Coming up with the inspiration for new recipes starts with shopping and ends in kitchen experiments.

Question: Describe your kitchen.

Mark Bittman:  I moved this year and I moved from a kitchenrnthat was six by seven to a kitchen that was about eight by eight.  So its an eight by eight?  Maybe it's seven by seven; it'srn50-something square feet.  It hasrncounters on two sides.  It has arnrefrigerator on a third side.  Itrnhas drawers on a fourth side and it has two doors.  It has a sink and a dishwasher and a stove and it has maybernsix feet of counter space and nothing is fancy but it's, for me, nearlyrnperfect.  I mean I wish I could fitrnmore – like I wish I could fit a table in it and I wish I could fit more peoplernin it to hang out with while I was cooking but it's pretty great.  It's really nice but there's nothingrnunusual or remarkable about it.

Question: What inspires you to create a newrnrecipe?

MarkrnBittman: The way thatrnrecipes happen for me is shopping. rnIt all starts with shopping. rnSo I will go -- I got to Chinatown a lot.  I go to decent supermarkets.  I go to green markets, and I try to buy everything thatrnlooks good that I think I can cook in the next X days.  I mean am I cooking at home for thernnext four days?  Because to be homernfor four days in a row is a lot. 

I'll buy fourrndays of food but I'll buy a lot and then I will go home and I will cook what Irnbought and almost always, a.) because I have like no patience with cooking fromrnrecipes, b.) because I'm not that methodical, c.) because I have a bad memory andrnalways think I'm making things up. rnI can't even duplicate my own recipes.  What happens is there's this house full of food and I startrncooking and usually interesting things happen.  I don’t – brilliant things don’t happen, but interestingrnthings happen, interestingly enough to write about evidently, since people readrnthis stuff.

Question: You often suggest substituting onerningredient for another. Doesn't that change the recipe?

MarkrnBittman:  Well, I don’t really care.  If you substitute one -- if you werernmaking pasta with broccoli and you don’t have broccoli, you want to make pastarnwith cauliflower, everything about that is the same: the cooking time, therntechnique, just about everything about it is the same, assuming you know how torntrim broccoli and trim cauliflower. rnIs it a different recipe? rnYou might say it's a different recipe, but almost everything about it isrnthe same and so what if it's a different recipe, it's still good.  I mean, I like to say you can varyrnthings as much as you want to, but you have to remember that you can't make arnroast chicken without chicken.