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There are a million knife-skills videos (opens in a new tab) online, and most of them are fine. Finding instruction isn’t the hard part — knowing which sources are worth your time is, because a lot of what ranks well was written to rank well and never tested by anyone.
So this is a short list of the best resources to learn to cook, and the order we’d use them in. Four sources, all of which have earned their place in the Schick Shack.
How to learn to cook for beginners
If you’re a beginning home cook, think about these three things in this order:
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Technique. The most important thing to learn: knife skills, measuring, taking temperatures, food safety. The good news is that there are plenty of resources, especially on YouTube, that will show you how.
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Ingredients. What’s in season, how to tell when it’s ripe, which flavors go together. This is where a newspaper or magazine with a good food section earns its keep. Pay attention to what they’re running; it’s usually whatever is in season and plentiful.
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Recipes. Once you have a handle on the first two, you can pick up almost any recipe and understand how to make it. Then it’s a question of provenance: who wrote this, and do they have a reason to be trusted? Unless you’re an experienced cook, you probably shouldn’t be cooking from recipes written by amateurs you found online. Find your reputable sources and follow their suggestions.
Over time you’ll work out what you like to cook and what you’re good at. When in doubt, less is more: fewer ingredients, fewer steps, and let the technique and the food shine.
The best websites to learn to cook
The best sources teach all three at once. Here are a few that have earned their keep in the Schick Shack.
New York Times Cooking (opens in a new tab)
The New York Times is the paper of record for the United States — and in the Schick Shack — and its Cooking section is every bit as good. Instructional articles sit alongside decades of recipes from some of the world’s finest chefs and cookbook authors, and the newsletters are reliable for what’s new and what’s in season.
Start with Easy Recipes for Beginner Cooks (opens in a new tab) and Basic Knife Skills (opens in a new tab).
America’s Test Kitchen (opens in a new tab)
This is where Sharp Cooking founder Joe learned most of his home cooking tricks, starting with the pages of ATK’s Cook’s Illustrated magazine. Their lab applies the scientific method to cooking — testing each recipe dozens of times, adjusting and controlling variables — to find the method that works every time, and then explaining why it won.
The website also carries lessons, reviews of cooking equipment and pantry items, and decades of tested, carefully written recipes. See their online classes (opens in a new tab) and their equipment reviews (opens in a new tab).
MasterClass (opens in a new tab)
MasterClass sells video courses on all sorts of subjects, and the culinary ones are entertaining and taught by chefs you’ve heard of. Learn baking from Joanne Chang (founder of Boston’s Flour, home of the Greatest BLT Sandwich Ever), Italian cooking from the legendary Massimo Bottura, and Texas barbecue from Austin’s Aaron Franklin.
Try Bake Like a Pro (opens in a new tab).
King Arthur Baking Company (opens in a new tab)
All things baking — cookies, cakes, pizza, bread. They also produce the best flour on the supermarket shelf, along with specialty baking ingredients you won’t find locally.