I’ve never been much of a recipe follower. I own plenty of cookbooks, and I love reading them, but when it comes time to make dinner, I’m much more likely to open the refrigerator, see what needs to be eaten, and take it from there. Sometimes that means substituting ingredients. Sometimes it means inventing something entirely new. And occasionally it means making something I probably won’t make again. I’ve always thought that was just how I cooked. But after my recent Substack LIVE with Katerina Pavlakis of Think Like a Cook, I realized there’s a much bigger idea behind it. Enlightened Omnivore is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Katerina teaches something she calls intuitive cooking—learning to trust our senses, experiences, memories, and appetites instead of outsourcing every decision to a recipe or an expert. And she believes our modern obsession with recipes, celebrity chefs, and perfectly photographed food has convinced a lot of us that cooking is much harder than it actually is. We had a fascinating hour talking about why so many people are afraid to cook, how recipes can sometimes create a kind of learned helplessness, and why restaurant chefs probably shouldn’t be the standard by which we judge Tuesday-night dinner. We also talked about one of my favorite subjects: permission. Permission to substitute an ingredient. Permission to add more salt. Permission to use the slightly sad tomatoes in the back of the refrigerator. Permission to make something that tastes good even if it doesn’t look anything like the photograph. Then we put it all to the test. I raided my refrigerator and challenged Katerina with random combinations—eggs and feta, sweet potatoes and cilantro, even mango and onion—to see how an intuitive cook thinks through ingredients without immediately reaching for Google. Katerina also cooked a simple Greek-style green bean dish while explaining how understanding why we chop, salt, sauté, and season can eventually free us from needing a recipe at all. One idea from our conversation kept coming back to me. We spend so much time trying to make cooking more “convenient” so we can get dinner out of the way. But as Katerina asked: What if the evening is the dinner? If you’ve ever stared into your refrigerator wondering what the hell to make, felt intimidated by a recipe, or wished you were one of those people who could “just throw something together,” I think you’ll enjoy this conversation. Enjoy the full recording at the top of this post. Also, please consider becoming a paid subscriber before the end of summer. Not only will you get a bunch of great paid benefits, including in-depth workshops, more live conversations, PDFs and opportunities to connect one-on-one. But you’ll also help me to achieve Best Selling status, which helps get Enlightened Omnivore in front of more readers. I only need 12 more subscriptions! Next Up: CookStack Collective — Kimchi! Our next CookStack Collective class is this Friday. Paid subscribers can join Betty Williams on Friday, August 21 at 12 pm PT / 3 pm ET for a fermentation primer and hands-on lesson making two kinds of Korean kimchi: quick-pickled cucumber kimchi and fermented cabbage kimchi. It’s the second installment of the year-long CookStack Collective, featuring 12 live cooking classes from food writers, cooks, bakers, and teachers across Substack. And if you can’t make it live, paid subscribers get access to the recording. Come cook with us. The Seasonal Table is Back: Fall On September 17 at 10am PT/1pm ET, I’m co-hosting with Nicki Sizemore the next installment of The Seasonal Table — a quarterly Substack Live series marking the four seasonal turning points of the year (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter). For our fall conversation, Nicki and I will share about my favorite time of year. What does autumn mean to nature, the body, the kitchen, and the family dinner table. And, of course, there will be food. Nicki and I will be demoing some of our favorite recipes for fall. I hope you join us. Enlightened Omnivore is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit enlightenedomnivore.substack.com/subscribe
