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4.
AOTW: How often, if ever, do you "borrow" recipes? In other words, in this day and age is it possible to make meatloaf without using someone else's recipe?
Smita Chandra: I borrow recipes heavily from my extended family, all of whom are good cooks. Also, if I come across an interesting dish, I will go home and try it my way, with a few changes such as adding different spices or herbs.
Stan Frankenthaler: Recipes never come out of thin air... cuisine is based on rich tradition and cultural heritage and some combinations are just tried and true, such as shrimp and avocado. But I will say that the recipes in The Occidental Tourist are rather unique in the sense that they were created from a very personal sense of cooking and flavors that work in harmony to excite all the senses.
Victoria Granof: I borrow ideas, tradition, flavor combinations, methods of preparation, color, texture and much more from wherever the inspiration hits me. Then I try to "listen" to my food to find out what it wants to become. But I follow a couple of my grandmother's recipes to the letter, in order to preserve the tradition. Nevertheless, my food tastes different from hers, because it is deflected through different hands.
Elinor Klivans: I am often inspired by things that I taste in my travels, things that I see in bakeries and food shops, and combinations that I like to put together. Many friends and relatives share treasured recipes with me, and I always give credit to them. If a recipe is inspired by one in a cookbook, I tell this in the introduction to the recipe. It is part of the story to tell --- where a recipe comes from. With so many ingredients to use in recipes, there are infinite variations on a theme. There are also such classic recipes as pastry cream that are of the "public domain" type.
David Lebovitz: I certainly am influenced by other bakers and acknowledge them where applicable. My rule of thumb is that if the recipe is basically someone else's with a slight change, I attribute it or say it is 'adapted from' a recipe by so-and-so. There's no reason not to give because if your sources are good bakers, that means you are following in good footsteps!
Steven Raichlen: I take my inspiration from many sources: friends, chefs, pit masters, and barbecue junkies, visitors to my web site, etc. (I always credit the source by name in my books.) But every recipe I receive from someone else I rework in my kitchen. So in a sense, what you get is a part of me and a part of the source. Curiously, I get a lot of ideas in the middle of the night so I keep a pad next to my bed.
Joanne Weir: I tend not to 'borrow' recipes too much, believe it or not. Sometimes I am inspired by an idea but in most cases I am inspired by something that I tasted here or there and I recreate it. Some of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco, New York, Italy or wherever I am traveling inspire my work. Also I have great friends in the restaurant business like Gary Danko and Laurence Jossel who inspire me every day!
Kathy Gunst: The recipes I use come from me and my imagination. Are they truly original? I think so, but there's really no such thing.
Sheila Lukins: I would always hope to say that my recipes are my own. I would never inadvertently use someone else's recipe. But, you cannot reinvent the wheel all the time - meatloaf does have meat, grated onion, milk or egg, ketchup, etc. --- but spicing can change dishes enormously and a variety of meats and herbs can too. If I do use someone's recipe I always attribute it to them.
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