Imitate is when you start to learn to cook. Just like Mozart when he start playing pieces of music from the symphony, or playing it off the scores. Somebody did it. Somebody created it and we learn by following. This is the first step of learning to cook: learn from recipe or let somebody guide you along the way. Similarly, when you ate in the restaurant and you find the food tastes great, you would love to find how to cook it yourself. So you look up in the recipe book, or internet, or even look around whether any of your friends have the recipe. While imitation might be the first grade in cooking, it's imitation that makes traditional recipes going on for millenniums. Sushi, while mutate and evolve for centuries, it's essentially the same stuffs from centuries ago. And simple food such as bread, rooted from way back in history.
Mutate is the early step of create. You see a great dish and you modify it to make it better suit your taste. Bread for example, was basically baked leavened dough of flour. The Japanese create an-pan (bread with sweet red bean fillings) and karepan (bread filled with curry, coated with bread crumbs and fried). Others including countless of variation and recipes for bread. Who knows that adding a raw egg yolk on top of pasta carbonara would greatly enhance its taste? Or adding Guinness or coke or coffee in your steak would greatly alter the taste of your beef? If you're not here yet, don't worry. Many cooks dare not even to venture to this level. But when you achieve this level, you'll feel the surge of creativity comes into your brain. and you're ready for the next step:
Create! The ultimate dream of a chef. Louisiana Crab cakes, Singapore chili crab, Hainanese Chicken rice, Korean dolsot bibimbap, Japanese soba noodle... you name it. They all invented by somebody. Someone dare enough to venture to the uncharted waters. They make it great and people follow. These are people that think really out of the box. Although indeed some dish are created by accident or result of leftovers tossed in together (Japanese takikomi Gohan, Singapore Hokkien Mee). But a new dish is a new dish after all.
My advice, when you start dancing in the kitchen, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to start, to imitate. Don't be afraid to step out of the box, just walk out with little evolution and alteration from existing food. And lastly, never fear of creating new dish. And for single guys out there, a wonderfully created new dish named after the girl you adore, beats roses and chocolate anytime. (while chocolate and roses with a great dinner would really enhance the music.)
So get back there in the kitchen and start doing great things.
- Never eat more than you can lift. [Miss Piggy]
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