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Nice article! I definitely think this is the right approach for absolute cooking novices who also happen to think like engineers. For those who haven't learned to think like engineers, this might seem... boring. I won't say that you're taking the discovery out of the equation, but I think you're distilling this process. Discovery is important as a novice because it inevitably helps build your palate. Patterns, in this particular viewpoint, seem to have a limit with regards to becoming a better cook. Sure, you're going to learn how to cook, but you won't really know why things come out a certain way. Rather than use the analogy of a pattern, I think it would be more advantageous to break meals down into flavor profiles. These are the building blocks AND personas of food. By learning how to make something taste salty, sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, or even French-y, Chinese-y, Mexican-y, Mediterranean-y, etc, etc, you can take very foundational dishes and produce countless variants. Anyways, I think it would be really helpful for you to check out how the French structure their mother sauces. They are very foundational and develop into so many different things. Not unlike what you're talking about, but allowing for unlimited creativity, engineering. |