About

Do you ever feel like something chose you? That’s how I feel about cooking: although it is something I stumbled into, it has become a passion that I can’t live without.

When I think about my life story, it actually isn’t very surprising that I would become interested in food. My dad is from Mississippi, so growing up my mom would make dishes such as greens and cornbread, salmon patties, and black eyed peas. A lot of my parents’ friends had southern roots as well, so southern food was the norm at any social gathering.

However, l suppose I had too much of a good thing because all that good food took its toll on my body. Although the reasons were more complicated than simply my family’s love for heavy food, as a child I become very overweight; in fact, Freshman year of high school, my BMI was just over 30: the threshold for obesity. Since I had spent most of my childhood overweight, fantasizing about what it would be like to be thin, I decided to educate myself about nutrition and exercise. Even though it started out of necessity, my passion for health and fitness has only grown since then.

Even though food had been a big part of my life through high school, it was not until college that I realized my passion for cooking. I decided to go to college close to home, and after college my family moved; coincidentally, our new home was next to a grocery store known for good produce and international products. On weekends that I decided to not stay on campus, I would go home, and my mom and I would cook together: it was then that I realized I liked not only cooking itself but also the process: buying the ingredients, cooking the food, and enjoying the fruits of my labor.

In college I also discovered other cuisines. I studied abroad in Chile and Argentina, and I tried foods there that I really enjoyed but were not available here in the United States. So, by researching recipes and techniques online, I was able to teach myself how to make dishes like the Chilean steak and avocado sandwich churrasco italiano, Argentine garlic parsley steak sauce known as chimichurri, and the world-famous delicacy known as dulce de leche caramel. In addition to being delicious, I feel a sense of ownership over the food: by studying Spanish, travelling abroad, and researching recipes, along with a bit of trial and error, I have command of a cuisine that very few people in the United States know anything about.

Surprisingly, learning about other cultures made me more interested in my own. Partly to answer questions about food in the United States, I rekindled my passion for southern food from my childhood. I researched how to make classic southern recipes like hummingbird cake and sweet potato pie, along with lesser known recipes like Savannah Red Rice. Now, I am on a mission to perfect my craft as a Southern chef, too.

From my father’s southern roots to my passion for fitness to my international travels, a lot of unrelated forces have come together to give me a passion for food. My main focus is on Southern and Soul Food along with Argentine food. I try to make recipes healthier when possible by substituting ingredients or cutting back on the amount used. I also make food that is truly health-oriented, but those recipes tend to be simple: they are a good way to punctuate times when I indulge.

If my philosophy on food interests you, be sure to take a look at my recipes both here on my site and on YouTube.