Have you ever cooked a meal in someone else’s kitchen?  I don't mean help someone cook a meal I mean cook the entire meal.  I find it awkward, confusing and even frightening.  I like to think I'm a good cook.  I enjoy my food - Husband enjoys my food and guests never say its horrible :).  Yet shouldn't a good cook be able to cook anywhere?  Last month, I visited my parents and cooked a couple of meals for them.  While My Dad really really liked the four cheese macaroni and cheese and my Mom wanted the recipe for the Portobello mushroom quesadillas, I thought the meals only turned out OK.  That is, I felt they were not as good as when I make them at home - why? Was it the kitchen, the equipment, the ingredients or me?

It’s not like I haven't cooked other places before.  I've cooked while backpacking and car camping. Yet that's different - expectations are much lower than a home cooked meal.  But, after our 13 month remodel I thought I could cook anywhere.  During the remodel we had increasingly less kitchen.  For seven months, we used our dinning room as the kitchen and had our kitchen sink outside on the side of our house. And for the last 2 or 3 months we pretty much lived with a bathroom sink, toaster and microwave.  After that experience I thought I could cook anywhere - but perhaps one quickly forgets the pain or when you are not suffering remodel stress you notice what the food actually tastes like!  It could also be that tools matter more than the environment.  Even during my remodel I still had access to my favorite pots, bowls, knifes etc.  Certainly making the quesadillas in a smaller frying pan was an obstacle.  Also not having ultra sharp, or even relatively sharp, knifes was a problem.  This combined with the use of an electric stove probably led to the confusing and, in the case of the knives, frightening aspects of the cooking experience.  You know you're in trouble when the blade is so dull that cutting mushrooms is difficult...

But surely a good cook can make the food still taste the same?  Perhaps, but what if the ingredients are different? Its not that my parents live on the moon - they do have grocery stores.  But considering the problems I had finding two simple ingredients, Fontina cheese and Prosciutto, I question the quality of some of the ingredients I used.  I can see a store not necessarily having Prosciutto but not having Fontina?  Yet, the first grocery store we went to, a Top's in Western New York, did not stock either!  Fortunately, the area has a somewhat new small Italian Grocer and they had both.  But its not always a matter of just having an ingredient, it is also the quality and taste of that ingredient.  While I found everything I needed, I'm not sure the quality or taste of the ingredients was the same as I get in my local stores.

Looking back, it seems my problem cooking away from home was a combination of a different kitchen, the cooking equipment, and the ingredients.  Overall, the food was still good and my parents really enjoyed the meals.  It was me that wasn't entirely happy with the result.  What will I do to make the next "off-site" cooking experience better?  Know the potential limitations and be prepared. Specificaly, I'll consider whether or not the ingredients will be available and how variations in the ingredients will change the taste,  when picking the next recipe to cook at my parents.  And I'll bring my own knives...