How to Cook With Other People and Still Remain Friends

Lisa Buchanan is used to cooking by herself.

"I'm single and I live alone," the comedian and podcaster says. "So my routine is to cook for myself."

She's one of those organized, intentional cooks—"on a good month I plan my meals a week or so in advance," she says—as evidenced by thisperfectly-drawn COOK90 meal plan, which she posted to her Instagram feed. (As you can imagine, Buchanan is absolutelyslayingCOOK90.)

But it was a different post by Buchanan that made me pick up the phone and call her. It wasa photo of coq au vin, which she described cooking with a friend. "I had the benefit of a sous chef," she wrote,"and got to spend more time with my friend than if I’d cooked at home."

Of course, Buchanan's first instinct was to cook the coq au vin at home, by herself, and bring it to her friend's house. Because why cook with somebody else? When you're used to cooking alone, cooking with other people can be awkward, or slow, or frustrating, or all of the above. It takes a patient person to see your friend cut an onion the wrong way, you know? (Maybe I should just speak for myself?)

On the other hand, cooking alone—especially if you COOK90—can get a little lonely, a little isolating. And sometimes you don't care if your friend is cutting the onion wrong. You just want somebody else to cut the damn onion.

So even though I, like Buchanan, have spent a lot of my life cooking alone, I recommend that we force ourselvesto cook with other peoplefrom time to time. In fact, I put that recommendation in writing, in theCOOK90 book, as a way to combat "COOK90 fatigue." And it turns out that it was this line in the book that inspired Buchanan to cook thecoq au vinwithher friend, instead offorher friend. (What can I say? The COOK90 book changes lives.)

The fact that it was coq au vin, and not, say,squash soup, made a difference. Buchanan's friend is a former vegetarian, and is most comfortable with vegetable prep, so she took on all the chopping of the onions, carrots, and mushrooms. Buchanan, meanwhile, dealt with the chicken and the bacon. "It just happened to be a recipe that worked well for us," Buchanan said.

So it was a happy coincidence for them. But I think it's best not to leave this to chance. If you're going to tag team a recipe, you need to make sure there's enough for each member of the team to do. Otherwise you'll fight over who gets to crush the tomatoes, who gets to crisp the chicken.

The goal: everybody gets to chop something. For this reason, big dinner salads are perfect, salads likethis wintry, Italian-ish chopped salad. Somebody has to chop the iceberg, somebody has to slice the pepperoni. Somebody has to make the dressing. It's the type of dish you really only want to make when you不alone; it will go much faster that way.

Or not. Buchanan told me that the coq au vin was actually a bit slower, even though there was an extra set of hands. This was not a complaint. "It took longer because we were socializing," she told me. "And that's why I was there in the first place."

Winter Italian Chopped Salad

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