Funny thing is, mac and cheese isn’t one of those dishes I would personally pick.

I think it’s a dish that personifies the excessiveness and wanton disregard for health of most American comfort foods. Sure, if it’s on the table I’ll have a couple of spoonfuls.

And yet I make it every so often (coz it’s such a crowd-pleaser), and everyone loves it to the point that I actually get requests to make it personally for get-togethers and parties. The recipe that I’ve been using is not anything special. I think I simply Googled, ‘best mac and cheese recipe’ and used the first one that came up that didn’t look complicated or excessive (truffle, barf).

But the trick to good food is simply making it well, and for pasta dishes, the same fundamental rules apply: salt your pasta water generously and don’t overcook your pasta. I also learned that having at least three different kinds of cheese creates a more dimensional flavour.

I also layer the pasta the same way I would do lasagna. For the quantity of 650 grams of elbow macaroni for a 15 inch x 7 inch pan, I did three layers, including the crumbed-parmesan and smoked paprika topping.

I made this for my friend Jordan’s uncle who had his birthday this weekend.