Sustainable Cooking was a concept for a 2017 miniseries about teaching easy, eco-friendly changes people can make in their eating, cooking and shopping practices practices. It was planned to be released online (Youtube, Instagram, etc) with companion one-off episodes with future development depending on the response.

The series comprised of “Comparison Cooking” episodes alongside one-off dives into more specific topics. Comparison Cooking episodes are hosted cooking show style episodes where we do side by sides making a dish “normally”, cooking approachably more sustainably, with occasionally tangents highlighting extreme sustainability methods as much for learning as for some added humor and flavor. We take the viewer through shopping, cooking, serving, and storing for later. NYC would be our baseline but potential one off episodes would have been in other parts of the country (cities, suburbs, rural) and other countries, highlighting where things are better, worse or only different.

One-off episodes gave us a chance to dive into individual topics more deeply, topics such as:

discuss things like what “sustainability”, organic, etc. all mean and how complicated they can be
explore the feasibility of in apartment composting
meal box delivery services and their impact
eating and drinking out (coffee shops, take out food vs sit down, fast food, etc)
restaurant behind the scenes, what are we doing well and how can we get better?
comparison cooking episodes in other cities or countries, what are they doing well and how can they get better?
buying habits, their impacts, and the psychology of our behavior
foraging for plants and mushrooms
DIY around the house repair

Why

We’re coming to a point where more and more people are willing to adopt and discuss sustainable practices. By being thoughtful about what we suggest and when means we can teach people to adopt new, easy practices. Through the comparison episodes we show blatantly the differences between the “normal” way and a better way, and how easy it is to put into practice yourself. Additionally by highlighting practices that may be harder in a viewer’s area we encourage them to put pressure on their local area’s systems to change.

Through the one-off episodes we would show well researched and tested but very approachable journeys through a wider variety of why topics. Many of these topics people may have heard of but never thought possible to try at home. We would highlight realistically what one can do everyday and highlight how ridiculous but doable some of the more extreme things can be.

Why (personal)

Personally I have always felt at odds with trying to live “sustainably”, healthily, and in NYC. Beginning to learn what an individual’s impact on the world is at a young age started me down a path of being aware and keeping abreast of new understandings and methodologies. It has been one of many guides on how I wish to live my life. But it’s never easy to do best and I know this well. This show was to be a discussion of what is one step forward we can all take knowing what direction and destination we’d all like to eventually get to.

Additionally, and selfishly, I want this show to be an excuse to learn more about what is possible. In this effort I was to be the stand-in for the viewer, representing someone who is learning alongside them. Many of the topics I know a fair amount about but could easily use a more solid understanding, highlight things I’m doing right and wrong and learn more of the why. Some of these topics I know nothing about and would love to learn and test properly.

Finally I love demonstration shows, cooking shows and DIY communities and want to contribute and give back to the countless hours I’ve spent on Youtube learning.

Episode Topic Brainstorming - docs.google.com
Comparison Episode Spec - docs.google.com
Initial Dish Research - docs.google.com