Here’s the thing – I’m Jamie Cooper, and I used to be a complete kitchen disaster. You know those people who can somehow burn water? That was me. (Still trying to live down the Great Mac and Cheese Incident of 2015…)
I grew up watching both my parents cook. My parents were amazing cooks – complete opposites, but amazing. Mom was the “measure everything perfectly” type, while Dad was the “throw it in until it looks right” cook. But somehow, I ended up being the person who could mess up boxed mac and cheese.
Life after college was a mashup of different jobs – I taught, pushed papers in an office, worked retail. But everywhere I went, I kept meeting people with the same problem: they wanted to cook, but recipes might as well have been written in ancient Greek.
How StupidSimpleRecipes Started
The turning point came one night when I was staring at my third ruined stir-fry of the week. The recipe said ‘heat oil until shimmering’ – what does that even mean? Does oil dance? Do I wait for it to wink at me?
That’s when it hit me: what if recipes were written like your friend was standing next to you in the kitchen? Not just ‘sauté the onions’ but ‘cook them until they’re soft and see-through, about 5 minutes.’ Simple stuff that actually makes sense.
I started testing these recipes on everyone I knew. My teenage cousin who lived on ramen. My 70-year-old neighbor who thought cooking meant microwaving. Even my friend Mark (yes, the one who somehow set cereal on fire – still not sure how he managed that).
That’s how StupidSimple Recipes was born. We keep things real here. No fancy chef-speak. No ingredient lists longer than your arm. Just straightforward cooking that works in regular kitchens with normal supermarket ingredients and basic pots and pans.
When we use cooking words like ‘braise’ or ‘fold,’ we explain them like we’re talking to a friend. If something can go wrong (and let’s be honest, it probably will at some point), we tell you how to fix it. Can’t find an ingredient? We’ve got substitutes. Recipe looking too complicated? We’ll find an easier way.
Our recipes come from real life – family secrets we’ve simplified, takeout favorites you can make at home, quick meals that actually taste good. Everything’s tested in real kitchens by real people who sometimes forget ingredients and make mistakes.
Whether you’re a busy parent, a student on a budget, working crazy hours, or just someone who wants to stop spending their whole paycheck on takeout – we’ve got your back. Because good food shouldn’t require a culinary degree or a fancy kitchen.
Welcome to our kitchen community. Let’s make some good food together.
—Jamie
P.S. Still nervous about cooking? Start with our “Impossible to Mess Up” collection. We promise it lives up to its name!