Most people think the microwave is like a quick place to reheat leftovers. I, in the last week, have talked to a handful of people. All of them seemed like it was crazy when I told them we were cooking full meals in the microwave with like meat and fish. So what do you want to tell these people that think the microwave is not a way to cook?

Because I think you've said it's the single best piece of equipment you have in your kitchen. I mean, it's a joke. It's like culinary arbitrage. It's in like 91% of all US households collecting dust. And if people use it, it's usually for popcorn or for reheating leftovers or a mug of water for something.

And the reality is, I mean, it's not a joke. You press a button and things get hot. It's like the most magical element I could possibly think of. It's unfortunate that the UX and the UI is so bad on microwaves across the board and the marketing of it, because if the microwave technology came out today, I don't think you'd call it a microwave.

That's what happens when you leave it to the military to come up with sort of marketing. It'd probably be called the turbo chef, right? Because that's what you use when you go into a Starbucks and they reheat all your food. It's a convection oven and a microwave, but it's called a turbo chef.

And that's going to be coming to a kitchen near you. And it's going to be marketed as the new convection oven that's going to dramatically top off 75% of your cooking time. And it will conveniently drop that it's using microwave technology to cook your food faster. People are using microwaves all the time, but when they go out to eat, they may not realize it.

But ultimately, if you understand the science, you're using microwaves to effectively heat the water molecules inherent in foods. And that's all that's happening. And it's steaming in and of itself. So it's the most energy efficient way of cooking. I think the data will start to come out that it's probably again, if you cook for two hours, it's probably not right for the microwave, right?

But for cooking, like, say, blanching some broccoli or something like that, why would I take four liters of water take 12 minutes to bring that to a boil, steam or boil my broccoli when I could do that in five minutes in a microwave, it's just more energy efficient. Number one, number two, it's going to be the most nutrient dense way of preserving all the stuff in your food, because there's no osmosis, there's nothing happening where you're going to lose any flavor or any nutrients to the water or to the outside environment.

So three, there's like, you can cook cleaner than anything else. I don't have to add anything to a microwave, right? Like, I don't have that oil, I don't have that fat. So it's theoretically, because you can make delicious things with no fats whatsoever. Basically, it's really good for anything that doesn't need to be crispy, right?

Or long braise, for that matter, we're trying to break down, you know, muscle fibers, etc. So most people would think that it's crazy to cook a lobster in a microwave. Right? They'd say that's insane. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. And trust me, I used to be one of those people and tell like, like, Oh, yeah, the science sort of makes sense.

And not the science doesn't make just a sort of sense. It makes a lot of sense. And I'd argue that you could butter poach a lobster in the microwave within any day better than you could, and more consistently than any other way of cooking lobster. That's crazy. I haven't I haven't made it to that point.

And for anyone listening that isn't familiar with any day, it's a set of microwave cookware. That is not just for the microwave. The one thing you didn't put in your points was the thing you're cooking with is also the thing that you can store leftovers with and the thing that you can put on the plate to serve with.

And you can and you can put it in an oven, you know, so it's like, so this morning, I just made I had a package of Korean wheat noodles, fresh noodles. I had a package of like one and a half pounds of frozen chicken thighs. I had some leftover shiitake mushrooms, I had a couple cloves of garlic.

We're leaving town on Friday. So I just want to use all the stuff we have in the house. And now that I'm at the office a lot more the studio, I'm cooking all my meals ahead of time. So my wife, whoever's at home, they can still have a freshly cooked meal, they're just reheating it usually in any day.

So I took a large deep any day, I took out the chicken thighs, and I put it in them, I covered it in any day and I microwaved it for about seven and a half minutes. I took out a pair of scissors, and it's still raw in the center, right, this block of frozen chicken thighs, and I just cut it up.

Again, seems insane. Taking scissors, you know, kitchen shears, and I'm cutting into little bits. The main reason why is as a home cook, I don't want to wash more dishes than I need to. I'm always worried about cross contamination with poultry. So it's not like I want to use chicken, put it on.

So if I take the chicken raw, put it on a cutting board, I have now chicken all over my my hands, I'm going to cut it. So I have to wash the knife, I have to wash the cutting board, I have to wash my hands multiple times, if you're going to do it correctly.

And now if I just do it in the any day, I don't even have to wash my hands, because I've never touched chicken, I put the lid on, cook it for about seven and a half minutes. So it's thawed out, but the center is still going to be raw.

I'm going to I could cook it all the way, but there's no need. And so I'm taking frozen chicken. Usually, if I have to defrost it, that's at least a day. But you know, how else are you going to defrost it, you have to like just leave it out.

So I've done that a seven and a half minutes defrosted. Now I've chopped it up in the bits. I've taken the garlic and I've taken the shiitake mushrooms, I've added some, you know, momo soy sauce, some dark soy sauce, some agave, some neutral oil, and I'm just sauteing that added some scallions.

And as that's cooking, I added the my chopped chicken and all the juices that accumulated and pretty much saute that for like a minute. And then I add the noodles that I cooked, you know, reseason and I'm ready to go. Put it back into any day and they're going to reheat that for lunch.

So again, is it pretty? Absolutely not. But I'm not like cooking for an audience other than my family. The final product looks delicious, tastes delicious, but you know, it was a roundabout way of getting there, but it was extremely quick. I cooked that in 10 minutes. You know, while the water was boiling, I microwaved the chicken.

So to do a delicious dish in 10 minutes, I mean, it's hard to beat.