A terrible home cook fails to plan and doesn’t know how to work with what they have in the kitchen, so they cook nothing at all or they struggle to pull together anything edible.

A slightly better home cook knows how to use the basics. They stick to a few go-to meals, but they can at least get food on the table.

An even better home cook knows how to plan. They tend to define meals in advance and they focus their shopping on supporting these meals. They have clear instructions from a recipe, so they can put together pretty tasty meals.

And an excellent home cook can improvise. They can go to the farmers market and just pick up whatever is in season, or whatever looks particularly fresh that day. Then they have the vision and the creativity to combine whatever flavors they come across into a meal that works. It isn’t the same thing every day but it tastes great because they understand the principles.

When we don’t truly understand the craft, we either fail or we can make due with planning to hide our flaws.

But once we master the first principles, either in cooking or anything else, we earn the freedom to go off the script.

-Brandon