Developing Recipes for first timers

[Mark Woodland]

As a culinary student, one of my chefs has challenged our whole class to develop our own unique recipe completely from scratch. We aren't allowed to use family recipes, or even tweak recipes from cookbooks. He feels that we are all talented enough to be able to develop recipes; something that some of his CMC friends don't feel we are able to do.

So my question is to all those with many more years experience in the industry than I, how do you begin to develop a recipe completely from scratch? I've spent the last few weeks reading anything I can about which flavors compliment each other, as well as just writing down different ideas of foods that I think will go well together as well as just basic flavors and tastes that I've enjoyed.

Now I know that for many of you that have been in the industry for many years the thought of developing a recipe is almost as mundane as asking how to julienne a potato, but for those of us still getting our stripes, I'd love some advice.

I've read and re-read the book culinary artistry which I absolutely loved. But that's pretty much it. I can think in my mind of foods that I think would go well, or foods that combined would make an interesting flavor, but is it really that simple? I know that in the end what I can dream up and what actually is edible are two different things, but beyond just basically cooking up my ideas and seeing how they taste is there anything I'm missing?

As always thanks for any information.

[Bruce Smith]

Mark,
As you stated you have thought of ingredients & how they might be paired. Often some of my favorites are things that I like to eat myself. Personal recipes that I use repeatedly, they often get tweaked over a period of time.

Choose ingredients that you are able to procure easily. Think how the base ingredient could be used in appetizer, entree or desert. Often they can be used in several categories or at times only one. Be sure to use quality ingredients & fresh ingredients. If you have quality & freshness that often will result in a very flavorfull presentation. Also watch out for too many ingredients. Be sure not to over process or over cook your fresh finds. Also the sequence of preparation is important so you do not have ingredients fail by over cooking or under cooking during processing & assembly. Timing is important.

Note many quality recipes have to be carefully administrated as no to over do it & destroy the desired result. Your repeated practice of the said recipe project will determine the point at which you are satisfied.

Have a note pad handy to write down notes as you go. Determine portion sizes after discovering your core techniques & write the portions of each ingredient after you are happy with taste, proper degree of cooking. The assembly & presentation details are normally handled by the next chef using the recipe.

Be brave, be curious, be creative.

Hope this encourages you.

[Daniel Kangiser]

Hello Mark,
A technique I use is; I work recipes in reverse order, this is a technique an old timer taught me over 30 years ago. See the final plate, and presentation in your mind first, then break it down into ingredients, preparation methods, textures, colors, flavors, marinades etc. A simple example of this might be I am given a tri tip of beef, do I see a brochette on a bed of rice pilaf, or do I see a london broil type presentation with garlic mashed potatoes. Know your basic preparation methods for proteins, braising, poaching, frying, grilling, etc. Learn your sauces and how to prepare them, these will enhance your final product. Example of a sauce I have made up is I substituted reduced boysenberry juice for the lemon juice in a hollandaise sauce and used it over poached halibut, everyone loved it, yes it was a red color instead of yellow, but it looked great in the final presentation with a few fresh berries on top. The point is I knew how to make a traditional hollandaise from scratch, and I was able to modify it to make it original to me at least.