Zoe Zannos<\/a> was in their final year of school for graphic design and already burned out. It was 2024 and they yearned for a project that wasn\u2019t related to university.<\/p>\nThey loved food and connecting with people, and they happened to be active on dating apps. One day it hit them: a zine based on cultural recipes they cook alongside their dates.<\/p>\n
Since that initial light bulb moment, Zannos has run with the idea, bringing their followers across Europe through their social media series, Cook Me Something Nice<\/em>. Cooking alongside Hinge dates in their own kitchens, Zannos has cooked and enjoyed goulash in Budapest, potato dumplings in Prague, and mezze in Istanbul. Next up: Athens and the Cyclades for the next few months.<\/p>\nThe project quickly gained traction\u201421,000 Instagram followers have joined their journey, and potential cooking partners flood Zannos\u2019 DMs, email, and social media comments, inviting them to over for a meal.<\/p>\n
We spoke to Zannos about the evolution of Cook Me Something Nice<\/em>\u2014the ideas behind the project, how they vet their dates, and what they\u2019ve learned about the experience.<\/p>\nTell me a little about yourself and about where your love for food started.<\/strong><\/p>\nI grew up in the southern suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa, between the mountains and the sea. My grandfather came from Santorini and chose to build our house there because it reminded him of life on the island.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a South Africanism for the person who eats too much: \u201cGimba<\/em>.\u201d I never beat the accusations in primary school, and I proudly wore the title. For as long as I can remember, my entire life has been centered around the act of eating and the pleasure of tasting something good.<\/p>\nWas there a specific moment that first drew you into dinner rituals?<\/strong><\/p>\nIn sixth grade I was good friends with a boy named Jean. A playdate at his house was always thrilling\u2014he was just as into food as I was, and we would cook and bake together. His family had French roots and were deeply appreciative of good food and the ritual of eating. When I\u2019d stay for dinner, the atmosphere of the house would shift: the warm lamp was switched on, the table was set, and if it wasn\u2019t smooth jazz playing over the CD player, it was his mother on the piano. We were allowed a small cup of wine with the adults, and there was always dessert. It was the first time I had witnessed dinner being treated as this special ritual, something done with intention and care.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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And you and Jean would cook and bake as tweens?<\/strong><\/p>\nJean and I split the cost of a cookbook at the school book fair and decided to host our own three-course dinner party for our parents. His mom so graciously gave us\u2014two wide-eyed 11-year-olds\u2014the reins to plan and curate our own menu. She also went out of her way to purchase the ingredients. Mussels were included\u2014it was not a humble setlist.<\/p>\n
I still have the physical menu I designed on Microsoft Word. We dressed up, and Jean played the piano before we ate. We were so excited that we rushed through each course, but the flow of the night was left entirely in our hands. It never clicked until later but this evening was a pivotal moment for me. I think often of Jean and his mom, Hanlie, who gave us the space and means to explore our passions as young children and trusted us like adults in the process. I don\u2019t think I would have been the same person without all those days spent in their family kitchen, being met with praise, reassurance, and encouragement for whatever we insisted on whipping up together.<\/p>\n
So you went from making menus on Word to zines in college, including the early versions of what would become Cook Me Something Nice<\/em>. Was the plan always leveraging dating apps to find cooking candidates?<\/strong><\/p>\nBack when I started, I was going on real dates with people I cooked with. I very quickly realized that the recipe is the least interesting thing to come from cooking with someone you fancy.<\/p>\n
As much as I approached each interaction as a date, I also began to realize that this is a very interesting case study on people. How do nerves appear in the kitchen? What do you learn about someone while cooking? What\u2019s it like meeting someone new, and then having to be a team for the first time? It\u2019s quite the opposite of small talk over a drink.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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So I dropped the mandatory \u2018checkbox\u2019 that every cooking date needed to have a romantic context.<\/p>\n
I specify in my Hinge profile that this is a project I\u2019m doing, and that it\u2019s the main reason I\u2019m on here. Not because I\u2019m not open to dates, I totally am \u2014 but I tell them it\u2019s a project I\u2019m undertaking rather than a romantic endeavor from the get-go.<\/p>\n
Do you still use Hinge for dates?<\/strong><\/p>\nI do, but I focus on that separately from the cooking. I keep an open mind throughout both processes. Who\u2019s to say I don\u2019t hit it off with someone I cook with? I\u2019m not opposed to something developing further at all. That\u2019s the beauty of conducting this with zero expectations.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re a single person meeting a bunch of strangers on the internet and going into their homes! How do you choose and vet your cooking dates?<\/strong><\/p>\nMy driving factor is sheer curiosity about what I can learn about someone who might look like they have nothing in common with me. This is a social project, an ode to how food is the most powerful connector and medium of storytelling, and a reminder to people that connection doesn\u2019t have to be complicated.<\/p>\n
Generally, I have a great read on people and am very good at vetting the online requests I receive. Since the interaction takes place over text, going off of vibes is kind of the only basis I have. I take a look at profiles and the tones of messages, and am very good at picking up when someone is proposing to host me because they\u2019re trying to flirt.<\/p>\n
The vast majority of messages I get are absolutely lovely. I\u2019m never stressed when preparing to meet someone. My only rule of thumb for my own safety is that I\u2019ll never head straight to a man\u2019s house to cook, and will always meet him beforehand for a coffee or something to assess in person if I feel 100% good proceeding.<\/p>\n
What advice do you have for people watching your series who are inspired to put themselves out there more\u2014with strangers, dating, cooking, hobbies, etc.?<\/strong><\/p>\nDo it as often as you can, in as many ways as you can. Identify what subtle restraints and biases you\u2019ve woven into your life and challenge them one by one. Digital media has influenced what \u2018putting yourself out there\u2019 means. We are so heavily behind screens that we allow ourselves the gamble of real \u2018risk\u2019 less and less. Allow your heart to pound in your throat and revel in the feeling of your palms sweating when you leap toward something new.<\/p>\n
You will be so beautifully, consistently, pleasantly surprised by the kinds of experience you can have and new depths to yourself you can unlock when you take a step outside of your normal \u2014 even when you do it scared.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recipes In Person of Interest we talk to the people catching our eye right now about their projects past and present. Next up, we chat with Zoe Zannos, a culinary brand designer and content creator, best known for eating their way through Europe via Hinge. Zoe Zannos was in their final year of school for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":903959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40556,151],"tags":[131512],"class_list":{"0":"post-903958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tiktoker","8":"category-using","9":"tag-popular-recipes"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}