For me, cooking started as a necessity in 1986. Having left home to continue my studies, I found the food at university terribly bland and restaurants were not in the budget. Being busy during the day left me with no options, but at night I started reminiscing and experimenting over the dishes that my mother used to make.

Being your typical engineer I did a lot of research into cooking, bought a lot of books, watched a lot of shows and used the Internet (note at that time it was not a good pickup strategy to say one cooked). Most recipes required an extensive list of ingredients and utensils, which as a student living a few thousand kilometers from home were not available.

However, I did notice a pattern from the books I read and TV programs I watched, and that is that most dishes can be segmented into basic ingredients and supplemental or optional ingredients. I found that the basic dish was really easy to make, better tasting and an order of magnitude over what I was eating.

You’ll find most of the recipes captured have a recipe for the basic dish, which is great, and the additional ingredients would make it even better. I am not saying that you can have a roast in 5 minutes, I am saying it is easy to make a great roast with a bit of time management and an understanding of how one would substitute ingredients goes a long way. In this cookbook I capture a few of my favorite recipes from around the world.