How to Improvise in the Kitchen

Photo by Maria Robledo

One of the best things about encouraging people to improvise in the kitchen is to hear how they monkeyed with one of my recipes. "Wow", I think, "I never thought of that!" Like my friend Ellen using an herb sea salt, fragrant with dried rosemary, thyme, and lavender, instead of kosher salt in a chocolate cake recipe she'd found in one of my books.

The cake was, in fact, an improvisation on a recipe I learned years ago when I worked at the Soho Charcuterie as a pâté chef (the baker's work station was in my sightlines). The Charcuterie's Chocolate Globs--a rich chocolate batter laced with nuts and chocolate chips and dropped onto a cookie sheet--had been adapted from a recipe by Maida Heatter. When I scrutinized the Charcuterie recipe, I realized it was essentially a brownie recipe with a little more liquid. So, I shifted the balance of flour and sugar to bring it back into brownie-dom, only I used Valhrona 70% cacao chocolate and baked the batter (actually, I slightly underbaked it) in a round pan, so I could slice the cake into wedges.

What is as easy to make as a pan of brownies--is essentially a pan of brownies--became a rich, intensely chocolate gateau of dinner party caliber. I spiked it with black pepper, but other possibilities would work well: Earl Grey tea, Mexican cinnamon, curry powder, lavender, orange zest, pistachios...

Ellen said she was about to add the salt to the batter when she saw the package of herb salt on the counter. She ground the coarse gray sea salt with dried herbs in a mortar and threw in a tad more than the recipe called for (to account for the herbs). The cake was a big hit and now has become her chocolate cake recipe, with roots going back decades. (Ellen made me one and the herbs totally work. But once you know the basic recipe, you can take any liberties you want to.)

Recipe: Essential Chocolate Cake

This rich, intensely chocolate cake is the perfect dinner party dessert because it is both easy to make and seriously delicious. Like a little black dress, the recipe can be improvised on endlessly to create different effects.

Add exotic flavorings such as freshly ground pink or black peppercorns, ancho chile, Mexican cinnamon, curry powder, or garam masala (about