How to Get the Most Out of This Program

The short version: Follow the recipes. Read the links. Watch the videos. Write three sentences on Sunday. None of these are optional, and all of them compound.

The Thing Most People Skip (Don't)

Every session has a Read — a linked article that explains the why behind what you just cooked. These are not supplemental. They are half the curriculum.

When you cook a dish without understanding why it works, you learn one recipe. When you read the article alongside it, you learn a transferable principle that applies to a hundred dishes you haven't made yet.

Kenji's article on wok hei isn't just about woks. It explains high-heat chemistry in a way that changes how you think about every sear, every sauté, every time you're tempted to crowd the pan. That's the difference between following a recipe and understanding cooking.

The rule: Before you clean up, open the article. Read it while the meal is still in your memory.

Compare Notes — The Video Component

Every session also has a Compare Notes video: a curated clip of a professional executing the same technique or dish you just cooked.

This is not passive watching. The point is comparison:

Did they hold the knife the same way you did?
What was different about their mise en place?
How much faster were they? Why?
What would you steal for next time?

Watch the video after you've cooked — not before. Watching before turns it into a tutorial you try to copy. Watching after turns it into a diagnostic. The difference in what you retain is significant.

Before Every Block: Read Before You Shop

Before shopping for a new block, open that block's index.md and skim the whole two weeks. It takes 15 minutes and catches problems that would otherwise surface mid-cook on a Wednesday night:

Recipes that need overnight prep you didn't plan for
Hard-to-source ingredients worth substituting in advance
Sessions that won't fit your schedule as written
New equipment the block introduces (check the Equipment Guide)
Links you want to read before the session, not during it

Each block's opening section ("Before You Start") has a short reading list. Read at least one before you shop.

Two Files, Two Contexts

Each block has a full guide (index.md) and a quick ref (quick-ref.md). Use them differently:

	Full Guide	Quick Ref
When	Before the session	During the session
What	Read the skill explanation, context, and the linked article	Glance at the recipe link and move on
Why	The narrative connects the skill to everything else	You don't want to scroll mid-cook

The full guide is where you understand the session. The quick ref is where you execute it.

Shopping Lists

Each block has a shopping list (shopping-list.md) for both weeks of the block. A few practical notes:

Buy produce in two trips. Shop for Week 1 produce at the start of Week 1, and Week 2 produce at the start of Week 2. Everything else (proteins, pantry items) can be bought in one trip or ordered ahead.
Read the full block first. Some sessions require overnight marinating, dry-brining, or pre-made components. These will catch you off guard if you haven't previewed the week.
Proteins are date-sensitive. If a session uses fresh fish or shellfish, plan that session for the day after you shop, not four days later.

Service and Lab — What They Are

Each block contains two special session types that sit outside the regular skill-and-meal structure:

⏰ Service

A Service session is a full multi-course dinner — typically at the end of a block — designed to be cooked and served to people. The skills from the block come together under mild time pressure: real guests, real plating decisions, real consequences if you undercook the protein.

Don't treat Service as just a harder session. Treat it as a performance: - Set the table before you start - Do full mise en place before any heat goes on - Plate carefully and eat at the table

The timing pressure of serving a meal to people teaches something that isolated skill sessions cannot. Even if you cook for yourself, cook as if someone is coming.

🔬 Lab

A Lab session is the opposite: a focused technique drill with a single goal and no meal to finish. No guests, no plating, no time pressure. Just the technique, repeated until it clicks.

Labs are where you fix what went wrong during the regular sessions. They're also the sessions most likely to get skipped — because there's nothing to eat at the end. Don't skip them. The skill you're worst at is usually the one the Lab is targeting.

Using an AI Assistant as a Sous Chef

The program is built to work with an AI assistant as an on-demand cooking coach. Here's how to use it well:

Before a session

Paste the session text from the index.md and ask your AI to brief you. Useful prompts: - "What are the three most likely mistakes someone makes when cooking this dish for the first time?" - "This recipe calls for [technique]. I've never done it before — what am I likely to miss?" - "Can you give me a timeline for this session? I have 90 minutes."

During a session (prep and planning)

"I don't have [ingredient]. What's the best substitute that keeps the flavor profile intact?"
"My onions are browning too fast. Is the heat too high, or not enough fat?"
"The sauce broke. What happened and can I fix it?"

After a session (learning)

This is where an AI assistant earns its keep: - "I cooked [dish] tonight. Here's what I thought went wrong: [your notes]. What's your read on the cause?" - "The article I read explained [concept]. Can you connect that to how it would apply to [different dish] I'm cooking next week?" - "What's the professional version of what I just cooked, and what separates their technique from mine?"

The one rule

Don't ask your AI to write your three-sentence reflection for you. It defeats the entire purpose of the reflection habit. Everything else is fair game.

The Three-Sentence End of Block Habit

Every block ends with a reflection prompt. It asks for three sentences:

What felt awkward this block?
What clicked?
What do you want to fix?

This sounds trivial. It isn't. After 52 blocks you'll have a document that tracks your actual development as a cook — not a highlight reel, but a real log. It also forces you to pay attention during the block, because knowing you'll have to write about it changes how you observe.

Your notes app is fine. A text file is fine. The format doesn't matter. The habit does.

Your Progress Log (If You've Forked This)

The progress/ folder at the root of the repo is for you. After each block, copy template-block.md, fill in what you cooked and what clicked, and commit it to your fork. It's public — which is the point. A record of your actual journey that others can follow.

When You Mess Something Up

You will burn something. You will break an emulsion. You will undercook a braise and eat at 9pm. This is correct.

The sessions that go wrong teach more than the ones that go right — but only if you stay curious about why. When something fails, before you move on, ask:

Was the pan not hot enough?
Did I skip a step?
Was the timing unrealistic for a weeknight?
Is the recipe wrong, or was I?

Write down what you think went wrong. Even a single sentence before you move on is enough to get the insight to stick. If you're unsure what went wrong, ask your AI — paste the recipe steps and describe what happened. A good diagnosis is worth more than a do-over.

Skills Compound — Trust the Sequence

The program is deliberately sequenced. Block 1's knife skills feed into Block 3's mise en place, which feeds into Block 7's stock timing, which feeds into Block 15's butchery. You will notice callbacks and repetitions throughout — they're intentional.

If you skip blocks or jump ahead, you'll cook the recipes but miss the compounding. The whole point is that by Block 38, you're not following a recipe for Thai curry — you understand what's happening in the pan and can adapt on the fly. That only happens if the foundations were built underneath it.

Do the blocks in order. Skip a session if life happens — that's fine — but don't skip a block.

The Mindset That Makes This Work

You already cook. The goal isn't to teach you to follow recipes — it's to change how you think while you're cooking. That shift happens through:

Reading the linked articles (not skimming them)
Watching the Compare Notes video and actually comparing, not just consuming
Noticing what's happening in the pan, not just watching the timer
Writing three sentences on Sunday even when it feels unnecessary

The recipes are the vehicle. The reading, the watching, the reflection, and the repetition are the program.