Somewhere in a kitchen lit by the soft flicker of an overhead bulb, a lasagne is being made.
The counter is dusted with flour.
The sauce has been simmering so long it could write its own memoir.
The recipe?
Written on a creased scrap of paper, in handwriting that leans slightly to the left, passed down through at least four pairs of hands.
There are stains on it, olive oil, maybe wine. Proof that it’s been loved, used, trusted.
It reads like this:
That’s it.
No oven temperature. No timings. No explanation of “ready.”
For the original cook, it’s perfect. They can smell when the sauce is done, hear when the pasta is soft enough.
But for anyone else, it’s a gamble. One layer crisp, another undercooked. Cheese in odd little clumps.
It’s edible, even good. But never quite right.
This is how traditions survive: not in the precision, but in the unspoken assumptions.
We trust the scraps because they came from someone we admire.
We pass them along because… well, it’s easier than starting again.
Until one day, someone tastes the lasagne and says,
“What if we wrote this down… properly?”
The same thing happens outside the kitchen.
Somewhere, right now, a file is being opened.
Inside are tabs named DO NOT DELETE.
Tickmarks only one person in the world can interpret and they left two years ago.
Templates built so long ago, no one remembers who made them, or why that one cell turns red for no reason.
Year after year, they’re copied forward.
Not because they’re perfect but because they’re there.
We call it tradition.
We call it efficiency.
But really?
It’s making lasagne from a recipe you’ve never truly read.
Breaking the curse doesn’t mean disrespecting the past.
It means honouring it by making it usable.
Writing the recipe so the next cook or the next audit team, doesn’t have to guess.
Because whether it’s pasta or process, the magic isn’t in keeping the mystery.
It’s in making sure it works for the people holding it now.
Question is:
Is your team actually following a recipe?
Or just hoping it tastes like Nonna’s?
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