What’s for Dinner?

If you’d asked me what’s for dinner ten years ago, I would have probably said a can of tuna and a slice of Harry’s bread. I wasn’t that into cooking. 

As a husband and a father, I now do it every night. Nothing beats my wife’s delighted nod as she takes her first bite into what I just made. That’s what gave me the energy to teach myself how to cook. From occasional tuna can operator, I graduated to full-time home cook. 

But the hardest part of cooking is not learning how to julienne a carrot, whip up a béchamel or make your own stock. It is deciding what to cook. Every. Single. Day. 

So how do you do that? 

Here’s three things I’ve learned that have helped me along the way. 

Give yourself a prompt 

Cooking is a creative exercise. And like any creative endeavor, the less constraints you have the harder it is to come up with an idea. If you write, you’ve experienced the torment of staring at the blank page. But give yourself a prompt and ideas suddenly start rushing in. 

We tend to forget that rule when it comes to cooking. I’ve spent many evenings chasing the perfect online recipe or staring at the inside of my fridge hoping for a glimpse of inspiration. 

Fortunately, nature has given us the greatest prompt of all: seasons. With year-round access to virtually every type of fruit and vegetable, it’s easy to forget that there is a time for corn, a time for beans and a time for pears.  

Instead of asking “What should I cook?”, start with “What’s in season around me?”. You’ve eliminated ninety percent of the options. Your choice-averse brain will thank you. 

Ditch the recipes

I love cookbooks. I have a full collection of them. But when it comes to deciding what dinner will be made of, they are a home cook's worst companion. 

Every time I think my favorite chefs are going to save me from a lack of inspiration, the list of ingredients gives me a reality slap in the face. I love you Ottolenghi but I do not casually stock caraway seeds and rose water in my pantry. 

The real trouble with cookbooks though is that they condition us to think that cooking starts with a recipe. They turn us into musicians who can't play without their music sheet. For a long time, I’d compulsively check the recipe between every stir of the sauce and roll of the dough. It’s a nerve-racking and disempowering way of preparing a meal.  

But cooking is nothing more than relentless experimentation of all the ways you can turn a single ingredient into something delicious. Instead of wondering “What recipe should I make?”, ask “What are all the things I could do with the ingredients in my fridge?”.

Build your all-star cast

Just as great movies are made of talented actors, satisfying meals rely on delicious ingredients.  But doing the groceries is the least fun part of cooking. There’s nothing more soul-sucking than aimlessly wandering around the aisles of your local grocery store. 

The trick is to remove as much decision as possible from the process. Quentin Tarantino never spends much time thinking about who he’s going to star in his movie. He has a go-to list of actors he loves working with.  

Whenever I do the groceries, I always have a list with my all-star cast of ingredients. Just like Tarantino can’t make a movie without Samuel, Uma & Brad, I’m useless in the kitchen without Parmesan, pasta and tomatoes. And just like Tarantino consistently delivers A+ movies with the same beloved actors, I know I can deliver son-and-wife-approved meals with my twenty-something list of star ingredients.  

“So what’s for dinner tonight?”, my wife asks. I don’t know yet but it’s going to be good.