Dear reader,
It’s no secret that the last couple of years have been tough for so many of us. But through the ups and downs, we’ve always had at least one source of happiness: Florence Pugh’s unofficial Instagram cooking show, Cooking With Flo.
By now, I’m sure all of us are well acquainted with Florence Pugh. She’s acted in some of our favorite movies, like Midsommar and Black Widow, and was even nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Little Women as Amy March. In September, we’ll see her in Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling, where she’ll star alongside Harry Styles, Gemma Chan, and Chris Pine, to name a few.
But when she’s not acting in some of our favorite movies, she’s catching up on her hobbies and passions: dancing, taking care of her cacti, and (thankfully) cooking.
Cooking With Flo started during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns, where everyone and their mothers were feeling anxious, scared, and bored. And this included Florence. Thankfully, her father noticed this and asked her, “Why aren’t you dancing and why aren’t you cooking?” And honestly? We’re glad he did.
That’s when she started uploading some videos of herself dancing (which are still up on her Instagram stories’ highlights), and, of course, some videos of herself preparing delicious meals. Her first ever Cooking With Flo included a Ratatouille-like dish, prepped with ingredients she already had in her fridge. Since then, Florence has posted a diverse range of delicious recipes — from salads to bread, and even a traditional British Sunday roast. The series is completely spontaneous: there isn’t a scheduled day or hour that it graces our Instagram feeds. It’s just a nice surprise whenever we hear “It’s cooking with Flo, bitches!” In an instant, my stresses disappear and my appetite forms with full force.
All of Cooking With Flo’s Instagram stories are saved on Florence’s highlights on her profile, and they’re always available whenever you’re not feeling so great. The best part? Cooking With Flo isn’t pretentious: the recipes are typically prepared with things Florence has on hand, like standard ingredients or leftovers she has in her fridge. Between exams and the craziness of college assignments, we never have the time (or energy) to cook fancy recipes, but we can prep an easy meal with ingredients we already have. And after any minor (or major) inconvenience in my life, you’ll catch me choosing which Cooking With Flo recipe I’d like to watch next.
For me, Cooking With Flo has also been a source for ‘kitchen fashion inspo,’ as I like to call it. Meaning, that if I could steal something from Florence, it would definitely be her colorful, fun, and absolutely adorable aprons. While every piece in her collection is perfection, my personal favorite is her 1950s-inspired, yellow apron, which was designed by Don’t Worry Darling’s costume designer, Arianne Phillips. I already cook almost every day, but with that apron? I’d be making meal after meal, and I’d never leave the kitchen. So, if Florence wants to release Cooking With Flo merch, I’ll be the first one in line.
And when I’m feeling lonely, Florence’s unofficial cooking show feels like I’m FaceTiming a friend. As she’s cooking, she also shares stories from her day and updates her followers on how her dog is doing. In today’s society, it’s so strange to receive content like this from a celebrity. It feels like, most of the time, the content we watch from celebrities feels extremely planned and somewhat inauthentic. It’s refreshing to see someone as successful as Florence do something that feels so spontaneous — it totally makes you relate to her. Plus, if you’re nosy like me and love to watch tours of people’s houses, you’ll get many snippets of Florence’s beautiful kitchen in her Cooking With Flo videos.
I’m not alone in my love for Cooking With Flo. On Twitter, one user wrote, “Manifest another Cooking With Flo with me, my mental health is downhill.” Someone else wrote, “Another Cooking With Flo would solve any problems I have rn.” And if you’re wondering why so many of us like to watch Cooking With Flo to boost our serotonin, it’s because it feels the same way as when we watch our favorite movie when we’re feeling sad: Florence’s bubbly and positive personality is so entertaining and it makes you feel like, eventually, everything will be okay. Cooking With Flo is — besides a source for great cooking advice — such a feel-good series. Will it make you very hungry while you’re watching it? Yes. But will it also make a bad day feel a little better? Absolutely.
Some fellow Cooking With Flo fans would like for Florence to have an official cooking show, and although I’d 100% watch it, no questions asked, the magic of Cooking With Flo is how homemade it is: from the food to the videos themselves. Sure, Florence drops her phone multiple times while filming her recipes, and the camera fogs up when too close to the food, but those mishaps make Cooking With Flo what it is and give you the sensation of feeling a little less alone, and a little more connected.
So thank you, Florence and Cooking With Flo, for all the happy moments in all of our gloomy days. I look forward to the cooking advice, the beautiful aprons that I want to steal, and the feel-good energy that your videos exude. Because without them, life would be a little less wonderful.
And to the Cooking With Flo fans out there, let’s try to live a bit more like Florence: laugh more, eat well, and take life (and the kitchen) a little less seriously.
With love,
A fellow Cooking With Flo stan