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“This is the first day of the rest of your life in the kitchen” Simon Callow

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Do you envy people who seem to be able to cook with effortless ease? Have you ever wanted to cook like your mother, bringing an endless variety of meals to the table without ever looking at a recipe book? Do you want to be inspired in the kitchen again and, just by opening the fridge door, concoct a feast from nothing but a few leftovers, a squeeze of a lemon, and some fresh air?

Cooking Without Recipes encourages you to build your confidence in the kitchen, by going it alone. From how to shop for the food you like the look of without starting with a list of ingredients to cooking dishes you love, based not on someone else’s recipes but on your own skill, I want my readers to become creative and inspired cooks.

“Cooking Without Recipes liberates you from the tyranny of someone else’s culinary imagination. Do your own thing, it says; listen to the food, listen to your stomach and your palate; let cooking become second nature. This is the book my grandmother would have written if she had known how to frame a sentence, which Philip Dundas certainly does. Read, inwardly digest, then throw the book away! This is the first day of the rest of your life in the kitchen.” (Simon Callow)

I try to take a light-hearted but entirely sensible approach to cooking. By making the kitchen a less scary place to be, helping you understand how to work with a few basic tools, and explaining different ingredients, I demystify the ‘art’ of cooking, making it an easily accessible skill to us all.

Cooking without Recipes was inspired by teaching my elderly, widowed father how to cook. The old man didn’t want to learn how to follow recipes, he just wanted to make his favourite dishes. So, once he understood the principles of soup, by learning how to make his beloved Scotch Broth, the whole world of soup possibilities was opened up to him.