Essays

As our small town evolved, more families moved in from all over the world. I remember one family bought my best friend’s house. It was something like 15 acres of fallow land, with a large house that was built at the pinnacle of their grandparent’s careers. The house was grand, with 10 bedrooms, two kitchens, a library, conservatory, and countless other amenities that I found fascinating as a kid who lived in a tiny 2 bedroom turn-of-the-century home.

I grew up in a small town of immigrants mostly from various parts of central, eastern, and northern Europe. Many of our neighbours were second and third generation Mennonites, with a few Dutch families sprinkled here and there. We were the outsiders, which was honestly a great way to grow up.

I remember an old cast aluminium pot, handed down from my grandparents. It was pockmarked, with a patina of polymerized oils in the depressions. It once served as a pressure cooker that exploded in my grandmother’s kitchen, so it no longer had a lid. The handle was loose and the bolt seized, making it a death trap when loaded with a hot sauce. This pot was mostly used for my mom’s frugal spaghetti sauce, which was a simple combination of beef, puréd tomatoes, and just a hint of oregano, salt, and pepper.

My dad only knew how to cook a few dishes, but he was proud of each one. He loved making boxed mac and cheese. It was usually the blue generic box, and not brand named KD (Kraft Dinner for anyone not from Canada).

I remember learning to make foil camp packets at a kids camp. The recipe was simple: a handful of cut up veg, a potato cut into cubes, ¼ pound of beef, half a bouillon cube, and a pat of butter in a foil pouch (with some ground pepper). We cooked it over a fire until it smelled lovely.

A lot of the principles in cookery are obvious in hindsight. Like: what can you put in stock? Assuming you want your stock to taste good, you put in things that taste good and are safe to eat. It’s important to remember that stock is really just a savoury tea, and the process itself needs to be matched with ingredients that extract well.

I occasionally cook on the road while staying in corporate apartments. These kitchens are functional, but often lack basic ingredients that you don’t want to buy and leave on the road.

(Rambly + In progress) I plan a week of meals by selecting proteins and vegetables, stocking my pantry and fridge, and planning base sauces and preparations that can be used in several different ways. I “win the fridge” when I use up all of the perishable ingredients, either in meals, or in foods I can freeze for lazier days.

You have probably noticed that most recipes are hot garbage. I’m not just talking about those recipes that contain more story than method, or recipes that underestimate cooking times, temperatures, and ingredients, or even how most recipes are so poorly formatted that they’re difficult to read. I’m talking more about recipes that have no clear idea about what they are or why. And failing any semblance of self-awareness, most recipes fail to teach you much about the how either.

Food Video Filming Techniques A catalog of directorial and editorial methods drawn from Edgar Wright and Wes Anderson, mapped to practical food video production. Each technique includes the cinematic source, food application, a concrete example, and production cost rating.