Easy guide to creating recipes like a Chef
Creating recipes might be one of the most challenging tasks when it comes to cooking, culinary arts and being a Chef in general. You might find yourself sometimes looking at these amazing fine-dining dishes that Michelin Star Chefs post on Instagram, TikTok or Youtube, and you tell yourself… wow! How did she come up with this?… It looks incredible, but also unachievable! What’s the though process here? Where to start from?
Well, if that you, you’re in luck! Because that’s exactly what we’ll be breaking down in this blog post, on the example of creating recipes that are a fusion of cuisines.
Hopefully, after reading this blog post on creating recipes, you’ll get from the point of someone who silently admires the works of famous Chefs, to a position of a person who can create your own unique, beautiful and most importantly delicious dishes! Dishes that tell your culinary stories.
Case study: Creating fusion recipes
Sit down and think, is there a specific cuisine that feels close to your heart and your want to address in your dish?
For example, let’s say your family heritage comes from Asia, but you live in the US now, and you’d love to share some true Asian flavors with your American friends.
If that’s the case for you, here we go! You got yourself a theme for your first independent dish: American classics with Asian flavors, a.k.a. Asian-American fusion.
Let’s take this example and use it for our first case study.
Make 2 Lists
First of all, creating fusion dishes is A LOT of fun! It’s one of my favorite things to do in cooking.
When I need to create a dish that’s a fusion of certain cuisines, I’d usually take my notepad out and make 2 lists. 1 list for each cuisine, and include in each things like staple dish, iconic flavours, ingredients of each cuisine, and so on. Whatever comes to your mind when you think of the food of that particular country.
So for example, in the list of American cuisine I’m writing: Burgers, pizza, soda drinks, high sugar levels, BBQ, ketchup, smoke, hot dogs, fast-food themes, steaks, corn, pumpkins, ranch… sorry my American friends, if what comes to my mind is too unhealthy sounding… you might have totally different things on your list, depending on where exactly you come from in the US, and your family traditions. So just do you, do your own list.
And the same goes for Asian list: I have here: rice, sushi, miso, soy sauce, tofu, spice (like … Asia is also a very broad generalization, I’m just giving you an example here… you maybe narrow yourself down a bit more to a specific country or region).
Is there anything in-common?
Step 2, once you get 2 lists. Look for things that both of this cuisines have in common. For example, American burger has ketchup in it, and in Asian cuisine you find sweetness is also a beloved flavour. So why not, substitute Ketchup for an Asian style sauce? Or in classic burger you’d use these milk buns, why not substitute those with Asian steamed buns with a touch of sesame seeds and sweet umami sauce? You see where I’m going with this?
Now it’s your time to brain storm your lists. Once you get this 1st idea, all the other ones would usually start flowing your way, you’ll need to keep up with them to note everything down. I’d recommend to write as many ideas, as you can come up with. It’s always better to have a choice at the end.
If you find this blog post useful and would like to learn more about cooking like a Chef and scale UP your overall culinary game, check out my online Culinary Academy.