We spend a lot of time at Epicurious worrying about everything that comes before the act of cooking. We write articles nudging you to buycertain kitchen gear, and we spend weeks tweaking ourfast dinner recipesto make sure they actually get dinner on the table without a hitch.
But that's all preamble. We know that the meat of cooking (excuse the pun) isn't in thethinking,searching, andtalkingabout a meal. It's in the chopping, the mixing, the frying—the things that happenafteryou find a recipe and decide to make it.
And so we're launching #cookit. In a sense, #cookit is a nudge, from us to you, to—surprise!—cookit, "it" being a snack, your lunch, a dessert for 12, whatever. By urging you to #cookit, we're actively urging younotto, say,nukeit,order it, orunwrapit. At least not all the time. Because it's our feeling that things taste better (and, not for nothing,feelbetter) when you #cookit.
And when youdo#cookit—that is, when you've cooked something you're really proud of, or something new, or something that's just really freaking Instagramable—we want to see it. So snap an Instagram, send a tweet, and slap#cookiton it. We'll notice it, celebrate it, share it onour own feeds, and instantly connect you to all the other Earthlings who are doing the #cookit thing.
Now, look, we know that this is not always easy. Barriers to cooking abound—time, money, confidence, skills. Sometimes inspiration is in hibernation. That's where another use case of #cookit comes in. We'll issue the inspiration. It could be a challenge, like theweekly contests we're currently running with the Infatuation(remember when you showed us yourBest Dinner Ever?). Or it might be an exciting recipe from our test kitchen. (Remembervegducken? Metbirthday pie?) Either way, we'll be corralling home cooks around the world, and we'll all be cooking together, almost as if we were all in the same kitchen, at the same party, wearing the same shirt, and, uh, well, anyway...
That brings me to the third way to participate in our #cookit campaign, which is to attend a #cookit event. Tickets to our first event, anacho-building class (and party) at Brooklyn Kitchen, are on sale now (and yes, there is something to learn—lots to learn, really—about nachos). These events are places where home cooks gather to eat and drink and cook and drink and commiserate about cooking and eating and drinking. It's the real-life version of using #cookit on Instagram or Twitter, but—this is important—that's not to say it's better. You don't need to be in the same room, city, or country as us. All you need is a kitchen. Then you can #cookit. And as long as you show up—either in person or on our feeds—we'll #cookit with you.
