# chef ladou

> learn once. cook forever. chef ladou is an online course in cooking principles. Learn the foundations once — how ingredients behave, how heat changes them, how to balance a dish — and cook from what you have.

chef ladou is an online cooking course, not a recipe site. It teaches the principles of cooking — how ingredients behave, how heat changes them, how to balance and combine them — so people can cook independently. Recipes are the leaves; foundations are the roots.

Promise: An online cooking principles course that teaches you how to cook — not how to follow recipes.
Manifesto: simple. healthy. delicious.
Public contact: hello@chefladou.com

Paid academy, account and admin URLs are private. Do not invent unpublished curriculum, founder year counts, or prices that are not listed below.

## Public pages

- [Home](https://chefladou.com/): What chef ladou is, in one scroll.
- [The course](https://chefladou.com/course): The online cooking course: what you learn, how it works, price.
- [How it works](https://chefladou.com/method): Why learning foundations works better than collecting recipes.
- [Ingredients](https://chefladou.com/ingredients): The plant ingredient families, each with a kitchen demonstration.
- [Kitchen Check](https://chefladou.com/kitchen-check): A prepared 25-minute session about your own kitchen.
- [Live cooking](https://chefladou.com/live): Cook together, each at your own stove.
- [About](https://chefladou.com/about): The cook behind chef ladou.
- [Journal](https://chefladou.com/journal): Kitchen notebook: observations and small principles.
- [FAQ](https://chefladou.com/faq): Course, access, diet, products.
- [Contact](https://chefladou.com/contact): Public mail hello@chefladou.com.

## Ingredient worlds

- [Water](https://chefladou.com/ingredients/water): Water carries flavour in — or out. Boil a carrot and the water tastes of carrot. Steam it and the carrot keeps it.
- [Foundations](https://chefladou.com/ingredients/foundations): Starch drinks. Then it holds. Rinse rice and the water turns cloudy. That cloud decides the texture.
- [Leaf salads](https://chefladou.com/ingredients/leafy-salads): Salt a leaf and it gives way. Dress lettuce too early and it slumps. Radicchio can take it.
- [Vegetables](https://chefladou.com/ingredients/vegetables): The heat decides what it becomes. Put an aubergine straight on the flame. The skin chars; inside turns silky.
- [Fruit](https://chefladou.com/ingredients/fruits): One squeeze wakes a dish up. Squeeze a lemon over something flat. Suddenly the whole plate is awake.
- [Legumes](https://chefladou.com/ingredients/legumes): Give lentils water and time. Simmer lentils and they thicken the water around them. No flour needed.
- [Herbs](https://chefladou.com/ingredients/herbs): Crush it. You smell it before you taste it. Crush basil between your fingers. The smell arrives first.
- [Salt & spices](https://chefladou.com/ingredients/salt-spices): Warm spice in oil and it blooms. Stir ground cumin into warm oil. The kitchen smells of it in seconds.
- [Nuts](https://chefladou.com/ingredients/nuts): Heat brings the oil to the surface. Toast walnuts and they turn glossy and sweet. That's their own oil.
- [Seeds & kernels](https://chefladou.com/ingredients/seeds): The smell changes before the colour does. Toast sesame. Your nose knows it's ready before your eyes do.
- [Plant oil](https://chefladou.com/ingredients/plant-oil): Fat carries flavour. Warm chilli in olive oil. Spoon the oil anywhere, and the chilli comes with it.
- [Dairy](https://chefladou.com/ingredients/dairy): Yoghurt cools. Too much heat splits it. Stir yoghurt into a boiling pot and it curdles. Take the pot off the heat first and it turns silky.

## Machine-readable

- [Full text for assistants](https://chefladou.com/llms-full.txt): Products, counts and FAQ in one file.
- [Sitemap](https://chefladou.com/sitemap.xml)
- [Robots](https://chefladou.com/robots.txt)

## Products

- chef ladou Core Course: €179, one-time payment. An online cooking course in eighteen short steps. Learn how ingredients behave and how to combine them — then cook from what you have. 18 steps that open in order, then stay open as a reference.
- Kitchen Check: €111. Book, answer a few questions about your kitchen and your week, then a prepared 25-minute online session. Your recommendations are saved afterwards.
- Live cooking: €333. Live group cooking with a clear format, a limited number of places and a follow-up afterwards.

## Ingredients and steps

60 ingredients in 11 families, plus water.

- The map: Why a small, clear set of ingredients is enough — and how the course is built.
- Water: Boiling, steaming, soaking. What water takes out of food and what it puts in.
- Foundations: Potato, sweet potato, millet, quinoa, rice. How starch drinks, swells and holds a plate together.
- Leaf salads: Iceberg, rocket, lettuce, radicchio. Crunch, water and a little bitterness.
- Vegetables: Fourteen vegetables. How the cut, the salt and the heat decide what they become.
- Fruit: Acid, sugar and perfume — and why olive and avocado belong here.
- Legumes: Lentils, chickpeas, beans, peas. Body, comfort and a bowl that fills you.
- Herbs: Parsley, coriander, mint, basil. When to add them and why it matters.
- Salt and spices: Salt as control. Spice as warmth, colour and aroma.
- Nuts: Almond, walnut, cashew. Richness, crunch, and a smooth cream when blended.
- Seeds and kernels: Sunflower, sesame, pine nut. Toasting, texture and depth.
- Plant oil: Olive oil as the fat that carries heat and flavour.
- Dairy: Yoghurt and mozzarella. What cools a dish, what melts into it — and what heat does to both.
- Heat and transformation: One ingredient, several foods. What gentle and fierce heat each do.
- Fat, acid, salt: How to taste a dish and know what it is missing.
- Combining: Why some things belong together — and how to find new pairs yourself.
- Your own kitchen: What you love, what you avoid, what you already have.
- Improvising: Open the fridge and cook. The course becomes your reference.

## FAQ

### What exactly is chef ladou?

An online cooking principles course that teaches you how to cook — not how to follow recipes. You learn the foundations: how ingredients behave, how heat changes them, and how to balance and combine them. Then you can cook from what you have.

### How is the course structured?

18 short steps in a fixed order. Each one opens when you finish the one before, so every step builds on the last. Lessons come with a workbook, small cooking missions, checklists and space for your own notes. When you have finished, everything stays open as your reference.

### Do I need to be able to cook already?

No. The course starts at the beginning and builds step by step. If you already cook, it fills in the why behind what you do.

### When can I start, and how long do I keep it?

You can start step one straight after purchase. It is a single payment, and once you have finished, the whole course stays available as your reference.

### What is a Kitchen Check?

A 25-minute online session about your own kitchen. After booking you answer a few questions about your space, your tools and your week, so the session is prepared around you. Your recommendations are saved to your account afterwards.

### How does live cooking work?

Everyone cooks at their own stove at the same time, with room to ask questions while the pan is hot. Each session has a clear format, a limited number of places and a follow-up afterwards.

### What do I need at home?

An ordinary kitchen — a good knife, a board, a pan and a pot — and a phone, tablet or laptop you can watch on.