[freedomben]

I'm just a hobbyist but I routinely get compliments. This is what I did/do:

1. Cook what you love

2. Continuously sample stuff before/after adding spices so you get a feel for what each spice does

3. Follow the recipe closely the first time. Make the same thing again several times and make small tweaks that you think will be better

After a while I gained a really good intuition for what worked and what didn't, how things would be affected by stuff, etc. 3.