Edward Lee is not prepared for a coronavirus lockdown. His pantry is not stocked. He shops often, buying only what he needs and what will fit in his small kitchen. “I’m a chef, so I rarely cook at home from scratch,” he said with a shrug. “My fridge is filled with leftovers from the restaurant. My whole life is eating leftovers.”

In other words, he’s like a lot of people.

[Make the recipe: Padma Lakshmi’s Kichidi]

For years, nutritionists and cookbook writers have advised Americans to keep a stocked pantry, and to cook and eat together. It’s better for our health. It’s better for our relationships. (There are even apps that will help you do a lot of the planning.) And yet, we’ve stubbornly refused. Research firm NPD reported in 2017 that cold cereal, toaster pastries, yogurt and tap water are among the most popular “meals” prepared at home.

Now comes the threat of the coronavirus, which could mean that, at least temporarily, we stock up and limit trips to the grocery store, stop going to restaurants and spurn delivery drivers.

In other words, Americans might finally have to plan and cook.

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No one knows where the virus might bloom — or how long restrictions might last. What is clear is that this will be different from the usual “stock up on bread and milk” emergencies: Snowstorms generally only trap people in the house for a few days, whereas lockdowns in China have lasted weeks, stressing even the most seasoned cooks. On the plus side, it’s unlikely that homes will lose power as they might after a natural disaster.

How do you plan to potentially cook three meals a day for weeks at a time with limited access to the outside world? And given our high expectations about what we eat — sushi one night and pizza the next — is it possible to keep it interesting? We asked some of the country’s best-known cooks for tips and inspiration.



(John Lamparski/Getty Images for Advertising Week New York)

Padma Lakshmi

Author, host of Bravo’s “Top Chef”

“The first thing I would do, right now, before there is a panic, is start cooking,” Lakshmi said. “Pick a Saturday or Sunday and involve the whole family in making huge batches of different dishes: turkey chili or green chili with white beans, things that are stew-y and freeze well. Then pack them in quart containers so you can take out just what you need.”

This plan has two benefits. It lessens anxiety — yes, you’ll have food to eat! — but it also allows you to cook with what’s fresh. You’re not stocking up on fresh fruits and vegetables and hoping they don’t rot.



Padma Lakshmi’s Kichidi. (Tom McCorkle for The Washington Post; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Washington Post)

[Make the recipe: Padma Lakshmi’s Kichidi]

And since fresh foods do go off, Lakshmi also recommends stocking up on frozen vegetables, which “have no less nutrition than fresh ones do,” and plenty of root vegetables that also store well — even if you don’t have a big freezer: “Turnips are delicious cooked in broth with a little bit of soy sauce, a dash of hoisin sauce and Chinese five spice.”

Finally, bulk up your condiment supply with shelf-stable sauces and concentrates that can create variety. One of Lakshmi’s go-to pantry meals is what she calls “paste pasta,” noodles tossed in a mix of sun-dried tomato paste, anchovy paste and green-olive paste, olive oil and crushed red pepper. Another is kichidi, a traditional Indian rice and lentil porridge she makes for her family that can be filled with vegetables — or not.



(Scott Dalton for The Washington Post)

Hugo Ortega

Chef-owner of Backstreet Cafe and four other Houston restaurants

Ortega grew up in the mountains of Oaxaca, so among his go-tos are sopecitos, little corn cups that can be filled with stewed vegetables, meat, cheese, anything really. You start with masa harina (ground, nixtamalized corn flour) and mix it with water, then form it into little balls and stretch it in the palm of your hands. All that’s left is to cook it lightly in a cast-iron pan. “Masa is my equivalent of pasta,” Ortega said. “You can put almost anything on it and it will give you plenty of energy for the day.”

If you’re really worried about the coronavirus, you can buy 10-pound (or larger) sacks of masa at club stores or Latin markets. Ortega likes blue-corn masa, which is often of higher quality. And as long as you’re stocking up, Ortega recommends canned cherry tomatoes, “which have a lot more flavor” than the usual plum variety.

Though it may not help in the short term, Ortega also hopes the scare will encourage people to cultivate some fresh food themselves: “Put rosemary in a pot in the window or a tomato plant out the back door.” After all, Americans have done it before. During World War II, there were 18 million so-called Victory Gardens.

Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer

Authors, owners of Canal House Station restaurant in Milford, N.J.

In the culinary world, Hamilton and Hirsheimer are goddesses of simple food, the kind of people who just happen to have a pie coming out the oven when you stop by without advance notice. So no surprise that cooking from a well-stocked pantry is what they do. Never are they without lots of good olive oil and canned tuna — which can be made into a stellar and satisfying pasta sauce with the addition of parsley and lemon — or eggs because, says Hirsheimer, “omelets are fantastic and can be made with whatever you have kicking around in the fridge.”

Like Lakshmi, Hamilton and Hirsheimer are also big advocates of frozen vegetables, especially peas. They dedicated a whole chapter to them in the sixth volume of their Canal House Cooking series. “You can make a great soup with canned or boxed chicken broth and a few bags of frozen peas,” Hirsheimer says.



(Alex Markow/Getty Images for South Beach Wine and Food Festival)

Nina Compton

Chef-owner of Compère Lapin and Bywater American Bistro, New Orleans

“The busier I get, the simpler I keep it at home,” Compton said. That means a lot of snacks, including pickles, nuts, charcuterie and cheese — plus a few Totino’s Supreme frozen pizzas. The one meal she cooks regularly out of her pantry: cacio e pepe, pasta with cheese and black pepper. “The key is adding the right amount of pasta water, because the starchy water makes the sauce really creamy.” Compton makes the pasta from scratch once a month, and then pulls it out of the freezer, but any dried pasta will do.

Chili and risottos are also go-tos. For risotto, she uses dried mushrooms, which can live in the pantry indefinitely and are reconstituted to make the stock the rice cooks in. (Frozen peas, plus plenty of cheese and butter, complete the dish.) Her chili, usually vegetarian, features dried beans and spices that she has on hand, including lots of smoked paprika, and she serves it with Cool Ranch Doritos.

Living in New Orleans, Compton has become a fan of Zatarain’s jambalaya seasoning mix. She adds it to rice, which she tops with fresh avocado. She also uses the seasoning to make a broth to cook mixed frozen vegetables.



(Dixie D. Vereen for The Washington Post)

Edward Lee

Author, chef-owner of 610 Magnolia and two other restaurants in Louisville, and Succotash in Washington, D.C.

Lee may not regularly cook at home, but when pressed he showed off his chef bona fides by cooking up something from next to nothing. In less than 15 minutes, he explained in a phone interview, he coaxed a tantalizing bowl of noodles from a packet of instant ramen, some frozen green beans, a dash of curry powder and a slice of processed American cheese. “The cheese adds a little creaminess and tang,” he said.



Edward Lee’s Pantry Ramen. (Tom McCorkle for The Washington Post; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Washington Post)

[Make the recipe: Edward Lee’s Pantry Ramen]

And a dash of nostalgia. During and after the Korean War, Lee says, Koreans learned about many nonperishable American foods such as Spam, hot dogs and processed cheese through U.S. military pantries and adopted them as a part of their staple diet, though they used them in their own ways. “Melted cheese on ramen is the best. It’s comfort food.”

And isn’t that what we really need right now?

More from Voraciously:

Six pantry-friendly dinners that will save you time and money

Here’s what we stock our pantries with ahead of a snow day

Canned tomatoes are pantry all-stars. Here’s how to choose and use them.

5 recipes that prove canned tuna is totally craveable