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I Have No Imagination

post #1 of 63
8/12/10 at 1:36pm
Thread Starter 
Which is why I will never be a good cook, or anything more than a home-competent executor of other people's recipes. I thought that taking these technique classes would change that, and they have, a little, but mostly if I am being honest I must admit that my adventurous attempts have sucked badly and my good attempts at creativity have veered about 20 feet off the main road and then slavishly gotten right back on.

Halp. Getting bored.
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post #2 of 63
8/12/10 at 1:38pm
Go on a low budget travel trip to asia. Keep journal and make notes. Your mind will be bursting with ideas upon return.

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post #3 of 63
8/12/10 at 1:39pm
The classics are classics for a reason. Vary them, combine them, but while feel pressure to invent wholesale?
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post #4 of 63
8/12/10 at 1:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by grimslade View Post
The classics are classics for a reason. Vary them, combine them, but while feel pressure to invent wholesale?
+1. Most creative stuff these days ends in massive failure, and they are done with all sorts of help and trial.
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post #5 of 63
8/12/10 at 1:43pm
Thread Starter 
Basically my kitchen is a bistro with some Italian dishes and a small number of Asian dishes thrown in, plus some family recipes that are hard to classify.

The stupid veal thing I made the other week as an improv was really bad. Chewy like a tire. The sauce was great but it was also totally froggy-textbook.
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post #6 of 63
8/12/10 at 1:50pm
Most people who are called philosophers are, at best, scholars.
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post #7 of 63
8/12/10 at 1:51pm
Do you want to learn new techniques and apply them to old tastes, or apply old techniques to new tastes?
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post #8 of 63
8/12/10 at 1:52pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by iammatt View Post
Do you want to learn new techniques and apply them to old tastes, or apply old techniques to new tastes?

I want to, when I think "What should I make?", not immediately be bathed in ennui.
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post #9 of 63
8/12/10 at 1:55pm
I actually think oscarthewild's suggestion, in some form, is not bad. Whenever I come back from a place like Italy, I'm swarming with ideas I want to try. And I have no technique.

Speaking of which, we had an awesome lobster linguine in Liguria, and in Maine in June we finally got around to trying to recreate it. The result wasn't half-bad, if I may say so.
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post #10 of 63
8/12/10 at 1:56pm
Thread Starter 
Another problem is everyone around me always says "You're the cook, you decide what we'll have." So I always have to plan the menus. I feel like I just do the same stuff over and over.

I have to do something major on Sunday and I have no idea what to do. For tonight I abdicated all thought and will do Bolognese and baby green salad.
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post #11 of 63
8/12/10 at 1:57pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by grimslade View Post
I actually think oscarthewild's suggestion, in some form, is not bad. Whenever I come back from a place like Italy, I'm swarming with ideas I want to try. And I have no technique.

Speaking of which, we had an awesome lobster linguine in Liguria, and in Maine in June we finally got around to trying to recreate it. The result wasn't half-bad, if I may say so.

I only travel to NorCal. Can't really afford the time or money to go anywhere else.
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post #12 of 63
8/12/10 at 2:02pm
I think you're taking this too seriously. Instead of trying to come up with great menus, cook with ingredients you like.
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post #13 of 63
8/12/10 at 2:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Manton View Post
I only travel to NorCal. Can't really afford the time or money to go anywhere else.
Roast hippie is a delicacy.
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post #14 of 63
8/12/10 at 2:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Manton View Post
Basically my kitchen is a bistro with some Italian dishes and a small number of Asian dishes thrown in, plus some family recipes that are hard to classify.

The stupid veal thing I made the other week as an improv was really bad. Chewy like a tire. The sauce was great but it was also totally froggy-textbook.

I've been taking guitar lessons since June. My guitar teacher is a classical/jazz guitarist whose been playing since he was in diapers, and he has a daughter in college. Actually, he may be a grandfather now, but I digress. The point is that he asks me to improvise on a scale, and I'm in big, big trouble because I know the notes but don't have a direction or path to start along.

He, on the other hand, just lets loose with a torrent of notes and winds up on a tonic, on the beat. Always. But then again, he's played those notes before, a million times at least, and then tried variations on them. Some variations worked and were kept...others didn't go where he wanted and he tried something else, until he found something else that worked. And then he went at it again with something else.

It sounds like you're experimenting, but expect every experiment to come out well. It doesn't work that way. Even my chef friend (not kwilk) with 20 years experience tells me that plenty of his efforts go straight from pan to trash. It happens.
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post #15 of 63
8/12/10 at 2:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Manton View Post
I only travel to NorCal. Can't really afford the time or money to go anywhere else.

when was the last time you ate at a place like Babbo? Not bad for ideas IMO and certainly far better than simply referencing a Batali cook book. I've tried to replicate quite a few dishes, obviously with varying success but it has always been fun.

Same thing with Grammercy tavern. I tried to replicate a grilled fish with a sweet pea and celery root with pine nut chutney of sorts and it was met with great success
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