Why Founders Love Cooking: The Surprising Connection Between Startups and the Kitchen
- Apr 11
- 3 min read
Some of the world’s busiest founders share an unexpected hobby: cooking.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is known for his love of cooking—often appearing in his kitchen and even delivering keynotes from there. Mark Zuckerberg once challenged himself to prepare the food he ate from scratch. Jeff Bezos has spoken about cooking at home. Airbnb founder Brian Chesky has talked about learning to cook more during the pandemic. Even Jack Dorsey has explored food as part of his wellness routines.
At first glance, cooking seems like the last thing startup founders would have time for. But over the years, I’ve noticed something interesting: Cooking offers something founders rarely get in their daily work—and helps explain why founders love cooking in the first place.
1. Founders Love Creating Something From Nothing
At its core, both entrepreneurship and cooking start the same way: with raw ingredients and an idea.
A founder starts with a blank page and builds a company.
A cook starts with flour and water and turns it into something entirely new.
There’s something deeply satisfying about that transformation.
You take simple inputs, apply process and intention, and end up with something tangible—something you can share with others.
That act of creation, from scratch, is a big reason why founders love cooking.
2. Founders Are Problem Solvers—Cooking Is No Different
Great founders are obsessed with solving problems:
What do people need?
What’s missing?
How can this be better?
That same mindset shows up in the kitchen.
A dish isn’t just food—it’s a solution:
Too salty? Adjust it.
Missing texture? Add contrast.
Not exciting enough? Introduce something unexpected.
Sometimes that leads to entirely new ideas—fusion dishes, creative combinations, or rethinking a classic.
In both startups and cooking, you're constantly asking: How do I make this better for the person experiencing it?
This problem-solving instinct is another key reason why founders love cooking.
3. Founders Obsess Over Experience—Cooking Is No Different
Great founders don’t just build products—they obsess over user experience.
How does it feel?
Is it intuitive?
Is it memorable?
Cooking works the same way.
A dish isn’t just about flavor—it’s about the full experience:
presentation
texture
color
sequencing
Think about a well-plated dish:
A smooth puree spread across the plate, topped with colorful roasted vegetables and a perfectly cooked piece of meat.
Or thinly sliced zucchini rolled with precision, finished with a drizzle of bright red chili oil.
That’s not just food—that’s design.
It’s the culinary version of UI/UX.
The best dishes, like the best products, are thoughtfully designed experiences.
4. Building a Startup and Cooking Both Bring People Together
Launching a startup is rarely a solo effort.
It requires:
aligning people around a shared purpose
building trust across a team
coordinating different roles to achieve a common goal
Cooking—especially when done with others—works the same way.
In a shared kitchen, people take on different roles. One person prepares ingredients, another focuses on execution, someone else refines the final presentation.
Individually, each task is small. But together, they create something complete.
Both startups and cooking rely on shared purpose, trust-building, and collective action—bringing people together to create something that couldn’t be achieved alone.
This is another powerful reason why founders love cooking.
5. What I Notice When Founders Cook
One thing I’ve consistently observed: founders don’t approach cooking casually.
They experiment.
They iterate.
They pay attention to small details.
They try to improve the experience for others.
They’ll tweak ingredients, debate techniques, and approach a dish the same way they would a product.
And in that environment, titles and roles tend to disappear. Everyone’s just focused on creating something good.
Final Thought: Why Founders Love Cooking
Cooking may seem unrelated to building companies, but both are acts of creation and problem-solving.
Both start from scratch.
Both aim to serve others.
Both require collaboration to bring an idea to life.
Maybe that’s why so many founders gravitate toward it.
For a few hours, the goal isn’t growth, scale, or funding.
It’s simply to take something simple—flour, water, an idea—and turn it into something meaningful with your own hands.
Experience It Yourself in San Francisco
If you’re curious why founders love cooking, the best way to understand it is to experience it firsthand.
At The Story of Ramen, we host hands-on ramen cooking classes in San Francisco where guests make noodles from scratch and work together to create their own bowls.
It’s part cooking, part collaboration—and a surprisingly fun way to step into that same creative mindset.
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