About Us
Hi, we’re Nicole and Alex!
We make wholesome, good-for-the-soul comfort food recipes.
We’re two young adults (and newlyweds!) who taught ourselves to cook as a way to spend quality time together during our busy post-grad lives. Since dinner took up such a big chunk of our weekday free time, we wanted it to be something to look forward to every night – a dedicated hour or two that we could have fun together and connect over a good meal.
As we worked together in the kitchen, our relationship grew even stronger. We learned to communicate better, understand each other’s likes and dislikes, and anticipate each other’s needs. The most important lesson we learned? Cooking is about much more than food. It’s a space for connection, love, and joy to bloom. And that’s why we’re so passionate about sharing feel-good recipes with you.
About The Candid Cooks
We started The Candid Cooks in 2020 after moving to California for our first full-time jobs. The 9 to 5 grind was taxing for both of us, so dinners together were something fun to look forward to every night. As pretty average home cooks at the time, we wanted to get better. Starting a food blog was our way of pushing ourselves to learn through experience and stay accountable!
Food has always been an important part of our lives and we believe it’s one of the best ways to bring people together. Some of our favorite memories were made in the kitchen or around the table with friends and family. We both grew up cooking with our parents, learning family recipes, and experimenting with our favorite flavors. As we started building our life together, we realized how important it was for us to continue the tradition of connecting over messy kitchens and shared meals.
So we dove into learning as much as we possibly could from every cookbook, Food Network show, and MasterClass we could get our hands on. We spent nearly every night in the kitchen trying new recipes, learning from many successes and failures. It wasn’t long before we were confidently whipping up our favorite dishes and creating our own recipes.
A few years in, we reached a turning point after watching a MasterClass by the famed Alice Waters. She spoke a lot about the importance of knowing where your food comes from, and how high quality, natural ingredients can make good food taste great. We learned that flavorful recipes don’t have to be complicated, and using fresh, high quality ingredients is key.
At the same time, with a family member battling Alzheimer’s we were learning more about the Blue Zones and how a minimally processed diet is beneficial for overall well-being. As lovers of all things savory, cheesy, and comforting (especially when it comes to game day snacks), we decided that we had to find a way to continue making our favorite foods with more natural, less processed ingredients.
We had tried plenty of “healthy” recipes in the past like zucchini boats and quinoa bowls, and it just wasn’t our thing. But we quickly discovered that our favorite comfort foods could be healthy as long as we built them around high quality, minimally processed, wholesome ingredients.
This is where we really found our niche and began to connect more deeply with our audience. Sharing wholesome comfort food recipes has become such a passion for both of us. We’re all about finding joy through food, which means nourishing our bodies and our souls. So there’s no greater feeling than sharing recipes that prove comfort foods can be nourishing and natural.
The Candid Cooks has evolved from a hobby and in 2023 became a full-time career for Alex and a part-time job (although it certainly feels full-time!) for Nicole, who also works in marketing.
Want to know even more about us and The Candid Cooks? View our FAQs and our media mentions page.
About Our Recipes
We’re committed to sharing flavorful, comforting, and approachable recipes that are easy for anyone to cook. Our goal is to provide you with the recipes you need, no matter your skill level, to not just make good food – but to enjoy the process, too!
Our recipes are…
Food is an integral part of our lives, from the everyday weeknight dinners to the game day parties and weekend brunches with friends. If you head to our menu, you’ll find recipes organized by occasion so it’s as easy as possible to find the perfect recipe no matter what you’re up to!
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More About Nicole
90% of Nicole’s thoughts are about food. She’s had a passion for cooking (and eating) for as long as she can remember! Growing up, she started cooking with her mom at a young age, learned family recipes from her Italian grandmother, took every opportunity to make cookies (so many bake sales), and always loved going out to restaurants to try new foods.
Nicole currently works part-time as a marketing professional for OmieLife while also working nonstop on The Candid Cooks. As a former mechanical engineer, Nicole has consistently found herself at the intersection of creativity and logical reasoning. She credits not only her passion for photography, design, and writing, but also her problem-solving nature and desire to learn, as the foundation on which The Candid Cooks was built.
Nicole’s hobbies include anything that gets her moving – mainly hiking, skiing, ice skating, and dancing – as well as reading fantasy novels and scrapbooking. Her favorite food is a big plate of nachos, as long as they’re cheesy enough!
More About Alex
As a kid, Alex was deemed the pickiest eater ever. That was at least, until he learned how to cook. While he always enjoyed cooking and eating good food growing up, the definition of good food was just really limited. Alex’s world of food quickly expanded in college as a way to get to know new friends. Now he’s constantly looking forward to finding new recipes and cuisines to try.
Alex is a mechanical engineer by degree, but a food blogger by reality. Even though engineering isn’t his day to day anymore, Alex has carried over many lessons learned from the engineering world to The Candid Cooks. With a very detail oriented, analytical mind, Alex thrives in the amount of data, science, and experimenting that comes with both cooking and running a website.
When Alex isn’t cooking or working on the blog, his favorite hobbies include playing soccer, running, hiking, reading a good book, or getting lost in a video game. Alex loves baking bread of all sorts, which is probably why pizza is one of his favorite foods to both make and eat!
More About Us
We met freshman year in our Intro to Engineering class at Northeastern University. Outside of grueling study sessions, we spent our college years trying new restaurants, hunting down local food trucks, and cooking all we could in our small shared kitchens. Spending time together over food was our favorite way to connect and unwind from the stress of our busy schedules!
It’s no surprise that when we graduated and entered the workforce, food continued to be our happy place. We lived in California for 3 busy years, traveling to as many national parks as we could and seeking out all the best food and drink. We visited wineries in Paso Robles and the Santa Ynez valley; went to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego to try the cuisines these cities are known and loved for; and made sure to stop by the Voltaggio brothers’ restaurant in our favorite ski town, Mammoth Lakes!
After yet another cross-country move, we’re now happily married and live in Vermont. When we’re not in the kitchen, we love being outdoors and exploring new places (like visiting Hawaii on our honeymoon!). We’ve visited over 16 national parks and plan to see them all. Our adventures have inspired a lot of our favorite recipes, helping us continue to intertwine happy memories with the food we enjoy every day.
Work With Us
Interested in a partnership? We love sharing our favorite brands and kitchen gear with our audience. Learn more on our Work With Us page.
Work With Us
Interested in a partnership? We love sharing our favorite brands and kitchen gear with our audience. Learn more on our Work With Us page.