A different kind of cooking

Oboe is a collection of thoughts I return to when I’m approaching cooking.

The way I cook changes depending on the situation. Cooking at home with no time is different to cooking when I have hours to spare. Cooking for just me is different to cooking for one other person, a small group, or a full restaurant of guests.

Over the years, a lot of thinking has happened across all of these occasions. When I put them together, they become surprisingly useful — not as instructions, but as ways of creating the best food outcomes and, just as importantly, staying connected to what you’re doing. Being present. Trusting yourself to decide what to do next.

What runs through all of these situations, and never really changes, is a simple philosophy:

trust and develop your instincts rather than relying on memorised recipes.

That approach has served me well. It’s how I cook, how I adapt, and how I recover when things don’t go to plan.

Here, I’m sharing those instincts — the thinking behind them and the outcomes they lead to. Some are good, some are bad, some are genuinely amazing. All of them are honest.

This isn’t a rulebook.
It’s a way of thinking about cooking — and an invitation to develop your own.

Recipes

I’m sharing recipes with you, of course I am — but I’m also going to ask you to pay attention as you cook them.

Alongside the instructions, I’ll ask questions. Those questions matter. They’re there to help you become a more intuitive cook, not just someone who follows steps.

I do this because recipes don’t always play ball. Sometimes they’re badly written. More often, ingredients behave differently depending on their age, freshness, quality, and how they’ve been handled.

Take lemon juice, for example. A lemon almost never tastes the same twice. Some are powerful, acidic bombs; others are dull and sweet. If you follow a numerical measurement blindly, without tasting, you risk ruining a dish — either because the acidity overwhelms everything else, or because it never quite shows up at all.

Then there are the influences no recipe can control: the temperature of your kitchen, the heat of your pan, the mood of the day, how much you’re concentrating — or not.

So follow the recipes, but trust the questions that sit alongside them. Taste as you go. Pay attention to what’s happening in the pan. Adjust when something feels off. Be prepared to change course — or even start again.

The right questions help you succeed in cooking — and, occasionally, beyond it. But most importantly, they should make you a better cook along the way.

How to use this journal

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This journal is organised into sections, each serving a different purpose.

1. Notes
   These are the thoughts that frame my cooking decisions — how I approach flavour, timing, balance, and judgement before I ever get to a recipe.
2. Recipes
   This section is built around components rather than finished dishes: sauces, proteins, accompaniments, stews, custards, purées, pies. These are the elements I return to again and again. I’ve labeled them so there are those easy to source the ingredients for and are relatively easy and sometimes quick to make. Then there are the ones that you should spend time making sure you have the correct ingredients for and the time to get do them justice.
3. Dishes
   Here you’ll find suggested dishes that show how those components can be combined and pulled together on a plate. Think of these as starting points rather than destinations. Swap elements, change proportions, follow your curiosity.
4. Ingredients
   When I’m cooking at the restaurant, quality is the priority. I have preferred suppliers for produce and favourite brands I trust for flavour and consistency. At home, I don’t always have access to the same things, so I’ve included alternatives — products I know I can find easily and rely on. I’ve brought them all together here and I’m sharing them with you. Almost always, use the best you can.
5. Equipment
   The right tool for the job really does make a difference. Some tools simply get the job done; others streamline work, save time and are a pleasure to own. I have no affiliation with any of these brands. Get a group of chefs in a room and you’ll hear plenty of disagreement about what’s best — these are simply the tools I reach for.

What I really want to encourage you to do is decide what you want to cook first — and then work backwards. Choose the elements that make sense for that moment, that equipment, that appetite. Ask yourself whether they work together, and if they don’t, adjust.

This isn’t about following a fixed path.
It’s about learning how to assemble a dish with confidence.

Use the components as tools.
Use the suggested dishes as guidance.
And trust your judgement when you start combining things for yourself.

That’s how this journal is meant to be used — not as a set of rules, but as a way of thinking about cooking.

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