Alice Zaslavsky - The Joy of Better Cooking: Life-changing skills & thrills for enthusiastic eaters

Welcome aboard

What does it mean to be a good cook? The flick of a wrist, a pinch of the fingers, the whiff of a waft. Its intuition and muscle memory. Its a way of life built on a foundation of flying hours.

From time spent at your grandmothers apron strings, podding broad beans and rolling pasta dough between chubby fingers. From home economics classes, rubbing butter into scone dough, committing the crack of golden caramel to canon and the reward of some kind of sweet slice to scoff on the school bus home. From student suppers, haphazardly flung together with bits rummaged from the vegie crisper, sploodged with whatever sauce is lurking in the fridge door until it makes some semblance of sense. From bring-a-plates, and grown-up dinner parties where you learn to keep things simple eventually. Its first dates, and first sunken cakes hidden under cream.

But what happens if you missed a stage? Or three?

Youre not alone. As weve become busier, the intergenerational family experience has become less common, and schools turn kitchens into science labs, when does the practice plane actually take off to get those flying hours under the belt? And when it does come time to start, how do we make the experience of cooking something to actually look forward to?

First of all, lets toss out the concept of being a good cook, and replace it with the idea of becoming a better cook. Better Cooking is a lifelong journey. Its made up of single steps, with plenty of whoopsies and notes-for-next-time along the way. But every step gets you a bit closer to cracking the codes that unlock the confidence to feel freedom and joy in the kitchen.

I believe that foodie is a word to be embraced rather than shirked, because it can also mean more conscientious consumption. But foodie culture does have a lot to answer for when it comes to making newbies feel out of their depth. Shaking off the imposter syndrome that can plague anyone whos watched a fancy food show or heard the loaded line Its just that easy from a TV chef can feel impossible if were stuck at the first hurdle. It can mean people give up and label themselves bad cooks or say they dont cook and never try.

Labels are powerful, for better or worse. Im here to tell you that you are already a better cook than you think you are.

If youve ever found yourself thinking about dinner over breakfast, if bringing pleasure and nourishment to the people in your orbit gives you a glow, heck if you already enjoy the eating part, you can find the fun in getting the food to the table, too.

Forget about cooking for someone elses tastes or expectations. Ive tried doing that in the past, and would strongly not recommend. Why? Because fear lives here, and the paralysis of choice. Oh, and doubt, of course, about what it is you should be doing, and whether youre good enough .

The joy of better cooking is that you can stop second-guessing yourself. You can look into the fridge/freezer/pantry and instantly start to see ideas and inspiration before you, rather than feeling overwhelmed or at a loss. Relax into the rhythm, release any expectations of perfection or outcome. Go with the flow, take a breath, and remind yourself: Ive got this.

Oh, and youve got this . Ive designed this book to act as an instruction manual, but youd never know it. In fact, forget I ever said that. Instead, Ive written a book with 70-ish recipes plus loads of recipe riffs that I know youll want to cook, on a weekly basis, again and again, with heaps of extra tips and tricks so that, soon enough, cooking the recipes will feel like second nature. Like that scene in The Matrix where Trinity learns to fly a helicopter while she sleeps. You wont even know youre learning, until the learning has been done.

The recipes are stacked in sections from what I perceive to be easy to harder, as a gateway to lure you in, because I figure that anyone who loves to eat will get hooked on the slapping and dashing and not even notice when they start pulling out show-stopping sweeties on the reg. The techniques are transferable, and often come up multiple times to scaffold the skill and help it sink in permanently. If youre stuck on a skill or a fancy-looking cooking word, remember to check the index itll probably have some form of extrapolation in another part of the book.

Youll also find the kind of insider-intel it usually takes years to learn the assumed knowledge that comes with better cooking in the form of Bonus Bits (on the pages that are ever-so-slightly tinged with a touch of lilac). These are the pages to turn to if youre keen to deep-dive while you cook, or want to ask why chances are, the answers already there. Theyre also the pages you can choose to skip over if youre in a hurry to get dinner on the table you can always come back to them later when youre pottering about and up for a chinwag with me in written form.

Wherever I have found you on the spectrum of cooking confidence and success: if this is your first proper cookbook or if youre someone who reads cookbooks like novels; if youve just moved out of home or are using this with your kids or grandkids; or if youre simply ready to loosen those shoulders after decades of cooking recipes by rote, WELCOME! Removing the pressure of exactitude will make you a better cook instantly and release the pressure valve of getting it right. Practising non-attachment, giving slightly less of a shiitake when the shiitake hits the fan, and faking it til you make it are all part and parcel of being a better cook.