Welcome to Restaurant Dropout

Week 1: Getting our ducks in a row

✨Hi, Hello, & Welcome✨

If you’re new to my channels (TikTok, Instagram, & Substack), allow me to introduce myself (if you know me or don’t care to read my life’s story summed up [no offense taken], skip to “What to Expect”).

In short, my name is Zoe (pronounced “Zoey”, but spelled with no y because my parents insisted on using the Greek version of the name - I am not Greek btw). I say this because there are people in my life who still think my name is spelled “Zoey” and that I’ve just decided to nickname myself “Zoe” as in “Joe” on social media. But, I don’t have the heart to tell them that they’ve been spelling my name wrong this entire time (😭), so I figured I’d let you know it’s “Zoe” before our relationship goes any further.

I’m originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, where I grew up dedicating about 16 years of my life to competitive soccer. I went to the University of Arizona on a scholarship to play D1 soccer, where my playing career was honestly quite brutal and not exactly fun (I loved my time off the field, though, and would recommend the U of A to others).

Although soccer turned into something brutal and not fun, I found cooking to be my therapy off the soccer field. So, as a ripe 19-year-old trying to find some form of hope for myself and pursue this passion of mine, I made a promise (to myself) that if I just stuck it through all 4 years of college soccer without quitting, I’d reward myself with cooking school.

And I did just that! I went to San Francisco Cooking School where soon after I found myself in the kitchen of Flea Street Cafe, a fine-dining restaurant in Menlo Park, CA focused on farm-to-table cuisine highlighting seasonal produce. As someone who never really understood the seasons of produce or the concept of farm-to-table, I ended up leaving with a newfound deep appreciation and love for all things farm-to-table. And ingredient prep.

The rest of my journey to this point now can be found here, if you’re curious.

I used to write weekly on my other newsletter, Happy Hour, until the holidays came. I hit quite the funk and reassessed the type of content I was putting out, in fear of everything feeling a bit stale.

And with a desire to get my sh*t in order (aka my fridge) and incorporate more leafy greens into my diet, I knew I’d have to get over the mental barriers I set for myself using a system that actually works.

And the most tried-and-true method that I’ve used to date was the one I used as a line cook in a restaurant: Ingredient Prep.

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What to Expect

Think of your home kitchen as a restaurant and you are the line cook. In your “restaurant”, you have 5-6 menu items that change weekly - all ingredients get used more than once, plus they’re prepped ahead of time so that when it comes time to make the dish…well, all you have to do is toss it together, maybe heat something up, and boom. Dinner is served in a matter of minutes.

My promise to you, the subscriber, is a weekly menu, a grocery list to make said menu, and a prep list with all of the tasks you need to complete before the start of your week (like Sunday).

Note: thankfully, unlike the restaurant industry, you’re not prepping ingredients for hundreds of people, so your weekly ingredient prep only needs to happen on one day of the week. This also means only 1 trip to the grocery store!!!

Now here’s the game plan…

Each week you will receive this newsletter containing the following:

For Paid & Unpaid Subscribers

• What’s on the menu (5 to 6 meals because I want you to take a day or two off to reward yourself!!! #positivereinforcement)

• An organized shopping list (PDF)

• Occasional product recommendations & product links

For Paid Subscribers Only

• A detailed prep list (PDF)

• Sauce, dressing, vinaigrette recipes

• Crispy crunchy topping recipes

• Individual meal recipes

• Recommended protein pairings & recipes*

• Access to all publication archives

• Access to the comment section

• & more!!!

…and in terms of quantities, given that I’m prepping for 2 people/night, I’ll provide measurements of ingredients and recommend that you multiply or divide the quantity/amount based on how many people you’re cooking for.

FAQs (just questions I could think of):

1. Will ingredients be used more than once?

   1. Heck ya, they will. While developing these meals, I’m going to be mindful of using each ingredient at least 2 times throughout the week to maximize efficiency. For example, if we have cucumbers, perhaps we’ll use them chopped in maybe 2 meals I have planned and then we might see them again in the tzatziki we’re going to make.

2. How is this different than meal prepping?

   1. Well, 1. you won’t be repulsed by day 3 after eating the same thing 2 days in a row, and 2. meal prepping is the act of prepping the same thing in bulk, portioning it out, then reheating it to eat throughout the week. Instead, we are prepping mass quantities of ingredients, like rice, kale, etc, and incorporating them into the many dinners we will create throughout the week!

I can’t think of many other questions, but if you have any feel free to leave a comment and I’ll get back to you. :)

Since this is Week 1 of Restaurant Dropout, I figured we could all get on the same page about essential ingredients and equipment before we dive into next week…

(Next week will mark the start of ingredient prepping together. SO GET READY!!!! 🎉)

*Note: Protein sources are so preferential, which as a former non-consumer of red meat/mammals, I understand that you might want to CYOP (choose your own protein). That said, I’ll be sharing what I think works best in each recipe. I’ll also try to make most meals with plant-based proteins (aka more beans!!) so that if you want to make them without chicken, shrimp, steak, fish, etc., you can. And if you want to make them with my suggested animal protein (or your own choice of animal protein) for even more protein, you can.

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Essential Ingredients

Alrighty, I want to preface this by saying that you by no means need to go out and purchase any of these ingredients OR the linked products I’m sharing (next section).

In fact, I welcome your creativity inside the kitchen to find alternatives that work best for you. Say a recipe I share calls for white wine vinegar, but you prefer champagne vinegar - use champagne vinegar instead. Or say you’re allergic to honey and prefer using agave instead - use agave.

Just note, that this is a list of the ingredients and products that I keep on hand at all times and consider ✨essential in my household✨. That said, these ingredients will rarely make it onto the future shopping lists that I share with you all…unless I plan on using copious amounts of it in one week - then I’ll add it to the shopping list.

My Go-To, Ride or Die, Partner-in-Crime:

• Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt (plus, a salt container if you need one!) ❤️

Spices:

• Pepper

• Chili Powder

• Ground Cumin

• Chili Flakes and/or Cayenne Pepper

• Garlic Powder

• Onion Powder

• Dried Oregano

• Turmeric

• Ground Cinnamon

• Smoked Paprika

• Chicken Bouillon (Vegetable Bouillon works too!)

Aromatics:

• Shallots (I always have at least 3 on hand)

• Garlic (I always have 2 bulbs on hand)

Fats & Vinegars:

• Olive Oil

• Neutral Oil* (of your choice)

• Butter (salted for cooking, unsalted for baking)

• Sesame Oil

• Mayonnaise

• Balsamic Vinegar

• White Wine Vinegar

• Red Wine Vinegar

• Distilled White Vinegar

• Rice Vinegar

Sweeteners:

• Sugar (white and/or brown)

• Honey

• Maple Syrup

Additional Pantry Staples:

• All-Purpose Flour

• Active Dry Yeast

• Soy Sauce

• Dijon Mustard

• Peanut Butter

*Neutral Oil - any time I mention neutral oil, I’m referring to a flavorless, high-smoke point oil. Think avocado oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil, vegetable oil, etc.

Food Storage Links

Again, this is by no means me telling you to buy any of these products. This is just me sharing the containers I use because it’s one of my most FAQs. Also, these are links to the Webstaurant Store, which is available to the public - I believe they just charge a, in my opinion, ridiculously high price for shipping if you don’t have a membership. 

One thing I will urge you to do is save money. So, if you’d like to get these containers for a better price, look up “local restaurant supply store” on Google, find a place that says it’s open to the public, and go there. These containers (minus the deli containers) will often be in the food storage section.

My Favorite Storage Containers:

1 x set of Deli Containers (60 count)

Organization:

Labeling Tape

Tape Dispenser

A Sharpie

For Dressings & Vinaigrettes

1 x 6-pack of Squeeze Bottles (8 oz.)

For Doughs or Larger Ingredients:

1 x 1/2 Food Pan (4” deep)

1 x 1/2 Food Pan Lid

For Leafy Greens:

2 x 1/3 Food Pan (6” deep)

2 x 1/3 Food Pan Lid

For Prepped Ingredients in Bulk:

2 x 1/6 Food Pan (4” deep)

2 x 1/6 Food Pan Lid

Recommended Equipment:

• a very, very sharp knife

• a decently-sized cutting board

• a few mixing bowls

• sheet trays

• a few pots and pans

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Ok, I think I covered it all. Consider this our syllabus week and day 1 of class is now dismissed!!!

I’m so excited to get this (ingredient prep) party started with you all!! Until then, I hope you have a fabulous weekend - I’ll see you next Friday (at 9 am PT). 😎

Ciao for now!

Xo,

Zoe