the leading food magazines and wrote: “Here is a recipe that my husband, the doctor, invented one weekend at our summer home.” The recipe was easily recognized by anyone with just a little classic cooking knowledge. I don’t know if the good doctor had cheated or actually did “invent” the dish without knowing that someone had already invented it centuries earlier.
In the past, working in classic French cuisine meant following the old masters’ recipes religiously—a classic example of staying inside the box. With the arrival of Nouvelle cuisine, many walls were broken down, allowing more freedom to think outside the box. This resulted in a boom in new recipes and adaptations of old ones. The most successful chefs were those who remembered where they came from and kept their feet on a solid foundation. Unfortunately, some young chefs with no background or foundation didn’t understand the idea behind Nouvelle cuisine, went overboard serving tiny portions, and gave Nouvelle cuisine a bad name. But it is such a great example of what happens when everyone is taught to follow the rules, and then one day, someone says: You don’t have to follow the rules anymore. Do what you think is the right way to do things. The result was a boom of creativity all over the world.”
Professor: “So, new recipes were created?”
Chef Alex: “Yes, the old recipes were put aside, the food got a little lighter, and new recipes were created. Chefs also started to plate the food in the kitchen and got creative with plate presentations.”
Professor: “You are talking about top professional chefs. Today, many of the celebrity chefs still put out a lot of cookbooks.”
Chef Alex: “Yes, and most of them are very good. But hundreds of new cookbooks are published annually with an equal number of recipes. Not all of them are written by professional chefs. Amateurs, clubs, civic groups, and churches distribute hundreds of cookbooks yearly. Many of them are collections from members and meant as fundraisers. However, very few of these recipes are original. Most are old stand-byes, reworked standards, variations, or other adaptations. It wouldn’t surprise me if hundreds of Mac and Cheese recipes were published yearly. Truly original recipes are difficult to find. Opportunities do present themselves occasionally by way of new foods coming to the market, sometimes by crossbreeding, hybrids, or newly discovered foods from other parts of the world. Some are even being created in laboratories. New equipment and techniques demand new ways of doing things. Brand new ideas, seemingly coming from nowhere, are rare.”
Professor: “I don’t think creating recipes differs much from other creations. What do you think?”
Chef Alex: “I have never gotten an idea for a whole recipe. I often get ideas about trying to do something differently or new combinations. These ideas can come anytime while working in the kitchen or at 3 am while sleeping. When a creative idea comes around, the question is what to do with it. The idea must be interpreted, analyzed, and understood. First, I write it down quickly, then take it into the kitchen and work out the details.”
Professor: “Who is the most creative chef you have worked with?”
Chef Alex: “I worked at a restaurant as a young cook when we got a new chef, and I was tasked to work with him. From the get-go, he was different than any other chefs I had worked with. He was quick, intense, and all business. We quickly learned he was an outstanding chef, and he knew his stuff. Every day, the Executive Chef would designate one of the chefs to make the special. On the first day, the new chef said he would do it and proceeded to make a special far above anything we had ever seen. From then on, it was full speed ahead; things changed and got reorganized, and we did new things every day. Those of us who worked directly with him quickly found out we had to be both physically and mentally at our best every day. We worked hard but loved every minute of it.”
Professor: “Did you ever discover why he was so creative?”
Chef Alex: “He worked hard at it. He would read and study every night, and when he came to work, his head was full of ideas we would work on and experiment with.
Cooking was his whole life. One day, he gave me a book and said, ‘Read this,’ it was Physiology of Taste by Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826). It was a little heavy for me at the time, but it also gave me a new perspective on working in a kitchen and told me a lot about him. He cared deeply about the food we prepared, but he also cared about the people he was working with. He was a different person than others I had previously worked with. He could be temperamental and had no patience for lazy and stupid people.”
Professor: “I think independent, curious, nonconformist problem solvers are probably more creative than others.”
Chef Alex: “He was all that.”
Professor: “Give me a scenario where a chef needs creativity.”
Chef Alex: “Let’s say a chef is working on a new menu and needs new ideas for an appetizer. Specifically, he needs a cold, non-seafood appetizer for the spring menu.”
Professor: “Psychologists think the creative process happens in stages.
Gather information and new material.
Incubation. Thoroughly work on the material in your mind. Defined problems and seek solutions.
Step away from the process.
Evaluate the process and compare it to similar items.
Share with others, have someone look at it, and get feedback.
Shape and develop based on the feedback.”
Chef Alex: “In my experience, most new recipes are developed by hard work, using all we have learned from our teachers and mentors about food and preparations. By standing on the shoulders of those who came before us, we can use our knowledge to create, rework, adjust, develop, and tinker with the recipes we work with daily. After all, the kitchen is a place of transformation. Everything brought into the kitchen is changed in some way. It is just a matter of how and sometimes who is doing it.
The more a person knows about combinations and how all the ingredients work and react in different situations, the easier it is. For people who work with recipes every day, it is unavoidable not to vary a recipe to fit, not only to their style but also to adjust according to the variability of ingredients and equipment. The world is an ever-changing place, and often, we must adapt our recipes to fit a new situation, diet, or a change in lifestyle or way of living.
Another thing is availability. Let me tell you about Chef Durand, Chef to General Napoleon. He found himself at the battlefield near Marengo in northern Italy in 1800. After the battle, Napoleon told Chef Durand to fix him supper. However, the supply wagon was left too far behind to reach. Durand sent men out to get whatever food they could find. But this was a battlefield, and two armies had already plundered everything from the local farms. They only found a saucepan, one chicken, six crayfish, four tomatoes, three eggs, a little oil, and a little garlic. Chef Durand also had some bread rations and Cognac from the General’s flask.
Cooking over an open flame, he worked with what he had. Napoleon liked the dish so much that he commanded Chef Durand to make it again after each battle. And Chicken Sauté Marengo was born.
Professor: “In the grocery stores, almost everything is always available. You can get asparagus in December and strawberries in January.”
Chef Alex: “Many chefs have embraced the farm-to-table concept. It can be challenging and constantly changing depending on where in the country you are and the season. You might have an abundance of fresh figs one week and none the next. Chefs working directly with farms must be flexible, creative, and able to make quick decisions. Chefs are used to ordering what they need from large produce companies, where almost everything is available year-round. However, working with farmers means they can only get what is available, sometimes not even that. If they had been promised strawberries for tomorrow, but if it rained all last night, the farmers might not be able to pick them.
Mystery basket competitions are popular everywhere. Each contestant gets a basket of food and must make a meal from the basket’s contents, often in a limited time. That, of course, forces the competitors to think on their feet and be creative.
Professor: “You used the word ‘develop’ earlier; what do you mean by that?”
Chef Alex: “Let’s look at a scenario that plays out, in one form or another, in hundreds of restaurants every day: The Chef calls his team of cooks together to let them know he got some fresh Seabass for tonight’s special, and the enthusiasm level went up a few notches.
Chef: “Any ideas?”
Cook Bob: “We should pan-sear it.”
Cook Matt: “Remember the lemon vodka drink the bartender made the other day? I have been thinking about making a beurre blanc with that and maybe adding some green peppercorns.
Chef: “Maybe also add a little lemon zest. Are you thinking whole or crushed green peppercorns?”
Cook Matt: “Crushed.”
Cook Lisa: “I could make my Mango Salsa to go with it.”
Chef: “I think it might be a little too spicy and overpowering for this dish, but go ahead and make it, but use only half the amount of jalapeno peppers.”
Cook Amy: We can serve it over herbed jasmine rice.”
Chef: “Sounds good, and then top it off with micro arugula. Let’s have one dish ready at 5 pm to make some last-minute adjustments and let the serves taste it.”
Hopefully, the chef had time to write it down, maybe even with notes on how it was received and how many were sold.
A lot of recipe developments are done in test kitchens. Many large operations, plus all the food magazines and TV shows, have test kitchens. Chefs, nutritionists, dietitians, and research chefs get together to brainstorm, bounce ideas around, test, and re-test whatever topic they are working on.”
Professor: “Interesting, but let me tell you what I did last week. I wanted to make a Chili and checked the internet. There are a lot of Chili recipes on the internet, all similar but slightly different. I picked out three, put the ingredient lists side by side, added the amount for each item, then divided them into three, and got a new fourth recipe.
Ingredients A B C Total New
Servings 6 4 8 18 6
Onion 1 ½ 2 3 ½ 1
Garlic 3 2 4 9 3
Beef 2 1 2 5 1.6
And so on with all the ingredients, and then make a few adjustments.”
Chef Alex: “I haven’t heard of anyone doing it like that, but I know all chefs will look at recipes to get ideas and maybe a little inspiration. Just like some musicians can hear notes in their head just by reading sheet music, some chefs can imagine taste and combinations by reading a recipe and might make mental notes before entering the kitchen.”
Professor: “I know you have traveled and worked in several kitchens.”
Chef Alex: “Chefs are traditionally a traveling lot. Young chefs need to be exposed to as many cuisines as possible for the sole purpose of learning. At the same time, it is impossible to remember how, when, or where anything was learned. Often, learning is done by repetition over long periods. The time comes when everything learned is put to good use, is pulled together, and we stand on our own feet. We create our style according to our preferences, temperament, and skill. It is a gradual process, from asking all the questions and getting advice from the more experienced to being the one answering all the questions. Sometimes, the questions come quickly, in hectic situations, and answers must sometimes be instantly creative. (Some chefs I know are most creative under pressure.)
At an inn where I worked as a young apprentice, there was a period when we went through several Executive Chefs, some of whom were very questionable. When I complained to one of the cooks about the high turnover, he told me: “Take only the best from each of them and make that your own, then someday you’ll be good.” Today, I can’t even remember their names, let alone what I learned from whom, but it is one example of how we learn and gather information.
When the old masters created a new dish, it was a big thing. Chefs worldwide would memorize the recipe and try to recreate the masterpiece. You could visit a French restaurant in New York, London, Tokyo, and Madrid and get an almost identical meal. If one of Escoffier’s recipes called for peas, you would use peas, and if you couldn’t get them fresh, you would use frozen or canned, but you would use peas or not make that dish at all. Today, things move a little faster, and many creative chefs change their menus often and create many “specials” daily.
Professor: “If I want to create a recipe, what would you tell me?”
Creating/Developing and Writing a New Recipe
To create means bringing something into existence that wasn’t there before.
Creating a new dish or recipe from scratch is rare. It is often done by developing, working with, rearranging, trying new combinations, etc.
The more you know about a subject, the easier it is to be creative in that field. When talking about food, that means:
Understanding the Basics
Ingredients – Cooking Techniques – Kitchen Equipment
Reading and Decoding Recipes
Recipe Structure – Recipe Language – Portion Size
The world is an ever-changing place, and often, we must adjust our recipes to fit a new situation, diet, or a change in lifestyle or way of living.”
Professor: Obviously, some people are more creative than others. People like inventors, artists, writers, and many more are among the most innovative, while others have never had a creative thought. However, creativity is a powerful ability that can be learned and cultivated.
There are certain principles to be, or become, more creative. I’ll mention a few, and then you can tell me how they relate to food.”
Professor: Curiosity
Chef Alex: What if? – Why don’t I try this? – What will happen if I do this instead of that? A curious approach to cooking and a quest for continuous learning means staying open-minded, asking questions, and exploring new ideas.
Sometimes wonder creates.
Professor: Divergent/Convergent Thinking
Chef Alex: Divergent thinking is exploring many possible solutions to a problem. Convergent thinking generally involves giving the “right” answer and is essentially the process of choosing the obvious one.
Professor: Break routine
Chef Alex: For fresh perspectives, break out of your daily routine. New experiences and environments will stimulate your brain.
Professor: Development / Collaboration / Inspiration from others
Chef Alex: Most new recipes are not created but developed in home, professional, and test kitchens. Using all we have learned, we can rework, adjust, and tinker with the recipes we work with daily.
Start experimenting with different ingredient combinations, quantities, and cooking methods. Take notes on the measurements, cooking times, and any adjustments you make. Taste as you go to ensure the flavors are balanced. After all, the kitchen is a place of transformation. Everything brought into the kitchen is changed in some way. It is unavoidable not to vary a recipe to fit, not only to our style, but also to adjust according to the variability of ingredients, equipment, a new situation, diet, or change in lifestyle or way of living.
Another thing is availability. Using local, farm-to-table items can be challenging but also exciting. Due to seasons and weather conditions, availability can change quickly, requiring a chef to be flexible, creative, and able to make quick decisions.
Visit other kitchens, friends, family, and colleagues, and keep your eyes and ears open. Read, explore the internet, and watch food shows. Brainstorm. Get other people involved. To have other like-minded people in a group and bouncing ideas back and forth is the best and quickest way to create. Keep an open mind, and don’t let other people tell you what can and cannot be done.
Professional kitchens rely on teamwork, and creative kitchens will toss ideas around, brainstorm, and try new things. The same applies to test kitchens, where chefs, nutritionists, dietitians, and researchers gather diverse perspectives and insights to develop and create new recipes or cooking methods.
Home cooks can share ideas with family, friends, colleagues, or online groups to receive feedback and inspiration.
Professor: Mindfulness / Mind-body Connection / Reflection
Chef Alex: Mindfulness is being fully present and aware of where and what we do. When mindful, we can gain insight and awareness through observing our own mind. Creating a new recipe is a balance between science and art and often requires both logic and imagination. Start with what you already know. There may be forgotten ideas from the past or items in your possession that can be explored further. It is often a matter of looking at what you already know and applying it from a different angle.
Physical activity can stimulate creative thinking. Take breaks, go for a walk, go to the gym, engage in activities like yoga or Tai Chi.
Ensure you get enough sleep, as it plays a crucial role in cognitive function and creativity.
Reflect on your thoughts and experiences regularly. What could be improved? What worked well?
Professor: Constraints as catalysts – availability
Chef Alex: Another way to create is to focus on one or two items. Limits can stimulate problem-solving and make you think outside the box. Nowadays, we can get almost anything year-round, but if you are entuned with the seasons, some items have very short seasons (soft-shell crabs) and are not always available. In some cases, there is a temporary abundance of one item you want to take advantage of.
Let’s use plums as an example and exclude desserts.
Plums can be sliced, sauteed, grilled, and served with seafood, chicken, or pork. Many oriental recipes include plums. How many savory dishes with plums can you think of?
Or maybe two ingredients. In early fall, you have oysters and corn. How many dishes can you come up with using oysters and corn?
Maybe the limit is not a food item but a piece of equipment, a theme, or a category. Can you think of a grilled but served cold plum appetizer?
I once worked at a hotel that had a yearly Catfish festival. All the chefs and cooks were trying to create new catfish dishes. I must admit not all of them were good, but some were.
The world of cooking is too vast to comprehend it all. It is impossible to know it all, so it helps to narrow it down and focus on what is our strengths.
Choose a dish or a theme. Decide on the type of dish or cuisine you want to create a recipe for, from appetizer to dessert or a specific cuisine like Greek or Chinese.
Identify the main ingredients. Concentrate on the key ingredients you want to use for your recipe. Think about the flavors and textures you want to incorporate. If you are creating a pasta dish, you might also think of items to go with it.
Determine cooking methods. Decide on the cooking techniques you want to use for your recipe. Will you be baking, grilling, or sauteing? This will help determine the steps and timing for each component.
Professor: Embrace Failure
Chef Alex: Mistakes happen, ambiguity, paradoxes, uncertainty, and sometimes bad ideas occur. Learn from it and use it as stepping stones to better results. Test through experience and persistence. Learning how not to do something can be valuable and used to refine and keep experimenting.
Professor: Keep a creative journal.
Chef Alex: Take notes. Ideas, observations, and inspirations can come anytime, anywhere, not just in the kitchen; write it all down for later use.
In the kitchen, note everything you do and make drawings, if possible: combinations, quantities, methods, tastes, etc.
Once you’ve finalized your recipe, document it clearly and organized. Include a list of ingredients with specific measurements, step-by-step instructions, and any special tips or variations. You may want to take photos along the way to illustrate the process.
Professor: Test, And Test Again
Chef Alex: Test and refine. Prepare a recipe multiple times to ensure consistency and make necessary adjustments. Consider seeking feedback from others to get their input and suggestions for improvement.
Once you have finalized your recipe, document it clearly and organized. (See below) Include a list of ingredients with specific measurements, step-by-step instructions, and any special tips or variations. You may want to take photos along the way to illustrate the process.
Once you are satisfied with your recipe, please share it with others. You can publish it on a blog, share it with friends and family, or even submit it to recipe websites or competitions.
Creating recipes is a skill that can be learned and developed over time. Be patient, stay persistent, have fun, and enjoy the journey of culinary creations!
“Follow your heart, but be quiet for a while first.
Ask questions, then feel the answer.
Learn to trust your heart.”
-Anonymous
Plating/Food Presentation
Professor: “I have seen pictures of some very creative ways of serving food, and you always make your food look amazing. Serving food is almost like a different art form.
Chef Alex: “Plate presentation is the final step that showcases the creations. It should highlight the quality of the food and preparation techniques. Each element should be there for a reason, adding flavor, texture, and color dimensions that are in harmony with the finished plate.
Effective plating should be simple yet stylish and visually appealing. Before beginning the plating process, visualize how it will appear.
Usually, our eyes scan a food plate much like a picture, from the lower left to the upper right. Use this to engage the senses and draw in the observer.
Odd numbers are more pleasing to the eye than even numbers and bring unity and harmony to the plate and pull in the surrounding elements, so three of anything is more appealing than four.
Food plating starts with the basics of functionality and practicality. Most important is the quality of the food, which must be prepared properly with a fresh, appetizing appearance. All cuts should be clean and uniform. Everything must be prepared to retain its bright colors; sauces must have a proper consistency, and proteins must be cooked to the correct degree of doneness.
Elements in Creative Food Plating
The plate as a canvas
Treat the plate as a canvas and think about it in terms of composition, balancing visual elements across the dish.
Shapes
Experiment with geometric shapes for individual elements or use moldings to shape ingredients creatively.
Color
Experiment with various colorful ingredients to create visually appealing contrasts on the plate.
Patterns
Arrange food in creative and visually interesting patterns, like spirals, waves, or concentric circles.
Heights
Use different heights to add depth to the presentation. Stack elements or use elevated platforms for certain items.
Garnishes
Incorporate edible flowers, microgreens, or herbs as garnishes to add flavor and a pop of color.
Enhance aesthetics.
Create artistic swirls or drizzles with sauces to enhance the overall aesthetic and add a touch of sophistication.
Textures
Combine crunchy, smooth, and creamy textures to make the dish more engaging to the eyes and palate.
Empty Spaces
Utilize the empty spaces on the plate strategically to draw attention to the main components and maintain a clean look. As a rule, at least 1/3 of the plate should be negative or empty space.
Freshness
Highlight the freshness of your ingredients and embrace seasonality to add vibrancy and relevance to your dish.
Temperatures
Integrate elements at different temperatures to add a dynamic aspect to the dish, such as a warm item on a cold salad.
Plates and Bowls
Choose plates and bowls that complement the textures and colors of the food, enhancing the overall presentation. When plating, plates and bowls should be at the correct temperature: hot food on warm plates and cold food on chilled plates.
Tools
Use unconventional tools like squeeze bottles, tweezers, or even paintbrushes to apply sauces or arrange delicate components.
Personality
Infuse your personality into the plating, making it unique and reflective of your own style and creativity.
Before the plate is presented to the guest, it must be examined and cleaned as needed. It should be presented to the guest with the plate position as intended. This is referred to as the 6 o’clock focal point closest to the guest.
Above all, a plate of food should taste delicious and be enjoyable to eat. Think about how your guests will actually eat the food. For example, everything on the plate, including garnishes, should be edible.
All plating involves artistic decisions, and a successful plate presentation is seldom achieved on the first try. Test, use your imagination, create by trial-and-error, and brainstorm with others, if possible, to get the results you are looking for.
“I already enjoy cooking. I like different flavors and putting different things together and really like taking normal recipes to a higher level.”
– Queen Latifah
Professor: “At what time does a recipe belong to someone? If a chef takes a recipe and makes one or two changes, is it his?”
Chef Alex: “He can call the ingredient list his, and maybe the direction if they are simple. My question is: what if a chef gets the idea to take a piece of fish and cook it like taught by the first chef he worked with twenty years ago but uses a technique he learned from a second chef ten years ago and combines it with a sauce he got from a third chef five years ago? Then he uses a presentation he picked up from a fourth chef last year; is it now his? At what time can he call it his own?”
Professor: “That is a good question.”
Chef Alex: “When a recipe is published, it can be difficult, perhaps impossible, to credit someone else for the creation. However, if the source is known, it should be acknowledged, and if a recipe comes from a published book, it can only be republished with permission. Keep in mind cookbooks and recipes are published to be used. The question of copyright becomes an issue only if a recipe is published.
Unfortunately, there have been cases where people blatantly stole the recipes of others and published them as their own. Respecting and properly crediting another’s creations and intellectual property is important. Even though a recipe cannot be copyrighted, everything surrounding it can; published cookbooks are always copyrighted.”
Professor: “What do you mean by everything surrounding it?
Chef AlexAlex: “As I have said before, I am not a lawyer, but the way I understand it is that the ingredient list cannot be copyrighted, the directions are a gray area, but everything else, any writing, headnotes, photographs, and information on ingredients or history, is copyrightable.”
Professor: “What do you mean by a gray area?”
Chef Alex: “One lawyer told me directions in a recipe are protected; another told me that if the directions are simple and common, they are not protected. So, to me, that is a gray area for lawyers to fight over.”
