FAQ
What’s all this now?
I'm sure you have some questions about me, so to cut down on the email I receive from this blog, I thought I'd answer the most common questions up front. And who knows, I may even answer some questions here that you wouldn't have thought to ask.
Are you a chef?
Absolutely not. I really like food, I watch Food Network stuff sometimes, and I know how to Google recipe-like things, but I have never been to culinary school. There was one summer, in college, where I worked in a restaurant kitchen, but it was a "British-style" pub in Sacramento, and mostly it was just working a deep fryer for fish n' chips or bangers n' mash.
Why are you doing this?
It's a combination of peer pressure and procrastination. I'm one of those insufferable people who posts pictures of all of the food she makes/eats, and my friends on Facebook were like, "You're clogging up our feeds with these om noms and it's getting in the way of all of the memes we could be looking at. Just start a blog already." Also, I've been procrastinating updating my resume and portfolio and blogging is a really good way to put that off.
Can you teach me to cook really well?
Probably, almost assuredly, not.
Do you write your own recipes?
No. I rarely even follow them. Usually I just crave something and then google around until I find a recipe or two that look like what I’m craving, and then I glance at them while I toss things into a pan.
If you could cook with any celebrity chef who would it be?
So this is weird, but I don’t get super fucking pumped about celebrity chefs the way some of my friends do. I mean, I def respect the skill and imagination they possess, but if we’re being honest, I have concerns about what propping up chefs as celebrities has done to the public perception of the restaurant industry as a whole—particularly in this COVID-19 world. The industry is supported by teams of people and fetishizing the role of the individual over the many—while inherently in keeping with American cultural values—effects public perception, ultimately undervaluing the role of say, the line cook or busser or the person who washes the dishes. I think I’d rather cook with the people in the kitchen who keep the restaurants going.
Also, José Andrés. The man is a living saint.
Are there any foods you hate?
Beets.
Why?
Because they taste like dirt.
What about if I cooked them—
I’m going to stop you right there. I've tried them every way imaginable—roasted, pickled, puréed, in borsch, grilled, in juices, as ice cream—everyone thinks they're going to make them for me in some new way that I'll like. And then I try them that new way (because I don’t want to be rude) and they still taste like dirt. But then I also end up kind of resenting the person who insisted I’d like them that way, because I just don't like beets and now I have the taste of dirt in my mouth.
But what about—
Nope. I hate beets and you need to let this one go.
Can I pet your dog?
Yes.