Well, there certainly has been a lot of news these past few days about recipe plagiarism. Strangely, I was going to write today about a chef that inspires me so I feel it might be a good opportunity to also discuss ‘inspiration’ and recipe writing.
For me, the process often goes something like this: I crave something, I make it, I either think it is good enough to share or not. If good enough, I write a rough recipe with notes from the first take and repeat testing and editing until im sure the recipe is exactly what I think, YOU and I, would want. Then I’ll make it once more and either photograph or video it to share some images and content for this newsletter and social media.
Sometimes, rather than a craving being the dominant force, the lightning bolt of inspiration will strike. It can take various forms— a trip to the farmers market, a colour, an image, a painting, my friends, another recipe writers book, instagram….almost anything has the ability to conjure up a need to create. I see this to be a wonderful thing and it makes me happy to live in a world where there is SO much knowledge and inspiration at every corner.
The problem is that with us all being fed the same diet of images, sounds and flavours via social media, things can start to look the same. Sometimes without even noticing it you have distilled someone else’s idea, whom they probably pulled from someone else too. True original thought is almost impossible in a hyper connected world. I write about this in my book, ‘Recipes For A Lifetime of Beautiful Cooking’ and I acknowledge that it sometimes happens subconsciously.
Recipes are not copyright-able. Whether they should or shouldn’t be, Im a bit torn on. (I understand why they can’t be from a legal perspective, I mean more from an ethical perspective). On the one hand, the generosity of chefs and cooks and the willingness to share and teach is what drew me to cooking. I was once a super green, young cook myself with absolutely no knowledge of my own so without people showing me how to do all the basics, I wouldn’t be able to share with you, everything that I do now. Would I appreciate a little acknowledgement if you took something that I then taught you and you profited off it? Maybe. But someone also taught it to me so shouldn’t they get the credit? And what about the person that taught them? And so on and so on…it feels like a never ending piece of string.
This leads me to a practical example of how this works in my world. I was recently scrolling through instagram and came upon some images from the dinner a friend of mine, Emmanuelle Leftick, was cooking down in Melbourne. She is a brilliant cook who spent years working under Brigitte Hafner at Graceburn Tedesca, Corey Lee in San Francisco and previously at El Bulli in Spain. We met each other working for Corey at The French Laundry in the Napa Valley many many years ago both in our early 20s. Maybe she was 19?!? Anyway, a long time ago. She was a fabulous chef, I was a lowly intern and I was completely in awe of her. She moved with such determination and cooked with such strength and grit and yet outside of the restaurant she was fun, happy and filled with energy despite the gruelling work schedule. We certainly got into some trouble together, outside of work.
She moved to Australia in 2019 and has been making her mark ever since. If you ever get the chance to eat her food or go to one of the fabulous dinners or lunches she has been cooking up, you must take the opportunity. She is currently in residence cooking at Julie restaurant at The Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne for about the next month so please check it out if you are down that way.
The dish that struck me for its elegance and simplicity was halloumi grilled on lemon leaves with pomegranate, walnuts and citrus. I absolutely loved the sound and look of that and I decided to play with those flavours in my kitchen. The result is incredibly tasty and could not be simpler. I brown the halloumi in a pan but if you have a lemon tree and want to grill the cheese on lemon leaves on your outdoor grill, like Emma did, it would be delicious. I often do this with slices of buffalo milk mozzarella as it imparts a deliciously mild citrus flavour and of course, a lovely smokiness. The nutty walnuts and sweet tart pomegranate seeds are a beautiful textural compliment to the salty firm cheese and everything together is completely more-ish when doused with a lemony salsa verde and a drizzle of hot honey. I added some shavings of fresh fennel to make it more of a salad but I think it would be excellent as a part of a bigger meal or as a vegetarian lunch.
I think you will love this super simple recipe and hope you give it a try. As always, feel free to reach out to me here or via my website or via instagram if you have any questions or comments. Thank you for being here and please keep sharing! I love seeing you make these recipes in your homes.
Out now: Recipes for a Lifetime of Beautiful Cooking
If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please reach out via instagram @daniellemariealvarez or via my website.