David Tamarkin - Cook90: The 30-Day Plan for Faster, Healthier, Happier Meals

I wish I had a great story to tell you about how COOK90 began, a story about how my great-grandmothers recipe for banana bread inspired me to start a revolution. But I dont even know my great-grandmothers name, and I cant stand bananas. And if youre holding this book, youre not here for stories anywayyou just want to cook.

I get it. I just want to cook, too. And thats more or less COOK90s origin tale: On January 1, 2016, I made a resolution to cook more. And I didevery meal, every day, for the entire month. And though it was harder than I expected, it was also easier, and even the difficult days were worth it, because it changed my cooking forever.

And not just mine. Since I started COOK90, the number of people who have signed on to do it with me has climbed to over 150,000. Their cooking has changed, too. I know, because they write me letters and slide into my DMs to tell me that COOK90 changed their relationship with cooking, with food, with their own health, even with their partners. Imagine: all that change, all that catharsis, just because we all wanted to cook more.

Except thats not the whole truth.

The truth is that every one of us has additional, personal reasons for doing COOK90. Some want to be faster in the kitchen, or improve their health, or save money. Others want to push themselves beyond the handful of recipes they already have in rotation. Some want to cook more vegetables or more Indian food, or have a reason to drag that waffle maker out of the basement. Many just want cooking to feel betterthey want cooking to take up less headspace.

The fabulous thing about COOK90? No matter why you start, youll reap all these benefits, and more, without necessarily even realizing it. Because the simple fact is that you cannot cook for 30 days straight and not come out a better, faster, healthier cook. When you COOK90, your days become healthier, because cooking is an inherently healthy behavior. Cooking becomes faster, because daily cooking is a cycle in which each meal naturally connects to the next. And your food simply gets better, because youre practicing cooking three times a dayhow could it not?

You do have to put in the work, though. And I dont just mean the cooking. COOK90 is a holistic lifestyle shift, and it begins outside the kitchenbefore you turn on your oven, before you decide on a single recipe. In fact, youve already begunbecause COOK90 begins with this book.

Cooking 90 meals straight is no small task, so if youre going to do it, you may as well squeeze every benefit out of the challenge that you can. These rules are here to help you do that. Without them, COOK90 could get too easyyoud rely on the same old recipes, making (and eating) them over and over again. Instead, these guidelines force you to push yourself, expand your repertoire, find new recipes, learn new tricks, and ultimately become a better cook. Which, of course, is one of the reasons youre doing this in the first place.