Introduction · 9

Part 1: A cluttered kitchen takes away the desire to cook.

The key to a cooking space is practicality and convenience. 21
A 'Great' Pot Set · 28
High-quality cookware for delicious, healthy cooking · 54
Size and capacity of cookware · 74
A vessel that shows 'us' · 81
Cookware for Every Person · 94

Part 2: Emptying the refrigerator rather than filling it

Grocery Shopping Skills · 109
Grocery Storage Tips · 122
Cost of eating out and cost of buying food · 140

Part 3: Create freely and it becomes your recipe.

Cooking Without a Recipe · 151
Cooking with just two or three ingredients · 162
Organize rather than plan · 167
Some Basic Know-How · 176
Soups and Salads · 190
One-Pan Recipes · 196
Create Your Own Recipes · 198

Part 4: Tomorrow begins by organizing today's kitchen.

Cooking Systematically · 209
Always Clean Kitchen · 213
Household Waste · 222

Conclusion · 228

Simple is fine, as long as it's a meal for me.

YouTube is full of channels showcasing everything from delicious restaurants to cooking tutorials and even new convenience store products.
In a world overflowing with food, are we truly rich?
Dominique Loreau sounds the alarm about modern society's consumption of overly processed and over-processed foods.
In Korea, where eating delivery food and spicy food high in sugar and sodium has become a daily routine, the imbalance of influence and obesity among the younger generation is a serious problem.

Dominique Loreau says that in times like these, we need to return to what is necessary and appropriate for us.
Cooking and eating food yourself.
Cooking isn't just for the good cooks.
We can all cook for ourselves.
Anyone can easily regain a healthy life by cooking with their favorite ingredients and minimal recipes.


Our mothers, fathers, and grandparents didn't have to order food delivery or freeze countless meals to eat later.
I lived a healthy life every day by simply cooking with seasonal ingredients.
A life of eating a spoonful of rice in hot soup in the winter, or noodles rolled in cool pickled radish kimchi in the summer, cannot be the same as a life of reheating cold pizza every day.
As eating semi-prepared food and delivery food has become a part of our daily lives, we are gradually losing the ability to eat and live like humans.


Dominique Loro says that making your own favorite dishes with minimal ingredients is more than just about being healthy.
Only in this way does life begin to move in a way that respects me more.

The joy of simplicity

According to a recent survey, the most common reason people give for not cooking is that the cooking process and cleanup are a hassle.
Among these, the biggest difficulty for the younger generation when preparing their own food was the long cooking time.

Dominique Loreau shows us how to perfectly apply the benefits of minimalism for those who find cooking daunting and difficult.
From how to choose tools and dishes to even how to clean up after cooking, which we consider the most troublesome, everything is taught in a warm and friendly manner, as if it were passed down from our mothers or grandmothers.
The key point Dominique Loro makes is to leave only what I 'need'.
If you have too many unused cooking utensils, kitchenware, and dishes, you will lose the desire to cook.
Even if a cooking appliance boasts excellent performance with the latest technology, it is often useless to some people.
Even when choosing a piece of cookware, it is said that it should vary depending on whether the person lives alone or with family, what they mainly eat, and even their age.
In all of this, what Dominic considers important is examining 'myself'.
Because I have to pay attention to what I like and what I dislike so that I can keep only what I need.


The entire process of choosing the ingredients for the food I eat and savoring the food served in my favorite bowl is ultimately about meeting myself.
Perhaps it's only natural that we cultivate the space we'll be using and carefully select the tools we'll be using during this process.
If we make our cooking space easy to use with the things we love, we can enjoy cooking without complicating our lives.


A daily table filled with playful delights

Usually, when we think of 'cooking', we hesitate because we think of grandiose dishes.
But wouldn't it be worth a try if it's a simple dish made with ingredients you have at home?
Haruki Murakami said that the best dishes he cooked were the ones he didn't plan on making the moment he opened the refrigerator.


Dominique Loreau shows you how to make a great meal with just one or two ingredients.
For example, if you have a potato left in the fridge, you can make a simple yet delicious dish just by knowing how to steam it.
Steamed potatoes with butter and salt or with cod roe mayonnaise make a decent meal.
When you cool the boiled potatoes and eat them cold, you can make a salad by mixing them with boiled eggs, onions, and mayonnaise.
You can also serve the potatoes with a sauce made with your favorite ingredients.
Cooking can be as fun as play if you use ingredients you already have at home and don't try to copy existing recipes.


As I follow Dominique Loro's story, I find myself wanting to steam potatoes and eat a salad with my own personal sauce made from my favorite ingredients.
If everyday cooking could be as enjoyable as play, wouldn't we want to keep standing in the kitchen?

Our lives are permeated with the food we make.

Dominique Loreau sharply points out that we, who live increasingly disconnected from cooking, are losing the ability to live like human beings.
In the movie “Little Forest,” the main character Hye-won cooks with seasonal ingredients, which is the main focus.
One summer day, Hyewon sits on the porch and eats a cabbage sandwich made with shredded cabbage, egg, and mayonnaise, while looking out at the distant mountains.
The sight evokes a certain desire in the viewer.
The reason the movies "Little Forest" and "Kamome Diner" are so beloved is not because of the food, but because of the person who prepares the food and the act of eating it.
The tenacity of a person who prepares food for himself is similar to the tenacity of a person who silently solves the task given to him.
This is because the process of carefully selecting the ingredients for the food we eat, preparing them, and turning them into food is not much different from the process of solving problems we encounter in our daily lives.
Whether it's cooking or life's problems, paying close attention to detail and focusing on one thing is only possible when accompanied by my own subjectivity and autonomy.
As Dominique Loreau says, those of us who don't cook may be losing the ability to live independently.


The soybean paste stew that my mother made for me, the dumplings that my grandmother made by hand, as children we grew up with those foods and the hearts of the people who made them.
The more we live alone, the more we need this kind of mindset.
If no one can do it for me, I must take care of it myself with this kind of heart.
When I cook with a caring heart, I find my place and gain the strength to move on to tomorrow.
We need to cook now more than ever.
For me, for my life.