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009: Courtney Chun: How To Find Inspiration And Learn To Cook From The Internet

March 6, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Courtney Chun of Fork to Belly on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted on what she's doing.
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Courtney Chun of Fork to Belly on The Dinner Special podcast on How To Find Inspiration And Learn To Cook From The Internet

Fork to Belly

Courtney is relatively new to food blogging. She is a self-taught cook, and a true testament to how amazing the Internet is. Courtney claims to have learned everything, when it comes to cooking, from Google, YouTube videos, and other blogs.

I am so happy to have Courtney Chun of Fork to Belly joining me on the show today.

On Her Newly Discovered Passion for Food:

Courtney Chun of Fork to Belly on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her new found passion for food.

I would have to say it started maybe about a year ago. I was in my senior year of college.

Before then, I really never even spent that much time in the kitchen, and didn’t really have any experience working at a restaurant or anything. Then, I met my boyfriend. His dad owns a restaurant chain in Hawaii called Roy’s. He actually worked in the kitchen, so, I saw him making food in the kitchen, and I would help out.

I guess after that, I would watch YouTube videos of people making cupcakes or cookies. I would see different recipes on Pinterest, then I just started trying them myself. I mean, it didn’t always work out.

After a while, I got into cooking, and just really enjoying it. That’s how I got started with it. I never went to cooking school or anything. I don’t have professional skills. They’re still very basic.

On Starting Her Blog:

Courtney Chun of Fork to Belly on The Dinner Special podcast talking about starting her food blog.

I always wanted to start some kind of blog. One of my friends mentioned to me, “You should start a food blog.” I was like, “Oh, yeah. That would be a good idea.”

I guess because on Instagram, I would post a lot of pictures of what I made. Another friend approached me, and she also started a fashion blog. She was just telling me you always think, “Maybe I don’t have enough experience, maybe my photography skills aren’t good enough, or my cooking skills aren’t good enough.” But that’s the whole point of the blog. If you don’t start it at some point, it’s never going to get done.

She was like, “Even if you don’t think you’re ready, maybe you should just go for it, and just see how it goes. Even if it’s not something you enjoy, then you can take a break, and stop.” So she helped me to get started.

I majored in Multimedia Arts, so I learned a lot of photography skills. I took a lot of web design classes, so that gave me a basis, a platform, to start my blog off.

I read a lot of blogger posts about how they got started, a lot of them say they have completely no experience with the photography or with web design. But they do have the cooking experience. I guess I’m a little opposite because I have the photography skills, and the web design skills, but I’m still really new to cooking. It’s kind of funny.

On Food Styling and Photography:

Courtney Chun of Fork to Belly on The Dinner Special podcast talking about food styling.

Food styling, sometimes I’ll be trying to put down all these plates, or arrange the forks, and it’s just not working out. I see other pictures on Pinterest and it looks so beautiful. I’m like, “I wish I could do something like that.” So I’m still definitely learning about the food styling. I’ve always been into art and design so maybe that background kind of helped.

The most helpful tip that I think I read on some blog, is that you just look at pictures that you really like. Let’s say for Pinterest as an example. You look at the type of plates they use, or maybe what kind of wooden table it’s on, or the colors. You learn that way. You read from the photo, internalize it, and think about how this can help when you’re actually doing your own food styling.

Photography’s just a whole other beast, aside from the cooking part. It’s huge. I don’t even have that much equipment. I know some bloggers, they have all the lights. They have all the different backdrops and stuff. They have really great lenses, a tripod, and stuff like that. I don’t even have all of those things.

On Learning How to Cook From the Internet:

Courtney Chun of Fork to Belly on The Dinner Special podcast talking about learning how to cook from the Internet.

I’ll look for inspiration through Pinterest. I use Pinterest a ton. If I see a photo of something that looks really good, like a cake or some kind of dish, I usually click on the link, and then I go to their page. I see the process about what the food blogger did to get there. That gives me inspiration.

One example is I’m thinking about doing these peach lavender Pop-Tarts because I saw a photo of homemade Pop-Tarts on Pinterest. I looked at how she did it. Then, I just go to Google, and I type in “homemade Pop-Tarts recipe.”

You know how sometimes when you Google recipes, you’ll see they have ratings on them? Normally, the higher rated ones, I’ll look at those. I’ll see what ingredients they used or the steps they took. For most recipes that are simple, it’s kind of the same process, so you can jump off it from that. You combine both, or all the recipes, and what you think might work out.

For certain recipes, like the ginger bread cake I made, and the one that you found me out from; I came across her ginger bread cake. I was like, “Oh my God, this looks so good.” Then, I search for other ginger bread cakes. They weren’t what I was looking for. So I just stuck with her recipe. It was a beautiful recipe, everything worked out really well.

For certain instances, I do use Google to help me. I also sometimes will just take a complete recipe from a blogger, then, of course, I credit them, and make sure they get some publicity from that, too.

On Cooking Through Trial and Error

Courtney Chun of Fork to Belly on The Dinner Special podcast talking about cooking through trial and error.

I think sometimes I just may get really lucky with certain recipes, but I’ve definitely had my fair share of ones that have failed.

I did a lemon tart.

I was using my mom’s kitchen because I’m at home in Hawaii right now. I was using her kitchen for the first time. I never really cooked when I lived at home because she would always cook. She has an electric stove and at home I have a gas stove. So hers would heat differently and I didn’t really understand the temperature differences.

I was trying to make the tart filling. I guess the recipe said that you have to pre-cook it a little bit. I had it on the stove and I think I was doing something else in the kitchen. Then, all of a sudden, I hear bubbling on the stove. I run to the stove. I look and it’s like this omelet. I was like, “Now what do I do?” I used up all the ingredients.

I had to go back to the store. I was just so, “I want to be done with this recipe already.” Sometimes it doesn’t turn out how I want it to. I guess that comes with the territory, nothing’s always going to work.

On Good Online Resources for Learning to Cook:

Courtney Chun of Fork to Belly on The Dinner Special podcast talking about good online resources for learning to cook.

I think YouTube is really great.

You just Google in, “How do I cut a mango?” I remember that was one of the things that I had to learn because when you cut through, it’s just the seed and you can’t really peel it away. It’s not like an avocado. It was just cutting around it and making this huge mess the first couple of times I did it. I eventually Googled about it.

I feel like sometimes it’s hard to explain certain things like that in writing. So it definitely helps to see videos on YouTube where you can just type in “How do I cut a mango?” You see a guy actually do it, and you have that visualization so that when you do it yourself, you understand it more.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I definitely watch Hell’s Kitchen. I love Cupcake Wars.

I love the one that Gordon Ramsay does where he fixes up restaurants or restaurants that aren’t doing well. It breaks my heart to watch it, and it makes me feel bad, but you can’t stop watching it.

I still love watching Ina Garten when she cooks, too, on the Food Network.

What are some food blogs or websites that we have to know about?

I love Food 52. I love their shop. I always look at everything on their shop and I’m like, “Oh my God. This is so expensive but I really want it.”

I feel like they have really good food recipes that they share from other bloggers.

I still love YouTube a lot. I like watching Nerdy Nummies. It’s just really fun. It’s just so creative. I just love watching her show.

I think my top three favorite food blogs to look at right now are Local Milk Blog, My Name is Yeh and I am a Food Blog. I love their photography. I love when they post new recipes.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter that make you happy?

In the food blog world, I definitely enjoy seeing Local Milk’s blog posts. She just blows my mind at how talented she is.

I really enjoy Two Red Bowls. I really like her posts because she does a lot of Asian foods, too. They’re not really well known Asian dishes, at least not to American people. That inspires me because I’m full Chinese. I enjoy sharing these dishes with other people. My mom’s third generation, so we don’t really have experience trying to make these really traditional dishes. When I see other food bloggers making traditional Chinese dishes, that’s a heart warming thing too because it’s getting to see your culture. It’s also the beautiful styling that she puts into it.

What is something all home cooks should have in their pantry?

I definitely think my Ninja Blender has been a godsend. You can use it to make smoothies. It’s also a huge food processor because it has the long blades in it.

Since I’ve been back home here, I don’t have it with me. When I look at a recipe and I go to make it, I’m like, “Oh no. I don’t have my Ninja Blender.” My mom, she has this food processor where it’s manual. It’s  this weird technology but you press it down, then the food processor spins. It gets so strenuous. I’m just missing my Ninja Blender so much.

Name one ingredient you cannot live without?

I would say butter or eggs.

I go through so much butter, and so many eggs. I literary, at one point, had three cartons of eggs in my fridge. I was trying to make a cake, and for a cake you need eight eggs or something. Those are the ingredients that I always need to have on hand.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

It’s not really a cookbook. My grandma, she used to write down all her recipes. She would put them together in this folder. I’ve actually been able to look back at her recipes, and see the things she’s made.

It’s kind of funny because I haven’t eaten it since I was really young. But then, I see the name and I read through the ingredients. I don’t have to see the finished product. I can just read through the ingredients, see the steps, and I’m like, “Oh yeah, that’s what I was eating. Or that’s what she made me before.”

It’s been really nice to be able to have that, and be able to physically hold it instead of having the recipe written down on the Internet because you can see her handwriting.

It’s just really personal. It’s something I really cherish.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I love listening to audio books. I really enjoy reading. A lot of the time, I don’t really have the time to sit down and read with my eyes. I wish we all had four arms and four eyes because then I could do two things at once.

When I’m in the kitchen, you’re cooking or you’re using your hands, and you’re using your eyes but you’re not really using your ears. I enjoy just listening to an audio book.

Then, I also have the book myself so later on I can go back to the book and continue to read. It’s been really helpful because I feel like sometimes in the kitchen, not that I get bored, but having something to listen to, to keep your mind going, really helps and makes me enjoy the process of cooking more.

Keep Posted on Courtney:

Courtney Chun of Fork to Belly on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted on what she

I definitely think just following my blog.

I just made a new place where you could subscribe to it and then you get emails when I post new dishes.

My blog is the best way because I don’t always post what I’m making on Instagram. So definitely forktobelly.com.

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    Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Courtney Chun, Cupcake Wars, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Food Network, Food Photography, Food Styling, Food52, Fork to Belly, Gordon Ramsay, Hawaii, Hell's Kitchen, i am a food blog, Ina Garten, Internet, Local Milk, Los Angeles, My Name is Yeh, Nerdy Nummies, Ninja Blender, Roy's restaurant, Two Red Bowls, YouTube

    005: Eva Kosmas Flores: How To Make Shrubs And What They Are

    February 25, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

    Eva Kosmas Flores of Adventures in Cooking on The Dinner Special podcast talks about how to keep posted with her.
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    Eva Kosmas Flores of Biscuits and Such on The Dinner Special podcast on How To Make Shrubs And What They Are

    Adventures in Cooking is a dramatic feast for the eyes.

    Eva shares her love of homegrown food and features honest recipes in a way you’ve only seen in the most luxurious of cookbooks.

    I am so psyched to have Eva Kosmas Flores from Adventures in Cooking joining me on the show today.

    On Starting Her Blog, Food Styling and Food Photography:

    Eva Kosmas Flores of Adventures in Cooking on The Dinner Special podcast talking about staring her blog, food styling and food photography.

    I graduated from college back in 2009 which, if you remember, was a really rough year for the economy. So, I was unemployed for a while, a couple of months after graduation.

    I had a lot of time.

    I’ve always loved to cook. My family had a Greek restaurant for about 30 years, so I grew up in the restaurant helping. My parents both cooked a lot at home. I was always cooking, just during college, after college.

    All my family and friends would always ask for the recipes that I was making, so I really just started it as a platform to share my recipes with just my friends and family who’ve been asking for all these recipes.

    Then I got really into the food blogging world and community, and I got really into the food photography and food styling, and that’s when it really took off.

    The images now are so much better than when I first started.

    I went to university and studied film production and sociology. I wanted to do documentary filmmaking, but that’s really hard to get a job in. There’s not a lot of jobs for that, and so I ended up looking into producing.

    I worked for a line producer at NBC Universal for a little bit. I was doing my blog at the same time that I was working there, and the more I worked there, the more I just wanted to go home and write about food or edit photos. I just looked forward to the weekends when I’d be able to shoot and style.

    I ended up realizing that this is what I really wanted to do full time, and so I quit my job and just started doing that, and I haven’t looked back since. It’s been amazing. I totally just fell into it.

    I had the technical knowledge from studying film production like video photography, a lot of the technical stuff is really similar, but I had no food styling experience. I just kind of picked that up from looking at other food blogs that I loved like Call Me Cupcake or What Katie Ate, and just learning from them.

    On Cooking and Her Family’s Greek Restaurant:

    Eva Kosmas Flores of Adventures in Cooking on The Dinner Special podcast talks about cooking and her family

    I used to get so excited to help my mom cook. I was so small, we’d have to get a step stool so I could reach the pot to sprinkle spices in. I’ve been cooking since I was really little, so for me it’s almost like breathing. It’s so intrinsic and natural.

    I think probably the first thing I did in the kitchen was peeling cucumbers, because they had a Greek salad. They were doing so much Greek salad. Peeling cucumbers is such a monotonous thing, but super easy, so I would do that. I’d also help my mom take tickets up at the front. I’d clean the tables and stuff. I just helped with whatever.

    I love to cook Greek food. My dad’s from Greece. My mom’s American. They both were never afraid to use spices, so I always use tons of spices when I’m cooking and lots of olive oil rather than butter if I can, lots of vinegar too. My dad was really heavy-handed with vinegar, which I think is in me.

    On Shrubs:

    Eva Kosmas Flores of Adventures in Cooking on The Dinner Special podcast talks about shrubs.

    I love that sour-sweet combination like Shrubs. I don’t know if you’ve ever had Shrubs before?

    It’s like a really cool cocktail mixer.

    Basically, you just mash together fruit, sugar and vinegar, and you let it sit in a bowl overnight. It’s usually best in the fridge. Then the next day you strain out the pulpy bits, and basically what you’re left with is the sweet and sour, fruity cocktail mixer that’s super good.

    Back in the day before they had refrigerators, that’s how they used to make fruit juice, because the sugar and vinegar would preserve the fruit flavor.

    It’s like drinking vinegar, some people call it that. You can have it by itself, but what I like to do is I’ll just mix it with an alcohol and maybe some club soda so it’s a little sparkling.

    It’s just super good, especially in the summer when it’s hot. It’s really nice and tangy.

    On Things Not Going As Planned:

    Eva Kosmas Flores of Adventures in Cooking on The Dinner Special podcast talks about how not everything always goes as planned on her blog.

    Yeah, that happens. That has definitely happened.

    I wouldn’t say it happens a lot, but it does happen. Actually, today, I’m making these waffles for my blog. I’m topping them with toasted coconut flakes, and I’m toasting them in the oven. You’re only supposed to have them in there for a couple of minutes, and I just kept getting side-tracked with other stuff, and so I burnt two batches in a row, of coconut flakes.

    I had the last bit of my bag. I was like, “Okay, I really have to pay attention now, because if I burn this I have to go back to the store.”

    Luckily, I put the timer up on my phone and didn’t forget this time, but, yeah, that totally happens. It’s super normal. You just have to roll with the punches.

    Sometimes it stinks because you’ll make a recipe that tastes super good, but it’s just really ugly, and you’re like, “I don’t really want to put this on my blog, because the photos aren’t going to look great,” but really, it’s super tasty.

    Mac and cheese can kind of tread that line, because all mac and cheese is delicious, but it’s a weird looking thing. It can be hard to photograph, so there’s always ups and downs with that.

    The photography usually wins for my blog because I don’t want to put it up there if I feel like the photos didn’t turn out. Sometimes if I think the photos are okay, but not great, I’ll put it up and have a little disclaimer like, “This isn’t the prettiest dish, but it tastes really good,” and just let people know not to judge it by its cover.

    On Her Process For Getting Ideas Onto Her Blog:

    Eva Kosmas Flores of Adventures in Cooking on The Dinner Special podcast talks about her process for getting ideas onto her blog.

    I don’t practice. The ones that end up on my blog are usually the first time I’m making that recipe unless it’s an old family one that I’m sharing.

    I have a Google calendar that I basically plan out a week or two, to a month out in advance, of what I want to make. I have all these color codes. I’m also writing a cookbook right now.

    My cookbook recipe is coded with one color and my blog recipes I’m developing are another. The date they’re going to go up is color coded and everything. My Google calendar is absolutely insane looking.

    That’s basically the process, and then once I get an idea for what I want to make, I’ll do research on similar recipes. That’s fun because sometimes I’ll find inspiration like, “Oh, they use that ingredient. Well, this is similar, and I think that might taste even better. So maybe I’ll use this instead and put a fun spin on it.”

    Then I’ll just start making it. Of course, you always have to taste as you go, because sometimes it just needs a little bit more, and you don’t know that until you taste it. Like, “Oh, this is kind of bland. I’ll add a little bit more salt, or maybe I’ll add chili powder.” Something like that.

    The Pressure Cooker:

    Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

    Barefoot Contessa.

    What are some food blogs or websites that we have to know about?

    I would say Call Me Cupcake. It’s my number one, love her. Two Red Bowls is great too. Those are probably my top two right now.

    Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter that make you happy?

    I probably have to go with Linda Lomelino. Once again, she’s the girl behind Call Me Cupcake.

    Her Instagram feed is crazy, and it’s super, super beautiful.

    Then on Pinterest, I follow this girl, Catherine Crawley, and she pins a lot of beautiful stuff too.

    What is something all home cooks should have in their pantry?F

    I would say Fleur de Sel. That’s a great finishing salt, and it’s a good texture too.

    Name one ingredient you cannot live without?

    I would probably have to go with rosemary.

    You can use it in desserts and in savory stuff. It’s awesome.

    What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

    I really like The Art of Fermentation. That one’s really fun. I got a fermentation crock recently, and so I’ll be fermenting.

    Then, Artisan Cheeses at Home. That one’s really cool because it tells you how you can make all these crazy sounding cheeses in your own kitchen.

    What song or album just makes you want to cook?

    Django Reinhardt. He is a jazz guitarist from the 1920s or ’30s.

    If you Google it and you listen to a song, you’re like, “Oh, yeah.”

    All the music kind of sounds the same but it’s just very peppy and happy, and just makes me feel like I’m in an old world kitchen making some stuff from scratch, like rolling out dough.

    I don’t know. It just has this awesome feel to it, so I would have to go with Django.

    Keep Posted on Eva:

    Eva Kosmas Flores of Adventures in Cooking on The Dinner Special podcast talks about how to keep posted with her.

    My Instagram handle and my Twitter handle are both EvaKosmasFlores. My Pinterest handle is the same.

    If you want to find me on Facebook, you can just look up Adventures in Cooking, and that’s where I am.

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      Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Adventures in Cooking, Artisan Cheeses at Home, Barefoot Contessa, Call Me Cupcake, Django Reinhardt, Eva Kosmas Flores, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Food Photography, Food Styling, Greek food, Linda Lomelino, Shrubs, The Art of Fermentation, Two Red Bowls, What Katie Ate

      Hello! I'm Gabriel Soh, home cook, food enthusiast and your host of The Dinner Special podcast.
      Everything here on The Dinner Special is an experiment, just like with cooking. Thank you for listening and being part of the adventure.

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