How I would learn to cook if I could start over.

I love the push away from recipes. As a Chemist I'm always driven to learn why things happen, and when I started applying the mindset you talk about to cooking it took it to the next level. Food waste dropped to (nearly) zero, cooking started to become second nature, and it helped me improve my shopping at the super market as well. This approach combined with the ingredient deep-dives you have been making are my favourite way to learn. Thanks for making life way more filled with flavour!

"I can't start from scratch, but I can start from today" -Ethan Chlebowski A hard-hitting line not just for cooking, but for life in general

I think Ethans growth over the years is one of the most tremendous journeys I have seen on Youtube. I have rarely seen someone be so willing to change their style and be so honest about it. Stuff like recreating signature dishes from other creators in the beginning to getting more into specific food science over time was just so amazing to see. Ultimately he ended up creating something that I feel not many people do when they get big and that is an immensely useful information platform that actually teaches you not just the task but also the subject. Rarely comment but I felt like this was a good opportunity to finally say this. Thanks for the amazing work dude

As a Chef and father who has recently started teaching my children to cook, I agree with the sentiment here. Cooking is 25% ingredient knowledge, 25% technique and 50% simply having the balls to try it out.

PLEASE MORE VIDEOS LIKE THIS!!! As a beginner, cooking is so overwhelming. Nothing is explained in depth. The WHY is never addressed. It's just do X, Y, and Z. You hit the nail on the head with this video. It's a gold mine in regards to how humans optimally learn. The why (theory & logic), inspiration (room for creative expression) , and frameworks (application of theory in a similar dish / roadmap) are needed. I will 100% be donating to your app. If you are successful with this, it will change cooking for the world.

Having had to rely on the foodbank for over half my life, I've had to adapt to not knowing what food I'll have in my pantry or fridge every couple of weeks when I get food from them. I might have meat or fish or no protein, I might have bread or pasta or rice, I might have veggies or fruits. It's naturally led me away from recipe-based cooking, I just have to use whatever I have at the time.

"Cook more often. Don't study. Just cook." - Iron Chef Morimoto, when asked for advice for aspiring cooks.

I've always viewed recipes as starting points. You find a basic recipe, then as you make it more, you adapt it to your own style. Some cookbooks tell you the hows and whys of everything, and I find them valuable. Sometimes flipping through will spark some inspiration on what I want to learn. Having something to guide you is nice, but in the end, nothing beats experimenting.

Something that may be worth looking into that I don’t commonly find with subscription based apps is the ability to have a second person on the account such as a spouse. I think especially in this case with all the features (calendar, personal notes, grocery list) being able to collaboratively create the meal plan and grocery list in real time would be a massive help.

Growing up watching Good Eats with Alton Brown taught me to cook this way.

This is the first Kickstarter I've ever backed because it's the first one I believe in

Only a few minutes in, but for my wife and I, 2000s era America's Test Kitchen really did so much. Yes, they did recipes, but there was so much "why does this work?" Along with basic things like, "here's how you actually dice some onion quickly while keeping your fingertips." At a certain point it really felt like we graduated from that, and it really shows when you can just whip something up, confident that it will work because you know why. Or to put it another way: "what would a recipe say here?"

In many other videos/channels, there'll be a pro chef telling the viewers what to do and exactly how to do it. However, it seems like the chef/presenter assumes that the viewer is already an experienced cook and understands every little reason why something is done. That's ok if your target audience is other chefs/cooks already working in restaurants, but so many important, valuable concepts are skipped over. Those are the key pieces of info that would really help someone struggling with learning concepts or frameworks. Your channel and your approach to cooking are really amazing. I've been trying to develop my own system/frameworks for years, and since I saw your videos, I've expanded my system! It's kept me so inspired to cook and explore more!!

I've watched basically every video you have ever made, at least for the last five years. This is the one everyone should watch. This is how people need to think about food and cooking. This is the path to stress free, low waste cooking with low cost in-season foods. Well done.

A fundamental feature I’d like to see in the app is an inventory integral to the shopping list. Items can be then labelled as “staples” and will automatically be added to the shopping list when used up, or if used past a user determined point. A notification could even pop up saying “low on coca-cola,” or whatever. This will prevent food waste from accidentally buying duplicate items or prevent you from being out of those crave items when the craving hits. . Non-staple items would be added as needed manually by the user and/or automatically with the selection of a recipe that is in the app. I assume users will be able to add their own recipes to the app. The secondary use of the active inventory, could be suggested recipes from the app based on what you have on hand. The app could then suggest substitutions if you’re missing an ingredient the recipe calls for, if you have the substitute on hand. This would be useful for nights where you don’t know (or care) what you want, you just want something fast and easy. Lastly, I’d like to be able to create “households” with multiple users and be able to join/leave other households. The former would allow the spouse or kids to delete used items from inventory (or add to them), while the latter would allow you to do the shopping for you ailing mother-in-law when you visit.

6:55 Hey Ethan, you all need to add a drop shadow and/or full screen background blur or partial transparency when the info modal opens so that the focus content is clearly separated from the page content and so that people have an idea that they’ve stepped out of the normal page view

Somehow I have always felt what you have put into words in this video. Recepies are fine but people try to follow them too closely and don't know that cooking is much more than that. Looking at the ingredients available to you and instantly making different connections of flavours, textures, possible techniques that you can apply, you create logical chains in your braing of how can you combine and make most of what you have to hopefully archieve the perfect dish for that moment.

You probably the best source for homecooking. Thinking in framework and principles instead of someone telling you something which seems nice and then just following it. Gold.

I hate cooking and still drag my feet about it, but every time I watch one of Ethan’s videos I feel inspired to try and like maybe it’s not that difficult! Thanks for what you do, Ethan!

One more thing, i think framework cooking has informally existed for decades- but in household cooking. When cooking for your family, especially if you're lower class, you have to be economical- youre going to run the family dry if you make a grocery trip for every meal. My mom makes a pot of beans once a week, and finds ways to incorporate them into meals throughout the week, because theyre cheap and filling. Leftover protein from one days dinner? We're having quesadillas for lunch the next day. Have a lot of leftover produce? Its Caldo day. Im sure others from lower income households have had similar experiences growing up