The 52-Week Culinary Project

Culinary school costs $35,000 and takes two years. This costs groceries and takes one.

You already cook. You cook most nights, actually. You're not bad at it. But you've hit the ceiling where following recipes gets you — you can execute someone else's instructions, but you can't riff, you can't diagnose, and you can't tell someone why the sauce broke. You just know it did.

Culinary school would fix that. It would also cost you a year's salary, require you to quit your job, and make you peel 50 pounds of potatoes for a chef who peaked in 1987.

This is the other option.

52 weeks. 26 two-week blocks. Every session is a real dinner. You learn one professional skill per session, cook a meal that uses it, read the article that explains why it works, then watch a pro do the same thing and compare. Skills compound. By the end you're not following recipes — you're cooking.

What a Tuesday Night Looks Like

You practice your dice cut on three potatoes. You sear chicken thighs skin-side down and braise them with cabbage and bacon. You eat. After dinner you read Kenji's article on why cut size determines doneness, watch a 4-minute video of a chef doing it faster, and write three sentences about what clicked. Done by 9.

That's it. That's the program. Repeat 260 times across every major technique, protein, and cuisine on earth.

The Curriculum

🔪 Unit 1 — Foundational Skills Weeks 1–8

Knife work, heat control, the five mother sauces, stocks, and eggs. The stuff culinary school spends a semester on before they let you touch a protein.

Block	Topic	Guide	Quick Ref	Shopping
1–2	Knife Skills & Kitchen Setup	→	→	→
3–4	Heat & Cooking Methods	→	→	→
5–6	The 5 Mother Sauces	→	→	→
7–8	Stocks & Eggs	→	→	→

🧂 Unit 2 — Building Flavor Weeks 9–14

Seasoning, vegetables, pasta and grains from scratch. Where you stop making food that's "fine" and start making food that's actually good.

Block	Topic	Guide	Quick Ref	Shopping
9–10	Seasoning & Flavor Building	→	→	→
11–12	Vegetables & Plant-Forward	→	→	→
13–14	Pasta & Grains from Scratch	→	→	→

🥩 Unit 3 — The Proteins Weeks 15–24

Beef, fish, shellfish, pork, poultry. Every protein you'll ever cook, handled properly from raw to plate.

Block	Topic	Guide	Quick Ref	Shopping
15–16	Beef	→	→	→
17–18	Fish	→	→	→
19–20	Shellfish	→	→	→
21–22	Pork & Charcuterie	→	→	→
23–24	Poultry	→	→	→

🌍 Unit 4 — World's Kitchens Weeks 25–40

Eight cuisines, each done right. Not "fusion." Not "inspired by." The real techniques from the real traditions, cooked in your kitchen.

Block	Topic	Guide	Quick Ref	Shopping
25–26	French	→	→	→
27–28	Italian	→	→	→
29–30	Japanese	→	→	→
31–32	Korean	→	→	→
33–34	Chinese	→	→	→
35–36	Mexican	→	→	→
37–38	Indian	→	→	→
39–40	Southeast Asian	→	→	→

🫙 Unit 5 — Fermentation, Bread & Pastry Weeks 41–52

Fermentation, lean breads, sourdough, pastry, desserts, and a final capstone where you design your own dishes. The victory lap.

Block	Topic	Guide	Quick Ref	Shopping
41–42	Fermentation & Preservation	→	→	→
43–44	Bread — Lean Doughs	→	→	→
45–46	Bread — Sourdough & Enriched	→	→	→
47–48	Pastry — Doughs & Custards	→	→	→
49–50	Pastry — Desserts	→	→	→
51–52	Capstone: Signature Dishes	→	→	→

Start Here

Read this first: How to Get the Most Out of This Program — the mindset, the habits, and how sessions actually work
Check your gear: Equipment Guide — you probably have most of it already
Start cooking: Block 1–2: Knife Skills — grab the shopping list and go

The pace is one block every two weeks. But life happens — each block is self-contained, so take a week off, double up, whatever. 52 weeks is the intent, not a deadline.

Open source. Free forever. Built for people who'd rather cook dinner than peel someone else's potatoes.