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

THIS! I made a cookbook for my 17-year old nephew for christmas, and told him about all of the things you mention here. His interest for sience (and curiosity for food) provides him with the ability to become a good home chef. Ofc I also added recipies, but where the common recipies don't explain the process (the why and how), or what ingredients you can use instead - and in general that recipies are not a dogma, but a suggestion you can add or take away from. Also, and the most important to make the cooking a nice, fun or comforting activity in itself (beside the activity of eating good food) is to give yourself the time and calmness, almost like a meditation of some sort, is to clean the kitchen (preferably every evening), have what you need to clean up as you go along, check that you have all the ingredients (the day before, and take meat and fish out of the freezer), and to prep vegetables and sauces before you start cooking. It takes more time, but especially for a beginner, you reduce the chance that you will feel like a failed cook when you are running around sweaty trying to chop onions and searching for things on the messy counter, while the meat is frying and the guests are already coming.

Cooking is a humbling yet very interesting skill. There's always something new to learn. Mistakes have taught me better than studying recipes.

This is amazing. Exactly what I was looking for. I need to understand food scientifically in order to play around with it. Thank you

These videos are the best and most information dense videos on cooking I have ever watched. And it’s all delivered in a super approachable way. I’m considered a good cook by friends and family, BUT having watched this and a bunch of other videos I can see myself improving so much and being smarter about food. These videos feel like someone making a chef science book into a movie.

My answer to "why did you want to cook?" was simple. I am autistic and have sensory issues related to that. Cooking for myself allowed me to control for things I disliked, while finding ways to incorporate things into my diet in a way that I can actually find palatable. Without it, I'd be eating nothing but cereal, boxed mac and cheese, slices of semi-firm cheese, and delivery pizza (plain cheese, Hawaiian, or pepperoni only). Sad to think that the "healthiest" option in that list is not only pizza, but pizza with one of the most controversial pizza toppings. For example, I tend to prefer chicken or beef to be in some form of stew or sauce, with less maillard as I am sensitive to the bitter compounds and burnt texture that often accompanies the reaction. I experimented with various techniques and landed on doing cold-start low temperature pan frying until the colour changes slightly, then finishing the process via steaming, then adding to whatever stew/sauce I'm making. It's not exactly a common technique in western cooking but it works well for avoiding the burnt pieces common with most maillard-heavy techniques, and is used in many Asian cooking traditions. I actually came up with it independently based on trial and error. I wanted the meat to be more done while avoiding overdoing maillard, and the boiling point of water is too low for the reaction while still being hot enough for all the food safety requirements,. I tried this somewhat unconventional idea and found it worked well for me, and gave me a way to get protein into my diet. By the way, this channel gave me an idea which has improved my cooking both from a health perspective and a flavour perspective: freezing aromatic blends in ice cube trays. I use a modified Cajun holy trinity using the usual capsicum, onion and celery but also adding in white button mushrooms. This aromatics blend with an umami booster is pretty versatile, and has increased my vegetable intake.

This video has completely transformed my understanding!

My mother rarely used recipes, except for baking, and I learned to cook from her, so I started out right.

As a chef 5 years in the industry im only a min in and i agree 1000% this is what i really learned from culinary school and it makes cooking soo much simpler when you understand the why behind what you're doing when you cook it allows you to be so much more creative and trobuleshoot when something doesn't go the way you wanted

I love how you mentioned that there is more to learn about cooking than can be in a lifetime

I never understood how people just copy from recipes without understanding context of why. I don't even look at recipes, I invent dishes myself. There isn't fixed amount of food you can make, it has endless possibilities due to differet tastes, aromas, techniques, textures etc, it's not worth learning some recipes to show off to others, basically different recipes could exists which would make food tastier, some would work on winter time , some on summer. Good job Ethan!

This was both clear and fun.

This video is pure motivation.

I love your channel dude I've been thinking this a lot recently there's no "why" or "cooking meta" information out there super grateful 🙏

I've spent my freshman year eating out since I moved out from my parents, not only I kept breaking the budget but also gaining weight uncontroldably from eating unhealthy food. So I started the journey of teaching myself how to cook lately and SIR! You are the game changer, I've always afraid of cooking as I'm not usually use recipe to cook, but you shift my mindset into the building the framework, not always the recipe is so so vital to me. I'd download the app immediately as I put one step into becoming a better home cook and commit to the journey. Thank you so much, you are my hero!

Ethan, thanks for this. I try to limit my ingredients due to budget, so I try to find creative ways to create variety. Your videos provide inspiration for me to keep learning.

As someone who works in fitness, this has always been my favorite cooking channel on youtube because you always teach us how to think, not just what to do. I've been able to not only help myself, but pass some of your information and frameworks along to my clients as well. I'm excited for the app, that's gonna be groundbreaking!

Just want to say thank you for your videos! I've learned so much, cooking makes sense and is more approachable.

I can smell the pages of this cookbook.

I'm no longer a beginner and I've gathered that the next step that would advance my cooking and baking is knowing this type of food science, well said!

The recipes I love are the ones I find on YouTube by people who cook at home cuz they almost always are showing you every step of the process and much more. It’s less of following their every move and more so using what you learn from them to help make food on your own