---
title: 'I''m building the World''s Best Cooking website.'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=pnDblfMHHhs'
video_id: 'pnDblfMHHhs'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 4544
---

# I'm building the World's Best Cooking website.

> Source: [I'm building the World's Best Cooking website.](https://youtube.com/watch?v=pnDblfMHHhs)

## Summary

The video announces the launch of CookWell, a new cooking website that aims to become the world's best resource for home cooks. The creator explains the 12-month development process, the team behind it, and the platform's unique integration of inspiration, lifestyle, and food science.

### Key Points

- **Team Behind CookWell** [5:16] — Team: host (Ethan), editor Spencer, tech lead Pat, newsletter Keith, short-form Grace, design firm Maid Shop, development company Gray Bike.
- **MVP and Monetization** [11:52] — Recipes will always be free. Paid app coming later with features like macro tracking and meal planning.
- **Flavor Tags and Framework** [13:48] — Flavor model: Taste, Aroma, Texture, Sight, Physical, Human. Tags in recipes link to fundamental explanations.
- **Three Pillars: Inspiration, Lifestyle, Technique** [36:36] — CookWell combines inspiration (seeing a dish), lifestyle (dietary needs), and food science/technique.
- **Fundamentals: From Molecules to Flavor** [42:35] — Fundamentals: Molecules -> Reactions -> Outcomes -> Flavor. Explains how deep frying involves Maillard, coagulation, dehydration.
- **Planned App Features** [51:37] — App features: macro tracking, pantry scanner, drag-and-drop meal planner. Platform vision: include other creators.
- **Content Strategy and Community** [58:59] — Two YouTube videos/month (deep dives), plus shorts and recipe content on other platforms. Paid community with monthly live streams.

## Transcript

uh I think I think we're
live
maybe let me uh I got to get the chat up
all right we're live let's
go yeah we are live I I haven't done so
we did like a test
stream uh what was that probably
Thursday this past week um with the uh
with the community and uh I realized I
hadn't done a live in it's been like
three years cuz if you guys have been
following for years you guys will
remember that I went through a little
bit of a live phase so like there is
probably I don't
know 7 to 10 live videos on the YouTube
channel but yeah today we have a it's
again like we I didn't know the best way
to announce what we've been working on
um which is this new right now it's a
website but this is honestly step one of
years worth of of things that we've got
to do um to kind of what the vision I
have in my head is more of like a decade
long Vision So today we're going to talk
through kind of how we got here cuz it's
been like 12 months in the making
haven't been able to tell anybody about
about it
um I mean we could have told you but we
were still figuring out so much stuff
internally that yeah it was uh lot lot
to go through so today we're gonna make
a chicken burrito from the from the from
cookwell dcom from the website that we
have built um and then yeah we're going
to talk about a lot of it because as you
guys can see based off if you have gone
I think I have the link in the
description there's a lot of things that
are different about I mean at its face
it looks like a normal recipe right
but there are so many things built into
this website from like a fundamental
like cooking education food science
space that it's uh yeah there's so much
stuff packed into this and this is kind
of our it's oh man we we'll have to talk
into it let me let me we'll just kind of
hang out see what everyone's going on um
we we'll give it like maybe fiveish
minutes before we kind of hop in and and
talk about everything
yeah
there's yeah Ben we have a lot to talk
about
there's right now it's it's going to be
a website um we want to do again CU it's
right now it's a website but it's also
like a cooking brand so we do want to do
some products underneath it I I've I
mean like I said I've been doing YouTube
for what like five six no probably
probably like almost no five and a half
six years now and I've always had this
big hold up on like physical products
because I was just like kind of what's
the point um but now that we have
cookwell the brand that has built in to
the website which is going to buil be
built in my content it's like this is
like this is like my
dream um and obviously it was not a not
a solo effort but uh yeah there's a lot
of a lot of stuff we got to go through
yeah I'm looking at the chat right now
so it's it's tough to like look at the
camera we'll look at the camera in a
bit Yeah light it might be lighting
might be a little off I'm having like a
slight difference in between my uh my
OBS what it looks like on OBS and like
what it actually looks like on YouTube
right now so we may just have to we may
have to deal with it it might not be
perfect
I can't I can bump the
uh oh doc doc Rockman found the let's
cook button
mobile apps yeah you guys are you guys
are right on it
um yeah there's a lot of lot of cool
stuff uh yeah you can talk
to so I guess there's two people um who
have been working a lot on this on my
team so Pat Uh he's a mod in here so
he's our he's our our
lead uh our Tech lead basically I don't
know CTO if you want to call him we
we're a team of so I'll tell you like
what my team's been working with like
the past kind of 12 months it's it's
myself so for videos um and then Spencer
as my editor has been helping a lot
absolutely crushing it uh a lot of back
and forth and making the videos better
and better especially as they get more
complex and more deep um so Spencer's
been a huge help on the YouTube front
and then cookwell
specifically um Pat on my team has been
working a ton one of my best friends
from college also the uh he is kind of
like our C our Tech lead he's helped
he's kind of been the developer and then
we've also worked with another company
called uh gray bike to help set
everything up and then we've got a lot
of future development to be done as well
and then Keith on my team writes our
newsletter if you guys didn't know I
have a newsletter free comes out every
week crushes it in there he also helps
me so much with initial research on
video so like the egg video we did last
week Keith like helps
me basically start from a much better
starting point rather than me just
having to go out and grab everything
thing
um and then uh yeah and then we have
Grace she helps us parttime she's still
in school so she'll help post on short
form and stuff which we're going to be
posting more in short form so I'm kind
of excited for that
um and then yeah and then obviously we
work with two outside people on this so
maid shop was the design company we
worked with uh and they absolutely
crushed it I we we'll start going
through and and get into the website I
have like a little I think I have a
little display that we can we can use to
like popop through but they absolutely
crushed
it yeah I think the I think it's an
issue with my Wi-Fi if if it's a little
grainy um this is like pretty far away
from and I'm not I'm not bolted in so so
I have like two or three bars right now
so that might be the uh might be the
issue but all right let's just yeah
let's just talk about this thing though
um or I should probably start some of
this food stuff and then we can talk
about it okay
so I don't know what what order we
should go in I feel like this I feel
like we could be here all night if I
don't start start some food stuff let me
start with some of the food stuff um
um so we're we're going to make it this
recipe should be in the description or
Pat and Keith if one of you could post
the link too um just like so they can
follow along and then I'll open up the
recipe here in a second but I I'm about
to get like chicken and stuff so I I
can't really pop fully in um and then
yeah we're going to talk through we're
going to talk through these things on
screen as
well um but yeah let me let me let me
get the recipe started at least at least
let me get the chicken started and I'm
not going to I'm going to use the oven
instead of uh I'm going to do that
Broiler method if you guys remember that
we've talked
about and the only thing I prepped for
this was I just salted my chicken ahead
of
time that's literally the only thing
I've
done so yeah let me get the the chicken
marinating let me get this done and then
I'll have you guys just poke around cuz
I'm kind of curious what you guys when
when you go to the website for the first
time and look at a recipe I'm very
curious how you guys are going to poke
around and click on certain things and
how it works for
you kind of the hypothesis that we came
up with and especially as you like the
more you read through the more you make
recipes from it the more you click
through and learn through the
fundamentals the more everything will
start to click over time so I feel like
the first time we're going to talk
through wouldn't be surprised if people
were like a little confused it seems a
little convoluted but I think like the
second third fourth fifth 10th time 20th
time 100th time thousandth time it's
going to like it and you guys saw the
title like I don't say world's best is
like a way to brag it's like that's the
standard like if I was going
to put like my name and like spend you
know all our money on this and like make
it come into the world like it's got to
be the world's
best so that's like the standard that
I'm holding myself to and you guys can
hold us to that as
well okay let me let me get this uh
little marinade going and I've just got
I've got chicken tenders instead of
chicken breasts just cuz they were on
sale um and then I know if you look in
the recipe there's you'll see there's
kind of two modes there's a let's cook
mode that's really going to be good for
mobile um I know a lot of people use
their phone for recipes so that's going
to be and that's a good stepbystep way
to to walk through a recipe and for me
personally I since I'm a little more you
know I cook all the time I just like the
big view at once so I probably won't use
let's cook mode as
much but I think a lot of people will
love let's cook mode
so so and and another thing if you guys
look in the ingredients page you can see
we have it broken down where there's a
component view so when you're actually
cooking that's the component and then a
shopping view
which will reorganize the ingredients
based
on what you need to be in the grocery so
all the produce item will be in a
produce section all the spices or like
Pantry items will be in a pantry section
so they're lot going to be a lot easier
to use
yeah and then Pat and Keith feel free to
if people are having questions and I'm
not keeping up feel free to just dump
more information as you to uh Natalia
macros that's a that's a feature we're
going to need to figure out that that is
a that's a high that's one of my
features that I want in the current
iteration um we don't so this is right
now this is our MVP minimum buyable
product um it is a completely free
website recipe these fundamentals will
always be free um we do want to make an
application that utilizes this free
information that'll be subscription
based but that's going to be months in
the future if you know probably next
year depending on how we want to make it
obviously but right now what you're
seeing here this is will always be free
recipes will be is free I'm never going
to pay wall recipe I'm never going to
pay all the fundamentals content because
I think that should be available for
everybody
okay but yeah enough talking let me let
me actually start some of this stuff uh
okay so it's so hard to I'm out I'm out
of my element it's been so long since
I've live stream
cooking so if I'm not talking for a
little bit just uh you know you guys
know the reason okay yeah so I think the
recipe said blender food processor I'm
kind of just going to
um I'm going to blend up everything in
the mortar and
pestle which I've been loving the mortar
and pestle
recently coming around on it quite a
lot so for this we got
Habano and then I'm just going to chop
it into slightly smaller pieces just so
they're a little bit easier to break up
but another thing that's going to be
really cool about cookwell is if you
guys have seen in some of the recent
videos you may have seen those flavor
tags these taste Aroma texture sight
physical um human and and this is like a
working theory of like what flavor is um
but all of this stuff is also going to
start being builting into the content
it's I made this
website also just for myself because I
realized in videos in those deeper dive
videos I kept talking about the same
things I was like well are we talking
about Aroma here are we talking about
taste so the vanilla V video was
primarily all about Aroma um you know
and then Tomatoes it's like okay well
tomatoes are acidic so we're talking
about taste there um we're talking a lot
about texture there uh um and those
things so I kept referencing the same
things over and over and over and I in
like I just started to build out kind of
a mental model for myself of how I think
about these things and then once we
actually put it to paper and tried to
figure out well what is Flavor these are
the the six things we kind of landed on
and you can click through them on the
website and kind of figure out where our
heads at
um and and we can and eventually we want
to do kind of video deep dives into each
of of these flavor components cuz
there's a ton of things going
on and yeah human again humans down
there it seems a little
weird you know a lot of these it might
seem a little confusing like how does
how what is human flavor right but a big
part of flavor perception again is the
way your brain is perceiving it so if
you've ever tried something that your
mom your grandma your dad used to make
and even if you follow the recipe
exactly it just doesn't taste as good um
because a lot of those things are kind
of
human you know Nostalgia or like uh
maybe it was a certain experience or
Ambiance that you had that dish and
you're just not able to recreate it in a
recipe but that can influence your
perception of the recipe or obviously in
different cultures some recipes and some
foods are you know prized In some
cultures but not in others and that is
like a big component of flavor that's
really not talked about
my
rice all right throw a little salt in
this too I've already salted the chicken
but I'm going to throw a little bit in
there
and then another thing as if you guys
see in the ingredients page like they're
going to have these tags built in um
which you can like if you don't know
what they are like what they are or you
want to learn more you can click in to
each of those um and they'll give you a
little bit you know a little bit more
and then it links over to the
fundamental side of the of the recipe
website
and then hopefully this is not terrible
down here I I eventually I want to get
like maybe maybe I'll mount something to
the top of the ceiling for a better top
down but not bad and then this is one of
the specialty ingredients if you look in
the shopping view uh aote
paste or aote I forget if you pronounced
the
CH which is smells so like floral and
bright and then basically just making a
paste
that will be I'm going to toss it on all
that chicken in a
second making a past paste with with the
aot
paste you like a site where you can list
yeah so another thing we can do is we
can top talk about the application that
we're going to build there are so many
features we've thought about that would
make I mean initially I just kind of
start with myself and think like what
would make my life easier but you know
and I'm a homecook like all of you guys
too and there are so many features we've
already thought of that we can build
into an application whether it's helping
with grocery shopping helping with
inspiration helping with meal prepping
where maybe you can drag and drop
recipes
in and then we need so I have the salt
in here the the paste the peppers the
garlic the onions we just need some
orange juice and some lime
juice and then that's going to go on
these also kind of just want to eat one
of these right here
so let me get the chicken done and then
I'll I kind of give you the the
background of you know what like like I
said we had our initial like kind of
kickoff like Keith and I have been I
think probably what was it back in
November Keith like we probably
initially started I I said like you you
should like you know start looking for
design firms or whatnot um because I was
like I knew I wanted to build this but I
needed help getting it started and then
and that he found maid shop which was
the design firm that we worked with that
helped brought a lot of the basically
the ideas I had in my head but actually
make them look really good uh which is
uh definitely definitely a tough task um
and they like I feel like it's so much
better than I ever really imagined it
would potentially be
okay so I'm just going to dump this over
top of the
chicken and then just kind of massage it
in
here so you see we have that nice color
spices the chicken's already salted ahe
Hadad a time that was like the one thing
I mentioned that
and then I'm going to spread these out
on a bigger
[Applause]
pan and yeah these are all chicken
tenders just they were on sale when I
went to the store I was like why
not and we're going to do the broiler so
normally I would cook these right back
here on the
on The
Griddle um but you guys can't I mean I
just have my back to you the whole
time so I'm just going to pop these
underneath the
broiler which is another technique that
I probably did a video on that so long
ago it's crazy to look back at the
channel and just realize that videos I
felt like I did not that long ago had
been like 2 three years ago at this
point
will there be a separate video about
Coco yeah definitely at some
point I I thought about doing like a
video to announce it
but it was going to be hard to condense
everything out so I just want to kind of
to chill talk in a you know more more
chilled relaxed environment but I think
we will do probably a more formal video
breaking down you know why we built it
how how it works now what's going to be
in the
[Music]
future okay so chicken in the
oven I'm looking at the recipe on my
other
okay so the
avocados also I don't know if anyone's
making it but you got to go for the big
old 12
in
tortillas this
all right
avocado I just do one sour
cream lime
juice you another clove of
garlic we go with two cloves of garlic
two gnarly looking cloes of gar these
are oh these are old they're fine not
worried about it
line
juice a little cayenne pepper I actually
didn't have cayenne pepper but I got the
uh ground pequin Peppers I'm kind of
interested to try
[Applause]
these little dish before I spill it
and I don't think this is going to
reach I'll have to do that off screen
but no
biggie will the live stay up yeah live
will stay up
um yeah we we'll keep it up again kind
of announcement we'll probably will do
another video uh but yeah we got
a this this will be up for as long as as
long as we
can also I probably shouldn't say it but
every time I'm
live I always think what would happen if
I accidentally cut myself pretty bad
it it's probably not something I should
be thinking about but it always pops
into my head I'm I just
wonder it's almost like I'm speaking it
into a distance obviously that would be
terrible
but I've always thought about that on
cooking
streams cuz you never know it can happen
it can happen when you least expect it
I'll be extra careful but then when
you're when you start thinking about it
you're too careful that that's when it
happens okay so
avocados and then oh I think someone
asked about Parts we're going to talk
about measurements and units if you look
down in the FAQ of this
recipe we basically had this decision
point with units where again I want this
to be like a worldwide platform
and I as you guys know I don't own any
measuring cups so I don't have a
teaspoon I don't have tablespoons I
don't have cups any of that um but using
a scale all the time is also not
necessary at all so what we decided on
is we're going to try to be more just
common sense with things so like you'll
see in this avocado crma it's like one
part avocado one part crma so
really that would just mean Loosely I'm
looking at this and eyeballing the
rest and it looks about even one part
one part call it good it's the exact
same thing you would do with you know if
if that said one cup one cup again
they're both volumetric measurements the
exact same but I think people get caught
up in the actual measurement in the
Spoonful and a lot of times it doesn't
make that that big of that big of a deal
yeah a public road yeah we like that's
something we we'll need to create like I
said this is just the website ver like
the website of it there's a a lot of
things we got to figure out um in the in
the coming
months and to see to see what what's
going to be most valuable for people
okay so Garlic's coming in here some
lime juice as well
little bit of
cayenne little bit of
salt and
then got to blend this off camera
wait I might be able to get it in
screen apologies for your ears I'm going
to add a little more juice just cuz it's
not
blending and I should check on this
chicken before it gets
burnt all right we're fine
all right the other the other lemon's
going in
too or
lime for
m
yeah that's so
good all
right so that's
good we got the beans
going is a little
flip would have definitely got better
Browning on on The Griddle for
sure how to put that thing ripping hot
but it'll still be uh this still be nice
and
flavorful okay uh
beans and then while the beans are doing
we can take a break to discuss more and
I I'll answer some
answer some
questions a little bit of oil down there
a little bit of ground cumin seed
actually not ground cumin seed I like
using whole whole cumin
seeds um
you know what h no I think I'm out of
garlic won't throw garlic in there I do
I do want to throw a little more of that
paste in there though in the beans
themselves let that just sauté a little
bit and then once I get the beans in
here we'll kind of walk through this
recipe a little bit more
wo
all
right and then just a little bit of salt
in there though these normally these
Cann beans or at least the ones
normally have a fair bit of salt already
in
them so definitely got to
be definitely got to be careful when
adding your your own
salt all
right and I'm just checking the temp on
these these should be like plenty done
though yeah
I'll let those cool down before we chop
into
[Applause]
them
okay now again basically we're there to
now let's talk cookwell a little
bit okay so cookwell is
basically uh it's not just a website
right now it is a website but basically
the the why I wanted to create cookwell
in the first place was I mean put it in
the comments like what do you not like
about recipe websites I bet there's a
ton of things so the
stories um very long
Scrolls
uh you know tons tons of
ads um you know everyone's got something
right that they don't like
about about like kind of the current
state of recipe websites or they're not
not super useful I mean for me one of
the biggest things was just everyone
kind of has a different format
um no one's really explaining why you're
doing certain things or it's kind of
confusing to
understand so there's so many things
about current state recipe kind of
websites that I mean like you you guys
you know you guys you guys understand
like I it goes It goes without saying
so basically I started to ask myself and
this initially started as a cookbook
idea probably two years ago I asked
myself like what would my perfect recipe
page look like and I asked myself that
in the form of a cookbook but then there
were so many things I thought of that we
could add that it made so much more
sense to actually try to make it a
digital experience and
create create a a basically a like a
theory of cooking that could be attached
to recipes because how I look at recipes
now are so different how I looked at
them like 3 or 4 years ago now
things again before we made the website
things would jump off the page to
me like certain flavor things you know
acidic ingredients salty ingredients
certain Rea or not reactions but certain
um people don't really talk about
reactions in cooking website we do
though uh or you know uh certain
techniques would leap off the page
because I understood what brazing was or
I understood what searing was and I know
what you're trying to achieve with it
those things were very apparent to me
only because I've been making cooking
videos for you know several years
so that was the whole kind of idea
behind this is how do we
build the best possible experience for
the home cook and what we came in with
maid shop was this was back in I think
February of
2023 um basically my theory was why why
this why cookwell needs to exist we
didn't have the name yet um but why it
needed to exist where there were three
three buckets if you will that in my
opinion the intersection of them or are
what
creates kind of where cooking is the
most fun at least in my opinion is there
is the inspiration so you see something
and it looks really good Tik Tok great
example of this you see a Tik Tok or a
short form reel and you're like oh that
looks really good you're just inspired
by it just by seeing it um second second
bucket is I need something it's it's
lifestyle so first bucket is inspiration
second bucket is lifestyle lifestyle is
instead of you just inspiration is like
you just stumble across something looks
good you're like yeah let's go ahead and
make it lifestyle is like I've got 30
minutes I want something high protein
give me those
options um or you know maybe you're
making something for a family occasion
or Christmas or and it you're kind of
putting a specific lifestyle spin on it
and then the third bucket for me is
food food science and cooking
technique and what we kind of realize is
that when you look
around
with um look around at websites and try
to map out so big V diagram three
through each circle right and you you
try to map them out some places do maybe
two of those well maybe someone does one
of those well um but none really did all
three well and my kind of theory that
going into it is like whichever reason
you come to cook well whether it's
inspiration whether it's lifestyle
whether it's cooking
techniques the other two are always
going to be built in to the recipe so
when once we have deep dive articles and
like you want to we're going to you know
talk about deep frying versus Air frying
the science behind it if you come for
that you're going to also get recipes
and other inspiration baked in to that
article or if you come for the recipes
and you don't know anything about
um or you you know you don't realize
that orange juice and lemon juice are
sour ingredients or you can you know you
can substitute them rather than us
saying hey you can
substitute lemon juice any Citrus you
want like we're just going to put a sour
tag and then you can start to learn that
for
yourself so a big thing that we wanted
to do was a focus kind of more on
empowerment than trying to list out
every possible thing and give you really
the framework that you can use because I
don't know what's going to work best for
you you don't know what's going to work
best for me like we are all very
individual people we have our own you
know Lifestyles we all go on our own
cooking Journey but what I want to do
with cookwell is really give everyone
the basis and the fundamentals of
everything so they can go explore and
figure out what you know how cooking is
going to how it's going to fit into your
life because I think if you have the
base it's really unlimited with what can
happen to it
but anyway so when we started with uh
with mid shop we had some initial ideas
between like Flavor techniques and we're
going to actually start going through
let me just go through the fundamentals
real quick cuz it's probably worth
talking through for me it's like the
more fun part of the and I got to avoid
getting myself burnt here but let me
just slide this over
okay I'm just going to let that reduce
down for a couple minutes and we'll talk
through
fundamentals okay so and I don't know
why this is faded out it may look weird
for you
guys or like it looks dark on my screen
at least I'm not
sure okay so cookwell there's recipe
side fundamental side and then there's
going to be a side we're it's already
going to change a little bit but
obviously as you guys can see let me
make sure this is
[Music]
working uh for you
guys okay yeah yeah it looks good I
don't again I don't know why it's
dark who knows well figure it out at
some other further
Venture
um okay so you click into a recipe we'll
go into
the
ORS um again fundamental stuff so these
are these are one of the tastes and a
lot of like a lot of work we have to do
on it like I said this is
not this is already really good but this
is legitimately Step Zero for us uh of
of many
so if you come in here again everything
links back over to what we're calling
the fundamentals and the fundamentals
are you know what is Flavor how is
flavor created and basically we kept
asking
ourselves you know why it's kind of like
the first principal thinking where you
just keep asking yourself why or how
until you get to the very bottom so if
you guys look at the very bottom we have
molecules which is not something that I
don't think many other if any other
Really Cooking resources reference that
often but what we realize and molecules
is not something we initially had in our
first meetings like this was several
months down the line where we we were
talking through all this stuff and we
realized what happens is molecules are
the building blocks of food
so mostly that's water you know like the
human what is it the humans are like 70%
water
um and that's the same with most food
you know even more in a lot of cases
like citrus this is mostly
water uh carbohydrates fat protein and
then alcohols are kind of your core
molecules that make up
food now you may be asking well why do I
need to know about
molecules and you don't have to know
about molecules but again I like going
as deep as I can to help explain the
next level up and the reason molecules
are important is because molecules
dictate what type of reaction actions
can occur in in foods and generally it's
several reactions that are going to be
going on so caramelization coagulation
dehydration emulsification all these
things happen so if you take a fried
piece of fried chicken for
example um the chicken itself the
protein is going to coagulate the water
from inside the chicken is going to be
pushed out from of that coagulation and
it's going to actually evaporate through
the air so that's that bubbles you see
when you when you deep fry food it's
it's water scaping out because again
most food is is water uh and then to get
crispy from deep frying it actually
dehydrates the surface so you're getting
rid of you know whatever you have the
breading is or the the crisp and it's
crispy because of the the dehydration
that it doesn't have any water anymore
and then the mayor reaction is that
Browning and so gives it that nice brown
crust which can happen with proteins and
like a free carbohydrate so you can
really see the molecules really dictate
what YP of reactions can happen and many
and and in most
cases again hopefully you see where
we're going this one technique will have
many reactions occur so if you look at
deep
fry and we should be able to click in
this let me just make sure you guys are
following okay so if we click in a de
fry and again we have so much stuff to
build out on this but you can see we're
starting to build these components in
where the food reactions are here the
May
reaction coagulation dehydration so you
can really start to actually understand
these Concepts and again it you don't
have to want to do this like you don't
have to go through the fundamentals Deep
dive if you don't want to it's still
just going to be the best spot for a
pure beginner where you know you don't
really need to you don't have to
understand or especially when you're
starting to cook you don't really want
to know about molecules probably you
just want to know how to deep fry and
you can get that from the website and
get a get an amazing recipe but
eventually you maybe will start clicking
into these things and again I don't
really know what's going to happen the
more you start to think about these
Concepts you'll actually be able to
understand recipes from a fundamental
level and make your own recipes which I
think a lot of people like to do I mean
for me I'm I'm rarely following strictly
recipes I following concepts so that's
really what what I hope we can do with
cookwell um yeah and then that rolls up
into flavor so the molecules dict
molecules make up food which dictate
what types of reactions can occur
reactions cause specific outcomes um and
they impact different areas of flavor so
you know texture site when a when the
May reaction happens for example it
turns it brown that's a sight thing when
it it also creates hundreds of new
Aromas that's an aroma thing um it you
know can dehydrate the texture that's a
texture thing humans just
love uh deep fried food at this point so
like if you see something deep fried
even if it's it could be deep fried
something that you maybe it's a deep
fried shoe but if you didn't realize it
was a shoe and just saw the exterior
crust you'd be like oh that looks good
um until you until you actually bite in
so that's kind of like the basis of all
the fundamentals and like I said
ton of stuff we need to build out in
there and make it really rich and I
think really make these Concepts stick
but it's going to be built in natively
to the recipes which I think will be
amazing um
okay let me let me think here yeah let
me let me get these chop this chicken
nice and
spicy ooh speaking of spicy that's the
physical so like spicy somebody doesn't
taste spicy it it is spicy from like a
reaction right from the Caps or there's
kind of some different Lev to it but
physical physical in in accordance to
flavor are at least again right now a
lot of this it it can potentially change
this is not like a set in stone I think
that's what's kind of fun about it and
why having it be
a a you know something that we can
change and update because like I want to
get it understand everything more
because there's so much to understand
out there so I think that's going to be
a cool part over the years too as we
develop more things out and understand
more it's only going to get better from
here all
right about ready to assemble here
I think I need to get cheese
out I'm going to lightly warm this
tortilla over the beans
uh will it say yeah I'll I'll explain
that it's going to be the current
website that you see this is always
going to be open access recipes always
will be open access fundamentals will
always be open access the Articles will
always be open access and all the all
the video content on YouTube is going to
it's going it'll roll into this as well
so that'll always always be free you
know we're going to have to put some ads
on it
but um so like if you go to the website
right now there's no ads anywhere but we
definitely
will
um we definitely will put some ads on it
but I I don't view it as the reason why
there are so many ads on the the
websites that you you may know is
because that's a big core piece of the
business is the ad revenue from it
um and the more stuff the more again the
longer your page length is so if you big
story you can fit more ads in you make
more money but you know I don't want to
I I don't view the actual business of
cookwell as like an ad
Revenue um model so I'm like I want to
keep it minimal from the beginning I
want to make the actual user
experience as good as as good as
possible and then we'll you know we'll
monetize it in other
ways so one of the one of the ways we do
plan to do is we we will build a
cookwell app which you can have like a
login profile you can save your recipes
here you can you know again there's so
many features you guys can let me know
what type of features you guys want
but um uh one thing that I want is macr
tracking because it's it is a pain in
the ass to macro track if you are if you
it's easy to macr track if you eat a lot
of processed food and you make the same
thing every night it's hard to macr
track if you homecook stuff and like try
new recipes so that's a big problem we
like we want to figure out in you know
is make make them integrated so it's
easy for people to you know add them so
you can actually try more things rather
than I mean you know when you're going
through a cut it's just it's like oh I'm
just going to make the same thing
because it's it's already in my you know
my my fitness Palace so I just make the
same thing rather than oh wouldn't it be
nice to go find a a big long list of
high protein recipes and they're already
very well integrated with within maybe
our maybe with already within the
cookwell app or maybe you know they play
well with whatever your preferred uh you
know Fitness tracking app is so that's
like a big feature that I want to figure
out
um and like I said we haven't started
development on the application yet but
already have done a ton of
brainstorming I think a thing that I
think would be really cool is if you
could scan your pantry items so again
you're logged into your profile you go
to your pantry and you scan your items
so then you have a log of your pantry
that you can keep track of like that
would be so cool because then you know
when you're coming out of something or
maybe you use it the other way where
it's like oh I have these six Pantry
items and can you suggest me a recipe
that I could you know use with
them uh but yeah another thing I think
would for me I think it would be cool
too is like if you have a weekly or a
monthly view that you can drag and drop
drop recipes like past recipes you
favored recipes you like literally so
many things I think that we can do with
like an application that makes the
recipes you can utilize them better or
you again like I don't want to I don't
want to pay wall recipes like I think I
don't think anyone's recipes are like
that much better than anyone else's so
it just like doesn't make
sense um at least in my opinion to like
try to pay all those things and then
also because we have like a nice brand
at least I think it's cool we are going
to start doing some products this year
it'll probably be like one product this
year if I had to guess
but started to get some samples in of
some things and figure it out but I
again I don't want to become a product
company I really think like the
application is going to be where like we
can deliver the most value to
people
um in addition to like just the normal
the normal website which will be which
will be really cool
yeah pay Walling recipes once yeah no
yeah I I agree that's why I don't you
know I don't really hold recipes in you
know I've never been one for like super
traditional things or whatever I'm kind
of just like I want to understand the
recipe but you know I want to be able to
mix it up as I feel um which is really
what all the recipes here will do and
then another thing I guess I forgot to
mention too the idea with cookwell is to
make it a platform so it's not going to
be just my recipes like I want to get
high quality content and recipes from
all around the world so if there's a
Creator who's really good at I don't
know Japanese Cuisine Korean cuisine uh
Mexican Cuisine and you know again we
got to figure it out what that what that
partnership looks like but I think my
theory is what happens with everyone
kind of exists in their own own bubble
so you know say you got 20 different
creators everyone's got 20 different
sites they're all bad I mean mine's bad
and I can say that because mine's
terrible my Ethan ji.com
terrible so I think you know we we'll
have to figured out a lot to do there
but I want I do want other creators to
come on here and you know well again we
got to figure we got to figure stuff out
from the from the business behind the
scenes but that is something that I want
to do I want other creators on here and
I want to get you know divver recipes
from all around the world because again
I view this as like a
worldly platform and this is this like a
decade decade long Vision so it's not
it's not anything we got to get done
right away but that's how I'm kind of
viewing this is like a decade
timeline yeah the app app wouldn't be
app would be paid but well yeah again we
got to figure we got to figure a lot of
stuff out but it would definitely be
adree too like if you paid for the
application and then you log in add free
obviously
like I don't like those apps when yeah
like applications that have ads in
them um have I made everything yeah I
think I have Okay so let's assemble
this uh
yeah as you can see a lot to figure out
the lot to figure out lot to
do um and again we're you know small
team as of
now but I'm I'm like I can't believe
like I feel like it's feel like this is
literally Step Zero but like what we've
done here I'm immensely immensely proud
of in its current state uh and like
that's the cool thing is like it's I
feel like it already is so good but it
it it literally only gets so much
better so did chicken
cheese or Crema cheese chicken
beans think I'm going to throw a little
more Crema in
there oh hot sauce this is some uh
habanero
actually I throw a little little dollop
in right with
the little more
cheese
lettuce and then oh I should I should
mention too so some things you can
expect with content as well so like
YouTube content this year I've decided
is the year of quality over quantity so
loosely the the the plan for YouTube
videos is going to be two per month
one's going to be a longer Deep dive
kind of like the egg video we did the
Truffle video that that type of thing
the second one's a little bit open in
the air it's probably going to be deep
dive is but maybe not quite as in-depth
just
depends we also if you want recipe
content
we will also be starting up shorts again
on so Instagram we post for Tik Tok and
I do have a uh shorts Channel on YouTube
as well that somehow has got to like
over 100k followers I don't know how I
always wonder like are is everyone on
that channel do they just know me from
the main Channel or you know do people
only know me from the shorts on that
channel I always
wonder
um but yeah so actually we have this new
kind of I did a little bit of a series
uh we went to actually Pat and I went to
New York City and we're doing like
recreating my favorite New York City
street food so we filmed that like right
before Christmas and then got to edited
up
um and then they're going to be recipes
in accordance with that content so if
you guys want more just like basic
recipe content and you don't you know I
I love making the Deep Dives that's kind
of where my my head's at we are going to
be still doing some more like simpler
recipe content on Instagram Tik Tok and
the second YouTube channel so if you
want to follow there to get that type of
content um that'll be well that's a good
way for us too to like build out more
recipes it's a little bit tighter you
know what I'm going to get the
uh yeah so that's content and then oh
yeah I I don't think I've mentioned it
yet we also have a
uh we have a we we have a paid Community
where if you guys like live
streams um this is probably like the
best way to directly support us um so
it's linked down below uh it's our paid
community and basically a lot of the
discussion for behind the-scenes stuff
will be going on in this
community um and there's kind of two
tiers just there's a tier one Community
tier uh where it's just like if you
don't care about the content but want to
support uh that's tier one and you know
we do have a couple channels where like
you can share what you're cooking ask
questions things of that nature um but
if you do want some extra content we're
going to be doing tier two which we're
going to be doing a monthly live stream
every like first Monday so we just did
the first live stream this past week as
a test for this live stream but then
February's live stream will be I think
the 5th Monday um and we'll either a
recipe from cookwell or maybe a recipe
test you know up up to you guys on what
you guys want to do for that and then
we'll also be doing a podcast which we
had been doing like a twice per month
podcast but we're going to drop it to
one and replace it with one of them with
a live stream just cuz I think the live
streams are more fun and I think it'll
be better for cookwell if you guys are
we can cook through recipes in real time
find bugs find things wrong with it and
then
yeah I forget there I think there may be
a couple other things in one other thing
oh new an extra newsletter in tier 2 as
well
[Music]
um and you guys know I got
a I almost need to create
something that is reusable that I can
wrap because I'm obsessed with wrapping
sandwiches
burritos this is not as heavy duty of
aluminum foil as like the super thick
stuff but
we'll let that sit in
there uh but yeah I think that's mostly
everything like I said we probably will
do
a
um at some point we we're going to
figure out a video kind of maybe
explaining everything in a little bit
more detail um with all like the flavor
again I want to do videos on these
Concepts because I think they're I think
they're going to be super important to
know and I think again not really talked
about but for me they're they're I don't
know I I just like to understand things
like I got to keep asking myself
why where'd you get the wrap from uh
that was from the kitchen or restaurant
supply store so it's like it's like food
service grade like probably what they
have in restaurants or like your
favorite takeout spot that's the uh
that's the foil they
use uh I'm just seeing my kitchen yeah
not a studio just my
kitchen recipes form with AI GTP
uh nothing against I mean it's just I
think AI you got to figure out is
how like AI is like you still need to
figure out what the end goal is from
like a human perspective I feel like
but
um yeah I mean it's cool all right uh
let me get the other I don't want to use
my good knife
on on
that but I don't know if I
have I don't know where my serrated guy
is where's my serrated did
one serrated oh there we are hiding in
here already
dirty I don't know if you guys can see
this one
this is this is a good beater knife
that's like a it is like a $20
Whatchamacallit uh what is this called
Mercer it's like the food service one I
love that knife
oh my
goodness dude I haven't had a burrito in
so long I know some people didn't want
the some people the PSU recipe is on
cook well so you guys can make and
actually did that in a video I don't
think people realize I did that in a
video like maybe two months ago um so
Patu is up on it's in that video and
then we do have the recipe as
well have you seen the bread coat is res
pce um I've heard of that channel I
don't know if I've watched any I think
I've Maybe seen one pop up but I'll have
to check them out yeah like I said if um
if you guys have like specific creators
that again I
think it you know I want to partner with
creators especially if like people are
getting into the Weeds on stuff like
that's that's um that's like right up
cookwell alley but again what what we
kind of realize is that cookwell is not
only probably the best place for someone
who is very curious about these things
it's also kind of the best spot for a
pure beginner because it still is just a
normal recipe place and in if that's all
you're looking for you can still get
that right where you're like oh I'm
going to scroll through this looks
interesting here's a recipe like we have
the let's cook mode which you can just
and you don't have to go into the
fundamentals if you don't want to but
it's always going to be there and kind
of be intuitively there so even if you
never click on anything you know maybe
eventually you just will see the tag but
you don't you don't click on it
eventually you probably will all right
we got we got to take a
bite oh my goodness
um let's cook mode if you go onto the
recipe page it should be right there
green button white
text up at the
top yeah internet internet sha is great
he is a great approach as well to like
how
food again I love I love his kind of
very practical approach which again
that's something we're all about too it
we're kind of after what are the big
8020 Concepts um and how to use them to
get the most out of those which I feel
like he does very very
well yeah and then Brian yep I I Brian
have I talked a number of times
um yeah I I want to I want to get
Brian's recipes on here cuz I know he
has a ton of amazing
recipes Chinese yeah Chinese cookie
deified another great
one what's a drink this is a
rambler Seltzer just like
a this is their
Blackberry um Ju Just Like A you know
zero calorie not like a it's not
alcoholic or anything
um yeah it's hopefully it's hopefully
it's great like I think we did a a sick
sick job with everything again full team
effort with ma mop like crushed the
design for us um and we're you know
we're going to continue working with
them too like the illustrations that was
from them too the illustrations are one
of my favorite Parts as well
um and then yeah Pat Keith Spencer
Grace that that's like kind of my my
team that that we've been building then
you know we probably got to expand the
team this year because like like I mean
you guys know there's a lot of lot of
stuff to be done
here
but yo Brian what's
up
um yeah guys I think I think we'll
probably wrap it up here um like I said
said if you guys want to keep up to date
with everything again over the next
several months you know we're going to
be updating old YouTube videos with
cookwell links um all new videos we'll
probably start figuring out if there are
recipes assigned with those videos or if
it's like the egg video or the chicken
video we'll probably start making
writeups for those that will also exist
on
cookwell um you know short form content
will be more rest recip content
um and then yeah if you guys if you guys
do want to kind of get more behind the
scen stuff of what's going on um we have
the we have the community down
below um so lots of lots of cool things
and like I said this is not this like a
very early on you know it feels like
year zero of cookwell even though I
guess last year was probably technically
year zero but we're actually kind of
announcing it today um but yeah I think
I can't wait to see what it's like in 1
year from now 3 years from now 5 years
from now 10 years from now this is feels
feels like something I
can I'm like fully in for you know for
the long ride I feel like there's so
many cool things that we can do with
cookwell and truly you know make it you
know the world's best kind of cooking
education application resource for you
know just again it's like a fundamental
core belief of mine that cooking if you
learn how to cook it will change your
life in some way you know that that may
be a very simple way where it helps you
save a little bit of money helps you I
don't know uh helps you lose weight
helps you you know eat healthier helps
you be creative that like cooking for me
was originally just a hobby it was my
creative hobby I was never really into
you know like music or art like cooking
was just a creative outlet for me and
that was kind of what started the whole
thing um and yeah I mean cooking changed
my life
in could probably list like 20 different
ways um so it's like a fundamental core
belief of mine that learning how to cook
will change your life so that's like
what cookwell like the whole mission is
to you know educate and Empower you know
home Cooks around the
world um Sheena like I'm not coming out
with a cookbook cuz like this like
cookwell is what my cookwell or what my
cookbook would have been so I eventually
probably will do a cookbook but not not
anytime in the near future um so many
thing like again I think this has just
much we can do so much provide so much
more value with cook well and everything
we can build into it more so than a
cookbook so that's like going to be my
focus for the next you know several
years youd pre-order that app right now
I know I we we we'll get we'll get
started on that app play we had to get
this we because we really need to do a
lot of thinking about the fundamentals
and everything because this really sets
up everything else so if we didn't get a
good base here it didn't make sense to
jump into one of those other things
right away like this is the core of
everything and then we can
build from from now
on um yeah not right now we don't have
macros we we're going they're they're on
the short list to be added back
in but yeah lot of lot of stuff to lot
of stuff to do and yeah like I said if
you guys have questions features that's
kind of will be in the community as well
like if you want to tap in but I'll I'll
probably still do
some again we're doing like a monthly
live stream in the community but maybe
every few months I'll also do a uh we
can do one on YouTube again cuz they are
they're fun I kind of forgot that you
know it it is fun to just chill cook
hang out make something so hopefully you
guys
enjoy yeah yep yeah the ingredient count
we're trying to do that um lots of lots
of stuff to good but yeah guys I think I
think that's going to wrap it up for me
what is it we're an hour an hour 20 in
or so um and yeah like collabs are
definitely in the uh
like I said we could do so many things
with this now that uh it's I'm super
super
excited uh but yeah can't wait but
anyway yeah the best way just keep
watching everything on YouTube go check
out the website uh make some stuff let
us know how you're liking it let us know
what works what's confusing what you're
not getting because like I said that's
the best thing about this is we can we
can change it we can update it as we
learn more from you guys as we learn
more ourselves so that's why this is for
me it's just like I'm so so excited for
the future of this but anyway yeah
thanks thanks everybody for tuning in um
yeah I'll catch you in the next one uh I
don't know what the next YouTube video
is it might be another week or so but uh
you know there's there's plenty to go
through the backlog but yep take it easy
guys that'll wrap it up for me tonight