Welcome to my blog! I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time and that time has finally come! The goal of my blog is to share cooking tips, recipes, feature hot new restaurants and hotter chefs! But most importantly, I want to share with you my love of food…ALL kinds of food. Not just the food you know and love, but food from different cultures.
There are many chefs I admire…some I’ve had the pleasure to work with and some I admire from afar. However, my Chef Zeus is Anthony Bourdain because he boldly and with an open-mind, traveled the globe to learn about the food cultures of each place he visited. Bourdain visited many countries and connected with locals to reveal their history, politics and cuisine. I’ve always thought I was open to try anything but Bourdain challenges his viewers to realize that we may not be as open-minded as we think and to consider the backstory of why and how certain foods landed on certain plates in certain countries.
Another one of my idols is Marcus Samuellson, an Ethiopian-born, Swedish-American celebrity chef. I’ve always followed and admired him but it was his show, “No Passport Required,” that elevated him to Chef God status in my eyes. Samuellson showcases the cuisine of immigrants in this country who are determined to keep their food traditions alive and thriving. In Season 2, Episode 2, learning about the painstaking and time-honored tradition of making Basturma at a small Armenian deli in LA, forced me to find the nearest Armenian grocery to try this delicacy. And it did not disappoint!
Lastly, let’s not forget Stephen Satterfield. This chef, sommelier and food writer, who brought us “High on the Hog,” a documentary which chronicles the history of food in America, starting with the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade and ending with Juneteenth. Satterfield interviews and breaks bread with chefs, restaranteurs and historians in Benin, the Gullah Islands, Philly, DC and Galveston. His narrative reveals just how much West Africans and their ancestors, through their food and agricultural knowledge, shaped America.
So, please, follow me on this fantastic, delicious and amazing journey because there is so much to learn, eat and enjoy!