“90 % of Cooking Well is all About Confidence”

I interviewed a chef at a local restaurant recently for a feature story and he provided some tips for home cooks. The one piece of advice that really stuck with me: “90% of cooking well is all about confidence.” I’m certainly no chef, but I’ve absolutely found this to be true.

My family used to tease me when I cooked or baked as a teenager because I insisted on following recipes faithfully. I wanted to be exact in my measurements and follow the recipe to the “to” so I could get it right. In order to be confident, I needed to lean on the recipe.

When I grocery shop these days, I tend shop for ingredients, rather than specific recipes. I still follow some recipes fairly closely when I first try them, but I’m much happier adapting. Some ingredients are simply too expensive or won’t go into more than one dish to be practical. Others won’t work with my family. So, I’ve learned to improvise, substitute, and make it work.

Tonight, I made stuffed manicotti. I found a basic recipe in the standard checkered cookbook to give me cooking times and a basic guideline and went from there. I’ve learned a thing or two from my hours watching “Top Chef” and I know that trusting yourself and experimenting can really payoff (and sometimes bomb terribly). There are times when a recipe falls a bit flat, but I’ve never made anything inedible and I’m excited to say that I don’t really consider this to be a possibility much anymore.

So, what does an improvised manicotti look like at my house?
1 package manicotti, cooked
1 medium yellow onion and about a teaspoon minced garlic, cooked until onion is clear.
1 lb ground beef, cooked and seasoned with salt and pepper. (could use spinach instead)