For me it's cultural. You learn from your mom, your grandma your husbands grandma your boyfriends mom or grandma. If your bf grandma makes great gumbo or ettouffe you ask her how. I promise she'll tell you. That how we learn. It's good to use recipes for something different or build ideas off that recipe to make it better or tweak so to speak but there something to said about being able to cook a meal off the hip that is delicious and your own. People ask me all the time how did you make that or that's so good and I tell them and they say I made it and it's not the same as yours and all can say that it must be the love that I put into and making something your own. So just try to learn from others and try to make everything you make from the heart and your own.