Why We Started Food52

Before we started Food52, we spent five years cooking and eating dinner together as part of our work on Amanda’s Big Red Book. It occurred to us that much of what we loved about food and cooking -- the sharing and socializing -- wasn’t yet possible online. While poker enthusiasts and celebrity-stalkers ran together in packs, we were left to surf for recipes alone. We wanted to give people from all over the world a way to exchange their ideas and to celebrate each other’s talents. And we wanted to create a buzzing place for others who do what we do all day long: talk about food!  

We started small, with a single project: creating the first crowd-sourced cookbook in 52 weeks (that’s where the 52 in Food52 comes from!). We used recipe contests as a way to vet recipes so we’d have a book to publish and a site that would be a trustworthy, go-to recipe source. But these contests were also a handy way to bring together people for a shared purpose -- to create something meaningful, valuable and enduring.

Before we knew it, we had a community on our hands. A community of talented, well-informed food people who loved to contribute. That’s when our identity crystallized: we weren’t just a social hub, but a constructive community. A place where, together, we create cookbooks, take on food projects, debate food news, help others with our real-time food Q&A -- the Food52 Hotline -- and band together to support local food producers.

Our Cooking Manifesto

We love spending time in the kitchen, and we believe that memorable cooking doesn't have to be complicated or precious. It's about discovering that frying an egg in olive oil over high heat gives the white a great crackly texture, that slashing the legs of a chicken before roasting allows the dark and white meat to cook evenly, that maple syrup adds not only sweetness but depth to an otherwise ho-hum vinaigrette.

Most cooking sites and blogs take a top-down approach, telling you what to cook and failing to give you a sense of the people and creative process behind the recipes. We don't want to be yet another site that insists on dumbing down recipes to make them "quick" and "easy" — so we won't.

We think cooking is really important — especially now. Over the past decade, many studies and books have shown that children from families who eat together do better in school, that eating "whole" foods is healthier, that eating sustainably will save the environment. But no one has pointed out that the only way to achieve all this in a comprehensive, lasting way is for people to cook.

Because:

• If you cook, your family will eat dinner together.
• If you cook, you will naturally have a more sustainable household.
• If you cook, you'll set a lifelong example for your children.
• If you cook, you'll understand what goes into food and will eat more healthily.
• If you cook, you'll make your home an important place in your life.
• If you cook, you'll make others happy.
• If you cook, people will remember you.

We look forward to cooking with you!