Joe

Well who is Joe and why does he have this blog. First a bit of background. I grew up in a house that did little cooking other than the basic meat and potato type meals. My dad worked his ass off all day and wanted something that was quick, easy and had a ton of protein in it. My mom worked her ass off all day long trying to keep the house clean and running interference between my two sisters and myself.

It wasn’t until I started working in San Francisco and eating at many of the restaurants that I actually tasted really good food. This was about 10 years ago. At the time I never had any desire to cook any of it and for that matter I didn’t even know how to make an omelet.

I met Nancy, who’s blog you can read at dishingup.wordpress.com, five years ago and my food life changed forever. I was trying food that I had never heard of before and would never think of eating… the worse part was that I was actually enjoyed it. In fact I would never eat any soup with vegetables for example until I started eating her soups. I didn’t like anything green and rarely ate anything in the dreaded vegetable rectangle of the governmental food pyramid. I can only attribute this to the fact that I hadn’t had access to these types of cooked foods before. Sorry Mom!

Now I’m a pretty competitive person and I love hobbies that have an intellectual basis to them. The more I watched others cook and the more cookbooks I looked at I thought, well I can do this. It was two years ago at Christmas Dinner that I made the decision to make my New Year’s Resolution to take up cooking so I could spend more time with Nancy and have more in common with her. Of course I thought I could become a better cook than her with a bit of practice. HAHAHAH, that was a laugh, I’ve been cooking and studying for the past few years and I still can’t hold a candle to her knowledge, creativity and skill and I sure can’t pronounce a majority of the things I’m making.

So for the past two years I’ve been teaching myself, with Nancy’s help and hours of reading and practicing, how to cook. Last year I joined her at Dish Cafe as the Catering Manger and I’ve learned quite a bit being around the restaurant. For example I’m really good at washing the dishes, shopping and making deliveries. Well, really I’m a pretty damn good cook as well.

What I have noticed in the past few years though is how inaccurate most recipes are and how little detail they actually give the reader, with the exception of America’s Test Kitchen, which I love. For instance very few recipes will tell you to leave the steak on the counter for 20 or 30 minutes before throwing it on the grill because of the internal temperature is too cold right from the fridge.

Hence this blog… I will chronicle all my mistakes, mishaps and wins while trying recipes and coming up with my own. The emphasis will be on what I have learned and every recipe or tip I post on the blog will be TESTED.

I hope that others out there on a similar journey will enjoy the stories and I look forward to exciting food discussions.

-Joe