Create a signature dish or dessert.

“It was Alice Waters’ recipe for a fool-proof cranberry upside-down cake. It was, indeed, fool-proof and a crowd pleaser, too. I served it to 20 guests at Thanksgiving — and as a non-chef, it immediately qualified as my “signature” dish. Easy to follow, impossible to screw up, and loved by virtually everyone. [...] That recipe allowed me to feel something that I had never before experienced in the kitchen — a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of joy in dispelling a long-held fear.”

“That only leaves one more "signature dish" the da*ned Coconut Cake. It didnt start out as the da*ned Coconut Cake. Originally, it was DHs favorite aunts orange - coconut cake. Shed given me the recipe around 30 years ago and I hadnt made it because it started with a boxed cake mix and contained Cool Whip in the frosting and neither was in my repertoire at the time. But the year when she was terminally ill, I decided to make it and photograph it to cheer her up. [...] Well, the relatives fell in love with it and for about the next five years, it was requested that I make and bring that cake for EVERY Thanksgiving, Easter, wedding and baby shower, birthdays and even when somebody died. Slowly but insidiously, Aunt Doriss orange coconut cake tuned into that da*ned Coconut Cake.”