I'm not a chef, but I make Michelin star meals

I definitely am not a chef. I've never gone to culinary school, I maybe have taken one cooking class in my life. I learned how to cook at home, but I constantly cook restaurant-quality meals and dishes, without recipes because of two things. I've learned about flavor pairings, and I learned about food science. Here's why you should too:

Food science as I am referencing it is essentially understanding the chemical reactions needed for baking and balancing textures and flavors. I think this is tantamount to figuring out cooking because above making clean knife cuts, beyond learning to spatchcock a chicken (which is actually more simple than it seems), food needs to taste good primarily, and then presentation is the next step. For example, gluten is that lovely chemical compound that makes bread chewy, and the most you knead dough, or if you add some type of leavening. Bread flour has a higher level of gluten than all-purpose flour, and thus bread flour is ideal for making bread, pizza dough, really anything that has that bread-like elasticity. All-purpose flour can be used to make bread by adding things like yeast and other methods that add gluten, but bread flour being used in things like pie dough will give you an insanely chewy pie crust because you can't take the gluten out. Understanding that principle, you can easily use that going into cooking endeavors. For instance, using that knowledge with something like a homemade pie crust, you would not want to over mix a pie dough because it adds elasticity and thus, gluten. Even with something as simple as pancakes; you always hear the old adage "just until combined." This is in hopes that the cook will barely mix so as to prevent the binding of gluten so you don't get chewy pancakes. This is just one instance of utilizing one concept in food science across a bread spectrum.

I also found that using balance as a tool is the way to make the most flavorful, succulent dishes that are worthy of a James Beard award. If you think about the best meals you've had, they're generally amazing because the flavors are so well balanced that you feel like nothing could improve the flavors; not adding more spice, more fat, more acid, or more sweetness. Therefore, the meal was well-balanced. Understanding the necessity for balance takes a meal from a normal home cooked meal to a whole other level, even without a recipe. Take the picture above, for example. I was given a set of ingredients I had to include as a task for a friend's food competition: Pasta, tomatoes, eggs, a fruit, and some kind of cheese. Using that seemingly strange grouping, I came up with this: a play on cacio e pepe, with a slice of roasted tomato and a poached egg yolk on the side. It was a linguine dish with a lemon, garlic, and peppery sauce, using the egg as a thickener and the tomato a dash of sweet. I chose lemon as the fruit, giving an acidic component, the garlic added a savory bite alongside parmegano reggiano, some herbed goat cheese for the necessary funk, the tomato for sweet, the egg for a creamy quality, and thus a well balanced dish that ended up winning the competition. Using the principles of balancing flavors allows for a dish that will both never be boring and also holds strength as a well composed, professional dish.

Thus I recommend looking into the science behind food to make any dish you could ever imagine amazing.