Our common nature is a musical journey with Yo-Yo Ma and me, Ana Gonzalez, through this

complicated country.

We go into caves, onto boats, and up mountain trails to meet people, hear their stories,

their poetry, and of course, play some music, all to reconnect to nature and get closer to the things we're missing.

Listen to Our Common Nature from WNYC wherever you get podcasts.

It's The Splendid Table from APM American Public Media, the show for curious cooks and eaters.

I'm Frances Lamb.

So we've been thinking a lot about recipes lately, like what they are and what they do.

Because recipes seem like simple things, right? They're instructions.

But they're also promises, and aren't promises always a little bit complicated?

You know, they can be kept, they can be broken, they can have consequences no one ever intended.

Today, we'll hear about a legendary cookbook writer with Alzheimer's, finding can be broken, they can have consequences no one ever intended.

Today, we'll hear about a legendary cookbook writer with Alzheimer's, finding her memories through cooking.

We'll ask why some recipe writers lie and lie and lie to us about onions.

And right now, we'll talk to a cookbook author who wanted to write her book without any

recipes at all.

So me and No Stratt is that author.

She's taught cooking for years. In fact, Michael Pollan credits her for teaching him how to cook.

And her teaching revolves around a ridiculously simple idea, that to be a great cook,

all you need to know is how to control

four things, salt, fat, acid, and heat. Understand those, and you will always be able

to make delicious food no recipes required. And when I learned about her method, I had that

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