17 People Whose Kitchen Experiments Are Hard to Forget

Real culinary geniuses not necessarily have to work only in fancy restaurants. They often live next to us and cook so deliciously that everyone who tastes their dishes is ready to lick their own fingers and plates. It’s a pity that we can’t always find out their recipes and secrets.

“Here’s a cornucopia I made out of bread for Thanksgiving.”

When your wife is a great cook

• My wife is a keen cooking enthusiast, and it seems that she could publish her own recipe book. But she says that she does it to relax.
  Every time she has an emergency at work, there are so many dishes at home that 2 normal people simply can’t eat them. And she barely ever eats what she cooks. She’ll take a kid’s portion for lunch and that’s it. And I can’t take it anymore.
  My wife’s job is stressful, so “culinary breakdowns” are not uncommon. And I have to increase the belt size every time after these binges. I can’t throw this food away, it’s too good. I eat like I’m not myself. I’ve already gained 20 pounds.
  I asked her and talked to her. It’s no use. She doesn’t see it as a problem, she just laughs. And I, it seems, will soon have to buy a new wardrobe, as the old one is already cracking at the seams on me. © Overheard / Ideer

“My cupcake bouquet”

Grandma’s magic recipes

• My grandmother was an amazing cook. She was able to make divine deliciousness out of the simplest foods. But she passed away when I was still a little girl, and she didn’t leave any recipes or secrets, and there were no records among her things either.
  The rest of my childhood I ate all sorts of tasteless junk food that my mother cooked, and I missed my grandmother and her delicious things very much. When I started cooking myself, I experimented a lot, tried different recipes. But sometimes the flavors from my childhood appear in the most unexpected places.
  Once, in an expensive restaurant in France, they served meat in a sauce exactly like my grandmother’s. Of course, they never shared the recipe. Or a bakery in a small Italian village suddenly turned out to have cakes very similar in taste and appearance to my grandmother’s. No one even spoke English there.
  It happened many times, but never once have I been able to find out the recipe. How is it even possible that a person who never traveled from a small town in the countryside could cook so delicious things from what grew in the garden and was sold in the shop? It’s still a mystery to me, and I still hope to find her magic book with recipes somewhere. © Overheard / Ideer

“My husband’s first ever attempt at decorating a cake”

• I’d love to have a steady hand like that, but that’s never been the case for me. © Sudden_Badger_7663 / Reddit

When you don’t need a recipe for perfect results

• I saw an appetizing pie in an expensive cookbook. Usually I cook by the rule of thumb, choosing the proportions instinctively, but this was a recipe from a famous French chef, so I decided to do everything exactly like in the book, with scales and a measuring cup.
  I thought that the dough was a bit runny, but maybe it’s just me not catching up with haute cuisine? So I baked it. I ate it, of course, but the dough was really a bit runny, the pie fell off.
  Next time, I just made it as I used to, by the rule of thumb. It came out perfect! Since then, I don’t like this: 144 grams of sugar, 176 grams of flour, oven at 365 degrees. © Overheard / Ideer

“Here is a Kraken pie my dad made.”

About cooking by the rule of thumb

• When I see my husband’s sister cooking, it makes me cringe. I like to measure, peel, prepare everything in advance, and then start the process. But she makes everything on the run and simultaneously: cleaning, frying, sprinkling, checking the children’s lessons, doing dishes.
  It feels like she’s just throwing into the pot everything that comes under her hand. Everything by the rule of thumb. Any spices, mixed up and piled high.
  It’s useless to ask for the recipe, she can’t remember what she threw in and how much, “A pinch,” “A little,” “Sprinkle it.” And my favorite, “Add flour so that it’s thick, but not too thick!” And most infuriating of all is that it’s actually delicious. © Overheard / Ideer

When it’s just a beautiful cake from outside, but has an unexpected surprise inside:

“I like pigeons, and my boyfriend made me that cake last year for graduation.”

Grandma’s secret recipe

• One of my fondest memories from primary school is when on my birthday, my grandmother baked treats for all my classmates. And they weren’t just simple cookies, but in the shape of roses. They were even pink in color because Grandma added beetroot juice with something else. They were crispy and covered in icing sugar.
  I didn’t realize it then, I wanted to bring candy like everyone else, but now... No matter how many times I tried to find this recipe, I couldn’t find it. I’ve searched through all her cook notebooks, nothing. What is this marvelous thing?! © Overheard / Ideer

“I made a little frog cake for my birthday!”

Curious husband

My mom is married to a Spaniard. They live in Spain. He loves to cook. And Mom suddenly realized that he sits silently in the kitchen, memorizes her recipes (meat pies, cakes) and then cooks the same dishes himself.
Since my mom controls his weight, she now cooks many dishes in his absence. He, after tasting another culinary masterpiece at a family party, follows her and begs for the recipe. And she laughs and says nothing. © Overheard / Ideer

“Whatever my dad cooked for dinner, it was tasty though.”

Tea from a friend

• A friend made the most delicious tea I’ve ever tasted. I tried to ask for the recipe, but she wouldn’t tell me. I know for sure that it contains cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, orange peel, ginger and something else.
  But this “something else” is a mystery to me. I’ve been trying to replicate it for a month, trying to find the ingredients. What’s in this tea?! © Overheard / Ideer

“About 30 hours of work went into my first Tonkotsu Ramen. I made this for my dad for father’s day. The broth simmered for 18 hours.”

The secret to cooking meat

• People I know are surprised by the unusual flavor of dishes after my culinary experiments with meat. They ask me what the secret is. And the secret is simple — don’t add soy sauce.
  Whatever recipe you open, it’s everywhere, as if you had never lived without it. A piece of meat cooked simply with salt and black pepper — that’s the key to flavor, not a fashionable incomprehensible slurry. © Overheard / Ideer

Bonus: there are “family recipes” like this, too

• My husband has always asked me to make mashed potatoes “like my mom’s.” Mine tastes good, but it’s not the same. I ask my mother-in-law for the recipe, but she always avoids to answer.
  The secret was revealed by accident. I was helping her in the kitchen, opened the cupboard and found a lot of jars of powdered mashed potatoes. I don’t even know whether to tell my husband, but I’m glad I found out this secret, because I was beginning to think that I can’t cook. © Overheard / Ideer

And this woman refused to cook all 3 meals of the day for her husband. Check out what happened after that.