Chef's 6-1 Grocery Shopping Method Goes Viral as He Hopes It Helps Save Money (Exclusive) (2024)

● Chef Will Coleman has shared his culinary skills on The Drew Barrymore Show and Good Morning America.
● The young chef has gone viral on TikTok for his 6-1 grocery shopping method.
● Coleman tells PEOPLE he hopes this is a beginning of a movement that gets people experimenting in their kitchens more often.

Chef Will Coleman has started the new year taking TikTok by storm with a money-saving method of grocery buying that's gone majorly viral.

The New York-based chef and content creator started 2024 by sharing his 6-1 grocery method (sometimes called the 5-4-3-2-1 method), which has amassed nearly a million views. The idea is that when making your grocery list, you should aim to get six vegetables, five fruits, four proteins, three starches, two sauces/spreads and one fun thing for yourself.

Not only is the method saving shoppers money, but it's also introducing diversity to kitchens and challenging home chefs to make their ingredients stretch across nutritious meals.

Speaking with PEOPLE about the viral shopping method, which has taken off on TikTok and Instagram, Coleman says, "I created the 6-1 method to get people back to shopping more and create homecooked meals more compared to eating out."

Coleman explains the method offers something for everyone, from the most seasoned home chefs to people who are still trying to figure out how to efficiently buy groceries.

"It's designed in a way to cut costs because when you're shopping in the store, some of the higher ticket items are prepackaged or processed items. Fruits and vegetables are usually on the lower end of things and they can stretch beyond one meal. You can be way more creative about what you're putting out in the kitchen, and of course, it's healthier as well."

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In his work as a chef and content creator, Coleman prides himself in sharing ideas that make cooking more approachable and more fun for people who aren't naturally inclined to experiment in the kitchen.

"Accessibility is a big part of it. My goal is to get everyone cooking and everybody loving food, whether you're a chef or not. I've always experimented when it comes to how I approach food and how I share food."

While he's enthusiastic about the method himself, Coleman has been shocked and delighted to see how it has taken off across social media.

"It means so much to me because I've been doing the social media thing and cooking since I was 16 years old. I always love bringing people together through food and educating people through food. Now that it's at this scale, it means a lot because it's more impact. People know more about Chef Will Coleman and what I stand for."

He says he's received a lot of questions from people eager to adapt the method to their household, whether it's a single person or a large family.

"I love it so much because it's so flexible. You can do this for a household of two or four or six or eight. It doesn't matter. You can make it work for yourself and the way to go about that is to just grab a few more of the single items you choose in each category for your family."

Others have divulged to Coleman that the method challenges them to confront feelings about certain foods.

"People being a little scared of using vegetables or like they didn't know you can even cook with six different vegetables. But I can clear up that vegetables are affordable and versatile. You can get them pre-cut, pre-made, pre-roasted. And if you need to adapt in certain ways to accommodate your lifestyle, you can add an extra carb or protein where you need it. It's all about providing the foundation for getting folks in the grocery store and out of the mentality where they're afraid to cook at home."

Coleman has started showing his TikTok followers some different examples of shopping hauls and the recipes you can make with them.

"Going forward, I want to try to make recipe combinations and help provide more inspiration for people to get creative with their groceries. I want to prove this is a method that's for everyone to have fun in the kitchen and feel comfortable in the grocery store."

Coleman is looking forward to moving forward with the momentum of the 6 1 grocery shopping method and exploring the different ways he can expand on the concept.

"I'd love to turn it into a longer-form concept, be it a television show or social media content with amazing brand partners I feel aligned with, introducing my community to new products or even creating a book about this. I want to provide people that staple in their household that they can always look back and help folks feel confident in their cooking and shopping."