Understanding, not recipes
Why this is important
While we all, including me, search for recipes to make a dish, we really should be searching for understanding. We want to understand what makes a dish work. It is simple, ingredients vary, and regional differences exist. Understanding, tasting, and controlling the process is what is needed to improve your cooking. I would much rather go to the market or the store and find what looks best and cook that than slavishly follow a recipe.
What this means: I write for my audience, not for Google
What this means is I design and lay out the information I present to help me improve my understanding and to help my audience. I do not structure to improve search rankings. Google works tirelessly to improve search results to deliver solid information. In many respects they are spot on, in others, I feel they are heavy-handed and missing the difference between learning and understanding as opposed to retrieving information. I trust the process and believe it will continue to improve.
Real Food, Real Photos
Food with a fork in it
I absolutely believe food should be beautiful. But food should be designed for eating. While it is certainly important to adjust the lighting to enhance an image, the idea of producing food for photography or styling in a way that is unnatural is not what I am after.
What this means: My food should look like your food.
When cooking for yourself or your family, I certainly expect you to try your best to make the food appealing. However, the top of a misshaped tomato may look bad, but if it is tasty, I expect to see it in a dish.
Multiple Recipes in a Category
We learn through variation. If we really want to understand a topic, then comparing and contrasting is a useful tool. Therefore, as much as possible, I will be avoiding one-off recipes, but try to produce multiple recipes in a category, such as my BarBQ Sauce work, that can be used for structured learning.
