How to Cook Delicious Food

Yesterday, my husband surprised me with a bar of chocolate! It was a gesture of appreciation he said, for cooking delicious food these past few days.

Wow! That was a compliment! The chocolate was no extra ordinary but the compliment was!

I have been cooking all my 19 years of married life but yesterday was something different for me. I actually have been complimented for my cooking quite a number of times already. But yesterday, i felt there was something different...that made me reflect, what indeed have I done to have cooked those delicious food and thus received such compliment.

In the past, whenever I cook something new from recipes that I have found in books or magazines or have seen over a TV show, and when friends or relatives praised me for them and requested for the recipes, I always give them the same recipes I used myself that earned their praise.

I remember on some occasions when these friends would try cooking the same recipe I've given them, they would tell me that the dish tasted differently from mine. They would insist that I must have a secret to cooking the delicious food and beg me for it. Oftentimes, I would wonder myself what is it. The recipe that I pass on to them is the same recipe that I myself use and follow.

Meanwhile, even in our franchised bakery business, friends and customers will often tell me or my husband that our bread taste more delicious compared with the other franchised branches. This comment usually makes me wonder what makes the difference in the taste since all branches (of our franchised bakery business) are using the same recipe and source and brands of ingredients.



In similar manner, in my own kitchen back in my own home, the recipes that I cook there and the ones i share with relatives and friends (and now here in this webblog) are the same. If there is anything that varies, it probably would be just the salt and pepper.

Now looking back at my own cooking- this week and the last, I realized there is one thing that made all the difference. and that I think is the secret to cooking delicious food. That secret is in...no other than what I call the "cook" factor.

Yes! The "cook" factor- the one cooking. The chef or the baker (for those baked products like the ones in our bakery!).

When the one cooking is happy, and he enjoys what he is doing, it reflects in his food- the one he is cooking. This to me is all that made the difference in my cooking this week and the last.

I realized I was in a very bad mood last week, and it manifested in all the dishes I prepared myself. They were either bland or simply not delicious at all.

This week, however, I'm in a happy mood. Thus, it showed in the food that I have prepared. See? That simple. Just my mood; my disposition. And it showed in my creation- the food I prepared!