Bastien
CEO & Co-founderBastien is the CEO and co-founder of Fond. He's passionate about making home cooking more accessible through thoughtful technology and well-tested recipes.
Articles
Batch cooking for beginners: how to cook once and eat all week
Batch cooking means dedicating a few hours to cooking large quantities of food that you portion and store for the week ahead. It's not the same as meal prep — instead of assembling complete meals, you cook versatile building blocks (grains, proteins, sauces, roasted vegetables) that mix and match into different dishes every night. This guide covers everything you need to start: planning, cooking, storing, and scaling.
The best marinade for chicken (6 recipes that actually work)
The best marinade for chicken combines acid, oil, salt, and aromatics in roughly a 1:3 acid-to-oil ratio. Here are 6 tested marinades, how long to marinate each cut, and what to never put in the bowl.
The best seasoning for chicken (1 master blend + 6 variations)
The best all-purpose seasoning for chicken is salt, garlic powder, smoked paprika, onion powder, black pepper, and dried oregano. Here's the master blend, a spice-by-spice guide, and how to adapt it by cut.
Bread baking for beginners: your first loaf, start to finish
A complete walkthrough for baking your first loaf of bread at home. Covers the four core ingredients, kneading by hand or mixer, proofing, shaping, and baking, with temperatures, times, and troubleshooting for every step.
Butter vs oil: when to use each in cooking and baking
Butter and oil each have strengths in the kitchen. Butter brings flavor, browning, and flaky pastry. Oil brings higher heat tolerance, moisture, and a longer shelf life. Knowing when to reach for each — and when to combine them — makes every dish better.
Charcoal vs Gas Grill: Which One Fits How You Cook?
A practical comparison of charcoal and gas grills across flavor, heat control, cleanup, ongoing cost, storage, and safety. Choose from the way you cook instead of a universal winner.
Cooking oil smoke points: a practical chart and guide
Smoke-point charts are useful only when their numbers are treated as approximate. Learn how refinement, oil condition, and cooking method affect the oil you should choose.
Dutch oven cooking: techniques, temperatures, times, and recipes
A Dutch oven is the most versatile pot in your kitchen. This guide covers every technique it does best — braising, simmering, bread baking, roasting, and frying — with a complete temperature and timing chart, plus 20 recipes organized by method.
Egg substitutes for baking: ratios by recipe
A practical guide to egg substitutes for baking, with starting ratios for flax, applesauce, aquafaba, tofu, and more. Match each option to the egg’s role and the type of bake.
Essential spices for home cooking: build your flavor arsenal
A practical guide to the 15 spices every home cook should own, organized by priority tier. Covers flavor profiles, best pairings, storage advice, and how to build a collection without wasting money on jars you'll never open.
Fermentation for beginners: how to start fermenting food at home
A practical guide to home fermentation covering sauerkraut, yogurt, kombucha, and more. Learn the science behind fermentation, essential equipment, safety basics, and step-by-step recipes for your first fermented foods.
The science of cooking: why your food works the way it does
A practical guide to the chemistry, physics, and biology behind everyday cooking. Covers the Maillard reaction, caramelization, emulsification, fermentation, heat transfer, protein denaturation, and common cooking myths debunked by science.
Grilling for beginners: a no-nonsense starter guide
Everything you need to start grilling with confidence. Covers choosing between charcoal and gas, setting up heat zones, essential tools, first-cook recipes, and the mistakes that trip up every beginner.
12 grilling mistakes that ruin your food (and how to fix them)
Twelve fixable mistakes cause most ruined cookouts: skipped preheats, a single heat zone, sauce applied too early, no thermometer. Here is the symptom, the fix, and the grill science behind each one.
Grilling temperature guide for every meat
A complete meat temperature chart for grilling. Internal target temps for beef, chicken, pork, burgers, and fish, plus grill surface heat zones and carryover cooking explained.
How long to boil eggs for soft, jammy, and hard yolks
For large refrigerated eggs lowered into boiling water, start at 6 minutes for a runny yolk, 8 minutes for jammy, or 11-12 minutes for hard-cooked.
How to braise meat: the complete guide to low and slow cooking
Everything you need to braise meat at home. Covers the best cuts for braising, step-by-step technique, braising liquids, equipment, and global traditions from French daube to Korean galbi-jjim — with times, temperatures, and troubleshooting.
How to cook rice perfectly every time
Rice is the most consumed grain on the planet, yet it trips up even confident home cooks. Too sticky, too mushy, burned on the bottom. The failures are predictable, and so are the fixes. Learning how to cook rice well comes down to the right water ratio, proper heat control, and leaving it alone while it cooks.
How to grill chicken breast without drying it out
A technique guide for grilling chicken breast that stays juicy. Covers even thickness, two-zone heat, pull temperature, brining, and timing for gas and charcoal grills.
How to Grill Vegetables: The Complete Guide
A practical guide to grilling vegetables: how to prep, oil, and marinate them, the right heat for each type, exact timing, grill basket vs foil, and the mistakes that lead to soggy or charred results.
How to make a pan sauce: deglazing 101
A pan sauce turns the browned bits stuck to your skillet into a rich, flavorful sauce in under five minutes. Learn the technique, choose your deglazing liquid, and master pan sauces for chicken, steak, pork chops, and mushrooms.
How to make your own spice blends: ratios, recipes and technique
Homemade spice blends come down to one ratio: 4 parts base, 2 parts middle, 1 part accent. This guide covers the formula, 10 blend recipes with exact parts, toasting, and how long each blend keeps.
How to meal prep: a practical guide for beginners
Meal prep means dedicating about 2 hours on a Sunday to planning, cooking, and portioning complete meals for the week ahead. Unlike batch cooking, which produces versatile components you mix and match, meal prep gives you finished meals ready to grab and eat. This guide covers everything from equipment and shopping lists to a minute-by-minute prep day timeline and safe storage practices.
How to pickle vegetables: fermented and quick-pickle methods
A complete guide to pickling vegetables at home, both lacto-fermented pickles (salt brine, no vinegar) and quick vinegar pickles. Covers the best vegetables to pickle, brine ratios, spice combinations, and step-by-step recipes.
How to read a recipe: a complete guide for confident cooking
Reading a recipe well means understanding structure, decoding measurements, spotting hidden time requirements, and setting yourself up before a single burner clicks on. This guide breaks down every part of a recipe — from ingredient lists and abbreviations to doneness cues and digital tools — so you can cook with confidence every time.
How to reduce food waste at home (practical tips that work)
The average household throws away 30% of the food it buys, roughly $2,900 per year. This guide covers practical strategies to cut food waste at home: meal planning, proper food storage, the eat-me-first system, creative use of scraps and leftovers, understanding date labels, composting, and tracking your waste patterns.
How to season a cast iron skillet: the complete guide
Seasoning is what makes cast iron nonstick, rust-proof, and better with every use. Learn the oven method, stovetop method, best oils for seasoning, and how to fix common problems like sticky residue, flaking, and rust.
How to sharpen kitchen knives (the right way)
A dull knife demands three to four times more force than a sharp one, which makes it unpredictable. Learn when to hone, when to sharpen, and how to use a whetstone, electric sharpener, or honing rod to keep every blade in your kitchen performing at its best.
How to store fresh herbs so they last weeks, not days
Most fresh herbs die in 2-3 days because people store them wrong. The fix comes down to one distinction: soft herbs vs. hard herbs. This guide covers the best storage method for every common herb, how to freeze and dry herbs for long-term use, how to revive wilted ones, and how to plan meals around what's actually in your fridge.
How to store spices so they actually stay fresh
A practical guide to storing spices for maximum freshness and flavor. Covers why spices lose potency, the best containers and locations, shelf life by type, and how to tell when it's time to replace them.
How to toast and bloom spices without burning them
Toast whole spices in a dry pan or bloom spices briefly in fat. This cue-based guide explains which method to choose and how to stop before the pan gets too hot.
Types of knife cuts: the complete guide for home cooks
A practical chart of common culinary knife cuts, their reference dimensions, suitable ingredients, and step-by-step techniques for safer, more consistent prep.
Meal prep containers: how to choose the right material and size
A practical guide to choosing meal prep containers by material, size, and use case. Covers glass vs plastic vs stainless steel, container sizing for different meals, what features actually matter, how to organize prepped meals, and food safety storage times.
One pot meals for beginners: a guide to easy weeknight dinners
A practical guide to one pot cooking for beginners. Covers equipment, essential techniques like browning and layering, common mistakes, and 12 easy recipes organized by category: pasta, soups and stews, rice dishes, and curries. Each recipe includes difficulty level, cook time, and cost per serving.
12 pasta cooking mistakes ruining your dinner
Most pasta problems come down to technique, not ingredients. These twelve common mistakes are easy to fix once you understand the science behind them. Correct even three and your weeknight pasta will taste noticeably better.
How to find recipes with ingredients you already have
Start with the food that needs using, identify a meal anchor, search two to four defining ingredients, then choose a flexible dish.
How to make a sourdough starter from scratch
A day-by-day guide to creating and maintaining a sourdough starter at home using just flour and water. Covers feeding schedules, signs of activity, troubleshooting slow starters, and how to know when it is ready to bake with.
Sous vide for beginners: precision cooking without the guesswork
Everything you need to start cooking sous vide at home. Covers equipment, the basic process, a time and temperature chart for common proteins, your first steak cook, finishing techniques, meal prep strategies, common mistakes, and food safety basics.
Spice pairing chart: what goes with what (and why it works)
A spice pairing chart for 14 everyday foods and 8 classic combinations, plus the aroma-compound science behind why some spices click and the few pairings that genuinely fight.
Spring meal prep ideas: seasonal recipes and a weekly prep plan
A practical guide to spring meal prep built around seasonal produce like asparagus, peas, radishes, and strawberries. Includes a mix-and-match component system, a timed 2-hour Sunday prep session, storage freshness chart, and budget-friendly recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
Types of flour for baking: a practical guide to 11 common flours
A breakdown of the most common types of flour used in baking, organized by protein content. Covers all-purpose, bread, cake, pastry, whole wheat, spelt, 00, semolina, rye, self-rising, and gluten-free flours — with substitution ratios and a quick-reference chart for matching flour to recipe.
Types of Salt for Cooking: How to Choose the Right One
The useful differences between cooking salts come from crystal structure, additives, and intended use. Learn which salts suit daily cooking, finishing, baking, and pickling.
What Is Mise en Place? A Practical Home-Kitchen System
Mise en place organizes a recipe before active cooking. It identifies what must be prepared and where each item belongs. Learn when full or staged prep makes sense.
What is umami? The fifth taste explained for home cooks
You know the taste. That deep, savory richness in a slow-cooked broth, a chunk of aged parmesan, or a spoonful of miso stirred into soup. It's the reason tomato sauce tastes better after simmering for hours and why a dash of soy sauce transforms a stir-fry. That taste has a name: umami.
When to add spices during cooking: timing guide for layered flavor
Spice timing changes the flavor of a dish more than most people realize. This guide breaks down the five moments when spices should go in, explains why ground and whole spices behave differently, and covers fresh versus dried herbs.