I’m not a chef. I don’t have any formal training. I didn’t grow up in a restaurant family. I’m just someone who really, really loves to cook.
A few years ago, I found myself watching cooking shows late at night, totally hypnotized. Not just by the food, but by the way these chefs moved—confident, precise, calm under pressure. I’d sit there with a bowl of cereal thinking, Could I ever make that?
One day, I stopped wondering and started trying.
Now, this little corner of the internet is where I share how that’s going.
I take recipes from top chefs—people like Ina Garten, Gordon Ramsay, Dominique Crenn, David Chang, the list keeps growing—and I try to make their dishes at home. In my regular kitchen. With my not-so-fancy tools. And usually with a toddler running around or laundry beeping in the background.
I don’t nail it every time. Far from it. But that’s kind of the point. I’m not here to perfect anything. I’m here to learn, to taste, to laugh when things go sideways, and to celebrate the wins—even the small ones, like a perfectly poached egg or not burning the garlic.
If you’re here, maybe you’re like me. You love food. You admire the greats. And you wonder what happens when their food meets your reality.
That’s what TopNameRecipes is all about. I try out their recipes, share what worked, what didn’t, what surprised me, and whether I’d make it again. I also tell you the honest stuff—like how long it actually took, whether I had to Google five terms, or if I had to do dishes for three days after.
This isn’t a how-to blog. It’s a “come try this with me” blog.
I still mess things up. I still second-guess myself. But I’ve also learned so much just by doing. And I’ve fallen even more in love with food along the way.
So if you’ve ever watched a cooking show and thought, I want to try that, you’re in the right place. Let’s see what happens when we bring the big-name recipes home.
Thanks for stopping by.
—Lynn