Letters to a young cook, 1

Now and again, one of the grasshoppers will ask me about cooking. In response to a concern about originality, I suggested the following: 

Pick up something like Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking, and see what inspires. It is a very unoriginal cookbook, and that is its strength. Learning to cook is more like playing in a wedding band than being a jazz solost. Do I know The Hustle? Check. Can I make a roux? Check. 

Was this good advice, people who read this and are smarter about cooking than I am? 

Comments

[Homer]

Sound advice, me thinks. It's like learning the Split T offense before taking a coaching clinic with Bill Walsh, or as someone much wiser once offered, "Begin at the beginning," the King said gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop."

[Marco Romano]

Sound advice. You can improvise after you learn the standards songbook.