Home ∘ Practice Recipes ➡️
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So far in this course we’ve covered some of the major fundamental concepts in cooking— how to use salt, how to use heat, etc. Those are all important meta-skills that allow you to think like a chef. Knowing those fundamentals will give you a greater understanding of what is actually happening as you cook and will allow you to move towards a form of cooking that’s less constrained by recipes and more intuitive. In this lesson, I’ll talk about some frameworks and practical tips that will help you make this transition more easily.
Let’s dive in!
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There’s a simple framework that I love to use when cooking that I learned (and slightly tweaked) from Yottam Ottolenghi, a legendary chef, recipe developer, and cookbook author. It’s called PPP— product, process, pairing (PPP).
These days, I rarely cook using recipes. When I do, it’s usually because I’m cooking a specific dish that I’ve never cooked before, and I use the recipe as a general guidepost to take note of ingredients, techniques, and flavor profiles. Most of the time, I take a more freeform approach where I simply find the best ingredients I can acquire and then use what’s in my pantry to build those into more flavorful meals. PPP is a good framework that helps illustrate how this works in practice.
There are three core elements here:
Product
All great cooking starts with great product. Seeking out and starting with high-quality primary ingredients will get you further than any specific recipe or technique. So I always focus on sourcing the freshest, best-quality products I can afford.
Process
Process refers to the combinations of methods and techniques that you’ll use to cook those products. Often, this is inspired by the products themselves. If I find a great ribeye, I’ll use the reverse sear steak method. If I can only find ground beef, I might make meatballs. When you know the end result that you want, you can pick which methods and techniques you’ll use (based on what’s in your repertoire) to get there.
Pairing
Pairing refers to the additional flavors and ingredients you’ll use to build out a complete dish or meal. If I’m making a ribeye, I might pair that with a chimichurri sauce and a side of mashed potatoes. If I’m making meatballs, I’ll often pair them with a yogurt sauce and some bone broth rice. Pairing is important because it allows you to utilize fats, sauces, condiments, pantry staples, and additional secondary components to craft a dish that’s balanced and flavorful.
The vast majority of the time when I’m cooking, I utilize this framework.