my food story
11 october 2018
My first conscious cooking memory growing up in South Carolina (go Cocks) has got to be making potato salad with my mom. Insanely simple but incredibly fucking delicious, this style of dish has and continues to shape my culinary identity. Using basic ingredients that can be found anywhere and making them into something that tastes great is what I like to do.
I learned a lot about cooking from my mom and every chance I got I would volunteer to be her sous chef. Even as my cooking has evolved I still use some of the same basic skills I learned from her to this day. I have still never tasted potato salad as good as my mom’s. I guess I’m a bit biased when it comes to this but can you fucking blame me.
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mediterranean diet
11 september 2018
Last year when I left Paris I understandably gained a few pounds. I mean a consistent diet of the three b’s (beer, bread, butter), french fries, copious amounts of wine and fried food is not really recommended if you want to lose weight. Add to that 2 weeks in Puerto Rico and then all the foods that I missed from Miami, I bulked up quite a bit. I needed to lose some of this weight. In came the Mediterranean diet. I’m not going to sit here and give you a full briefing on what the Mediterranean Diet is. There are so many fucking sites that are much better at explaining that shit than I am. But I will give you a preview.
What is the Mediterranean Diet? The Mediterranean Diet is basically the ingredients and techniques that are shared by the cuisines of countries around the Mediterranean Sea. This includes a heavy emphasis on vegetables and fruits, beans, lentils, whole grains, seafood with less meat/poultry, and olive oil. It’s way less restricting than many other diets that I’ve been on and there are so many dishes that can be prepared while still keeping to the diet. Cooking Light has an awesome article about the Mediterranean Diet if you’re interested in more details. For me, there are six reasons that I love this diet so much.
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low carb baked chicken wings
17 february 2017
If you’re anything like me then you love chicken wings. I can eat chicken wings all day every day and not get tired of them. There’s just so many ways to make them taste absolutely amazing. I especially love fried chicken wings, which by the way the French are great in cooking many things but fried chicken wings are not one of them. The best chicken wings I’ve had here come from a Canadian bar called The Moose and then after that, there’s KFC. Which in and of itself is not that bad but KFC should not be that second in a list of best chicken wings. But I digress, since I’m a huge slob and have gained 15 lbs in the last 7 months, I can’t have a good breaded chicken wing. I make a damn good fried chicken wing too. The low carb diet I’m on now dictates that I can’t have flour and it sucks hard. So I had to find a really good alternative to the traditional fried chicken wing, something that has great flavor is crunchy and at the same time good for my low carb diet.
These wings are super simple to make and feel free to add to this to make them your own. Maybe using a hot sauce to coat them in, or a low carb BBQ sauce (In the near future I will be adding a low carb sauce guide so tune in) would be great. I also make a great ranch dressing (because they don’t have ranch dressing here, if you do happen to find it in some specialty American shops they charge you 4 times the price you would pay in The States) that I like to pair with these wings and some generic hot pepper sauce.
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basque-ing in the glow
05 January 2017
As much as I love everything French, Basque cuisine and culture are quickly beginning to steal my heart. It has been 3 short years in the making. In total, I’ve spent what amounts to over a year in Paris and France, in contrast, I have barely spent a full two weeks in Basque Country. However, I just can’t get enough of what this magical place has on offer. There is one special tiny city nestled neatly between the Atlantic Ocean and some mountains (not sure which ones, just some mountains). This city is called San Sebastian, and it is by far my favorite city in Basque Country. Like I said, I haven’t spent that much time here so you can just tell me to fuck off if you think you know better than me, and this is all subject to opinion anyway. However, if you like food, beer, wine, beautiful beaches and some of the nicest people in the world then you will definitely love San Sebastian or Donostia in Euskara, we’ll get to that later.
If you haven’t noticed I use Wikipedia a lot, so according to Wiki Basque Country is “the name given to the home of the Basque people in the western Pyrenees that straddles the border between France and Spain on the Atlantic coast.” I know, that’s a shitty definition that really doesn’t mean much, especially if you are unfamiliar with this region. It’s simply an amazingly beautiful place, with great food and drink and some of the best people in the world.
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how do you classify yourself?
22 april 2016
I was asked a question this week while speaking about cooking with some friends over Jamaican oxtails. By the way, it is ridiculous how fucking expensive ox-tails have gotten. The fuck. Anyway, I was asked, “How do you classify yourself, do you call yourself an amateur chef/cook?” I cook at least four days a week, even when in Paris. Most weeks I cook almost every day. Some days I cook twice and sometimes thrice. Not to mention the late night baking experiments I have recently begun to undertake. I am NO amateur. I’m simply a home chef. Well versed in comfort food, BBQ and tasty shit.
Since my first visit to Paris in 2012, I’ve slowly started to come out of my cooking comfort zone. Trying new techniques, using ingredients I have never thought to use and going down new culinary tracks. There is something to be said about the impact of cultural stimulation on some people. For me, being able to witness new cultures and new ways to do things has stimulated me in many creative ways. From the major differences to the minor, it has helped turn me into a much better chef.
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what is cooking shit in paris??
Right now I have a couple of obsessions. One is food and the other is travel. My first REAL venture took me 4500 miles away from Miami all the way to Paris. Just being here has taught me so much about food. The amount of research needed to understand ingredients and practices in a foreign country elevated my skills. So I started “Cooking Shit in Paris” in early 2016 because I wanted to share all my amazing Parisian food-based experiences with anyone that would take the time to listen. However, life happened and there was suddenly not much time in my schedule to keep it up. But I’m fucking back ya’ll. I’m still Cooking Shit in Paris but I’m also cooking shit in other places along the way.
I know most people don’t want to think about cooking while traveling. Especially when in the food Mecca that is Paris. With so many boulangeries, patisseries, cafes, bars and boucheries around with some of the most amazing food why would one cook? I say fuck that. I love cooking, I’m not a pro but I like to think I’m pretty damn good. Since 2012 my wife and I like to spend at least 3 months a year based in Paris and tour Europe. Staying someplace for that long while eating out can be a bit expensive, so unless you’re Scrooge McDuck or a kept man/woman, you have got to do some cooking.
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