Gordon Ramsay | The Dinner Special podcast

124: Robyn Holland: Baking Up a Whole New Way to Treat Yourself

May 25, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Sweetish.co

Robyn launched her blog in 2015 after a decade of dabbling in storytelling through writing, baking, and photography. She is obsessed with people and food, and her food experiences range from working in professional bakeries to teaching cooking classes to freelance baking and cooking for clients. Robyn firmly believes there is joy in treating yourself when you treat yourself well.

I am so excited to have Robyn Holland of Sweetish.co on the show today.

(*All photos below are Robyn’s.)

On A Whole New Way to Treat Yourself:

We played around with that tagline and that purpose a lot, and we would like to incorporate a lot more how-to on things for people to learn, so a lot of educational stuff, instead of just a recipe.

I think one of the big things that I wanted to do is bust through some of these food rumors, like what is really good for you versus what isn’t good for you at all. I know it seems oxymoronic,…I don’t know the right word…but ironically, even, because I do talk so much about desserts. But I’m very specific with the ingredients that I’ll use, and I would like to introduce produce and different flours, gluten-free options, just fun stuff like that into our everyday baking. So I really wanted to come at it from that angle and that approach. Sweetish to me, I wanted to create this online bakery, and bakeries don’t just have sweets, they have savory, too, incorporating that concept.

On Learning How to Bake:

The first dish I probably learned to bake were chocolate chip cookies. And my mom, she’s a really good cook, and my Grandma was a really good cook, and I just learned. I remember making pizza dough with my dad in the kitchen, just for fun, when I was little, six years old. And so we just were very much a family of food and always making things. And baking from scratch has just been a big part of my upbringing.

And then when I moved away for university, for college, I was like, “Okay, I’ve got to do this on my own.” That’s probably when I really fell in love with it even more because it was just me in the kitchen. I realized I could create all of these different things and started taking food science classes. I actually started working in a bakery. So it just escalated from there, really just wanting to learn.

On What it’s Like Baking Wedding Cakes:

Very terrifying, yes, very. I am not a culinary institute graduate. I learned from some amazing bakers at the bakeries I’ve worked at. But I felt very like, “Oh, my gosh. I don’t know how to do this.” So luckily the style of the cakes that they wanted were very much me, very, very simple and flowers here and there and different things like that, and they just wanted them to taste good and be pretty. So I’ve done freelance work like that. It’s super nerve-racking. The transportation of wedding cakes is the worst. It’s like, “Okay. Oh, my gosh. I forgot about this, and I forgot about having to drop them off somewhere.”

But that concept of just very simple, very, very simple and very homemade. Pretty, but very homemade, and that’s really the feeling I wanted to bring into Sweetish, very approachable, very homemade. There are some incredibly beautiful cakes and different things out there, and I’m just like, “Gosh, I’m so simple compared to that.” I really don’t want to hassle a lot with food or with baking. I want it to be easy, I want it to be really good, and I want to know what’s in my baked goods.

That approach was definitely taken into the wedding cakes. They didn’t have to do a bunch of sugar art or anything like that and just did really simple, beautiful.

On a Dish That is Special to Her:

There are so many. I don’t know if I will even ever post about this, but one dish that we used to make growing up… We have a lot of Danish heritage, and we called it cream eggs on toast. We would butter toast, we’d get really good bread, and we’d just toast it, and every kid would have a fun job in the kitchen for preparing this meal. And it probably sounds really gross, but it was really good. We’d tear toast up, and then my mom would make this cream sauce, like a Béchamel sauce. And then we would have hard boiled eggs, and you would mix the white part of the hard boiled eggs with the cream sauce. And then you’d pour it over these little pieces of buttered toast, and then you’d crumble the egg yolk on top. That was some sort of Danish thing that my Grandma would make. I don’t even know.

It was a super cheap dinner, but we loved dipping our little pieces of toast in this cream sauce with egg. Even now, it probably wouldn’t even be half as good, but it was just such a special memory that we were involved and making this special dish growing up. There are so many more that probably sound so much more appealing than that.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I love Gordon Ramsay, his show. I’ve kind of been watching old shows, though. I love Cooked…That’s a documentary series…and Chef’s Table on Netflix, both of those. And then anything that has to do with Barefoot Contessa I watch all the time. Those are probably my top ones.

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

There are so many. There are a few that I have been obsessed with lately. I love Sprouted Kitchen. She’s probably my favorite blogger out there, and I’ve read her blog probably the longest. I love With Food And Love, I love Sherrie, what she’s doing…and I love Heartbeet Kitchen. That’s another one. She just has beautiful photography. You can just feel her sunshine through her posts. I love Hummingbird High. I think she does awesome bakery goods stuff, and I love what she’s doing. There are a bazillion.

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

I follow probably more people on Instagram than anything else. I love following Apartment Therapy for different things for kitchen ideas because I dream of having an amazing kitchen some day. I love Hey, Sweet Pea. They’re really fun and inspirational, and they’re a husband/wife team that have started their own business. They started the branding program that I had mentioned previously, so they’re super inspiring.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

I’ll go with unusual. I bought this super weird pie rack…I wish I could show it to you…but it looks like chicken coop circles. And I guess it was something that they used to cool pies on, and it looks like an empty wired cake pan. You’re supposed to put a pie to cool on top and then a pie to cool on the middle. I saw it at this cool store up in northern California, and I was like, “What is that?” They told me it was a pie cooling rack. So I don’t even know if it really is, but I had my eyes on it.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

Raw onions. I used to hate raw onions, and now I like them. If I’m putting them in sauces and stuff or dressings, it can’t be a ton, but I definitely have learned to like them more.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Barefoot Contessa at Home, it’s one of my favorite cookbooks ever. I love Huckleberry. That’s one of my favorite cookbooks. The Violet Bakery Cookbook. I love her stuff. Those are some good ones.

Barefoot Contessa, the original cookbook, is one of my favorite cookbooks of all time. That is the cookbook that got me cooking.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I love listening to the Lumineers. They’re my favorite. And then I love listening to The Black Keys, and sometimes I’ll put on The Beach Boys. That’s fun and upbeat to listen to. Those three are probably my favorite.

On Keeping Posted with Robyn:

Instagram is a great way, and I love comments and stuff on my blog. Email, I check regularly. So any of those platforms are really good. Keep an eye out for YouTube because we hope to have it up and running, and we will definitely post that on the blog. Sweetish.co, the actual blog site, is probably the best way to see what’s up and coming. And Instagram, too. I try to keep that up to day as much as possible.

059: Samantha Ferraro: How Her Diverse Background Influences Her Food

July 15, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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The Little Ferraro Kitchen

Samantha has a very diverse background. She’s a Brooklyn native, lived in Hawaii for 10 years, is a current California resident, she’s Jewish, and one of her favorite cuisines is Italian. All of this influences the foods she enjoys and shares on her blog, The Little Ferraro Kitchen.

I’m so thrilled to have Samantha Ferraro of The Little Ferraro Kitchen here on the show today.

(*All images below are Samantha’s.)

On How Her Family Background Influenced the Foods She Enjoys:

I grew up as a Jewish girl in Brooklyn, which is very common, but the funny thing about me is I come from a Jewish background that has both Sephardic and Ashkenazi backgrounds, and there’s a difference just in culture.

So my father’s side is Ashkenazi, which means they come from Eastern Europe, so a lot of the foods that I grew up with on my father’s side was like, matzo ball soup, briskets, really kind of stick to your ribs foods, comfort foods. And then my mom is part Turkish, and actually the ancestry comes from Spain, during the Spanish Inquisition they went from Spain to Turkey. So, a lot of the foods I grew up with on my mom’s side was maybe stuffed grape leaves, lots of things with saffron, and olive oil, and lemons. I grew up with something called fasolia, which is a green bean and tomato stew, so a lot of those foods I grew up with, so I kind of incorporate everything as an adult now.

On How Where She’s Lived has Influenced the Foods She Enjoys:

You have this Jewish girl from a big city, and then my mom and I decide, “Oh, let’s move to Hawaii, why not?” So when I was 14, we moved to Hawaii, not knowing anything, and I still had a thick Brooklyn accent. Nobody really knew probably what brisket was. But we just did it, and we embraced it, and what I learned living in Hawaii is the simplicity of food, the beautiful fruits and vegetables, and farmers thanking you with a bag of lettuce, or growing their own avocados. It’s just such a beautiful place, and the Aloha spirit is so true and alive. It’s just so honest, and it’s just such a beautiful place. I’m so happy that I lived there and experienced it.

(Today) I’m a five hour flight from New York and a five hour flight from Hawaii, so I have the best of both worlds, because California is kind of, you know, I live in a small beach town but if I want to go to a big city, I can have that, too. There’s a lot of people that I actually went to high school with in Hawaii that now live in California, and vice versa. People from here move to Hawaii, so, I’m so blessed to be able to go to both places and have an excuse, like, “Oh, I have family in Hawaii,” or, “I have family in New York.”

I live in Southern California, and we have such an awesome food mecca. When I moved here, I had never gone into a Mexican mercado before, a Mexican market. And when I moved here, you know, it was just so amazing that there’s such a huge Mexican culture here. And there’s different Asian markets here. There’s Vietnamese and Thai and Japanese. There’s a Jewish area in LA that I can go to if I really want good challah bread. It’s just such an awesome area. I went to Little Saigon, which is just 10 minutes away from me. I just live in a really cool area.

On a Food that Surprised Her:

I would have to say, living in Hawaii, I didn’t think I would try a lot of things that I did in Hawaii. For example, taro root, or poi, is this really, like, pounded until it’s kind of like gelatinous, kinda, and it doesn’t taste very good, but when paired with a salty lomi salmon, or pork, it’s actually delicious. And there are also some similarities, so, for example, lomi salmon you would find at a luau in Hawaii, which is diced up, cured salmon with tomatoes, which is very similar to a bagel and lox, like that cured salmon. So I saw some similarities there, but I mean, honestly, just the fruits that are grown there are just, nothing like it. Nothing like a mango from Hawaii.

On Foods That She Misses:

I miss New York bagels. When my cousin actually moved here, from New York to here, and I see him often, and whenever he goes back to visit my aunt and uncle, I’m like, “Can you please bring back bagels?” I mean, if you’ve ever had a New York bagel, there’s nothing like it, and they say that it’s because of the water, you know, that East Coast New York water. That’s the excuse. Nothing like it, so he always brings back bagels.

Another thing from Hawaii that I love is something called lilikoi, which is passionfruit. Lilikoi is the Hawaiian name for it, and it grows just everywhere. My mom has a lilikoi tree, and one time my mom sent me a box of lilikoi. She just took this mailing box and stuffed it. It must have been like 10 pounds of lilikoi. And you can’t ship things from Hawaii to . . . like you just can’t do it, it’s agriculture, you can’t do it. And one time it came through and I was like, “Oh my gosh! This is awesome!” The next time it came through, I got an empty box with a nasty letter from Agriculture saying, “Don’t do that!” Such a gorgeous flavor, it really is.

On Her Passion for Cooking:

You know, to be honest, I knew I liked food when I was little. My mom cooked, my grandmother cooked, but I was never mature enough to really ask them about it, or, you know, be mature enough to learn from it. So, it wasn’t until I got older and I was experiencing foods and traveling that really inspired me, and I just wanted a challenge. I love challenging myself in the kitchen. I’ll jump in and make a ramen dish that I’ve never made before, or a soufflé I’ve never done. I think it’s so fun to do that.

My mom cooked all the time when I was little, now she asks me recipe questions. But now that I’m older, I realize that I wish I took notes from my grandmother on my father’s side, I really do. For example, I remember her making a Jewish cookie called rugelach, and I remember it vividly when I was little. You know, she passed away since, but now that I’m older I make my own rugelach, and I think about her, like, “Oh, you know, this is what she would do.” So I think memories inspire me.

On Starting Her Blog:

I was going through a transition, I was changing majors in college, I was kind of confused, I didn’t really know what to do. But my outlet was cooking, that was what my outlet was. I loved it, I mean, it was a stress reliever for me, it was exciting, it was challenging, it was beautiful.

So, I was reading blogs, and I thought, “I can do that!” So, I kinda did. I’m spontaneous, so I said, “Oh, why not?” I just jumped in, and I said, “Oh, let’s see how long this goes.” I was enjoying the challenge, and I was enjoying learning, so I was learning, too, and it was fun, so I just kept doing it. Three years later, here I am.

On Her Culinary Bucket List:

I have a bucket list on my blog that I need to update. I’ve actually crossed off a few that I haven’t put on the blog yet. But, to be honest, the cuisine I’m least familiar with is Asian cuisine, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai. I’m least familiar with that and that is something I would love to learn.

I have the Momofuku cookbook, and I really want to do his ramen broth. I think that it’s a 48 hour broth and you reduce and add, and I just think that’s so awesome. I really, really want to do that.

I made pad thai once, and that came out horrible. So, I want to do that. It’s just a simple dish, but the flavor combination of that sour and sweet, it’s gorgeous. I really want to conquer that.

Cannolis, I’ve done cannolis once. It was okay. I want to give it another shot. Again, here I am, all different cultures.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I’ve been watching a lot of Anthony Bourdain shows, like No Reservations. He has a few of them that are very similar to each other, love him.

I like some of Gordon Ramsay’s shows, like Master Chef, it’s fun and kind of creative what they do.

I love Ina Garten’s show, Barefoot Contessa. It’s really simple and clean, and to the point, I really like that.

And sometimes I watch Julia Child on YouTube.

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

So, well you’ve already talked to Amy. I love her blog What Jew Wanna Eat. She’s awesome, she does all these creative, fun Jewish recipes. Rainbow challah, like what? She has fun with it, and she’s fearless and I respect that.

I think she mentioned another one that I read, one of the first blogs was, she’s formerly known as the Shiksa in the Kitchen, but her name is Tori Avey. She’s really fascinating because she’s a convert to Judaism, and she loves history, so she does a lot of Jewish history and Jewish food, and that’s really fascinating.

One of the first blogs I also read was called Pass the Sushi. She is really interesting, she’s really creative, she designed my blog, and she’s a gorgeous photographer, food and outside of food.

I have a personal friend as well, it’s called Pineapple and Coconut, and her and I have a Hawaii connection. She loves all things Hawaii, so she does a lot of Hawaiian food, Kalua pig, or pineapple this, or coconut that.

Another good resource is called Just One Cookbook. She does a lot of Japanese food, and one time when I was going to a Japanese store, I was messaging her like, “Oh, should I get this?” She’s helped, guiding me, and she’s just awesome, just a wonderful resource for Japanese food.

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

I love dogs, so on Instagram I follow The Dogist, ’cause dogs make me happy and it’s all dog pictures and I love that, it’s awesome.

I follow WhatJewWannaEat on Instagram, ’cause I love her bagel lox photos, it makes me hungry.

TrumericandSaffron has an Instagram and a Facebook, and I think she’s a really great resource for Middle Eastern food, Persian food.

Can I do a YouTube one? I just started watching, it’s called Sweets and Beyond. And she does a lot of Puerto Rican food, which is fabulous, ’cause I’m not too familiar with that food, so I started watching her and that’s really cool.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

I don’t know if it’s unusual to other people, or maybe not to me, but I have anchovies. Is that unusual? I always have anchovies on hand. When I was trying to learn about Korean food, a friend of mine gave me, I don’t know what it’s called but it’s like that red pepper that makes kimchi. (Gochugaru)

It’s a powder, and I guess you add it to your seasonings and it makes it spicy and red, and it’s a gorgeous color.

I have kind of random ingredients. Fish sauce, different kinds of fish sauces.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

I would have to say anchovies again. It was horrible, but now, I don’t eat it by itself, but I’ll add it to things, like to sauces.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Well, like I said, The Art of French Cooking, that has just opened my mind, my taste buds, everything. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s old school, it’s to the point, it’s well written. That one is wonderful.

I also just recently got a cookbook called Jerusalem, which has become a very popular cookbook. But just gorgeous, inspiring Middle Eastern flavors, bright flavors, and just gorgeous photography. Those are probably two of my favorite books.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I’m very diverse with my music tastes, I’ll listen to like Rolling Stones, or Bob Marley, or like Beastie Boys. I was in a Beastie Boys, Run DMC mood. Some kind of like hip-hop, like, get you going.

On Keeping Posted with Samantha:

I’m on Facebook as the Little Ferraro Kitchen, and I absolutely love Instagram, as FerraroKitchen. You can find some behind the scenes, some things I put on the blog, other things I’m eating that I want to share.

033: Gabriel Cabrera: Food Styling, Photography and Mexican Cuisine

May 1, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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The Artful Desperado

On The Artful Desperado, Gabriel shares his favorite things from food to art and design all through his beautiful photography, styling and his lively commentary. Originally from Mexico, he now lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

I am so psyched to have Gabriel Cabrera of The Artful Desperado here on the show.

On Starting His Blog:

The reason that I got started is at that time I was going to culinary arts school. There were a lot of things that were new to me which I assumed were new to the world. They weren’t. So then I started doing it A: I wanted to just document a lot of the stuff that I was learning and seeing and B: honestly, it was a hobby, just something that was cool to do.

On Food Styling and Photography:

I’m a prop stylist. But as of late, also, because part of the job, I have been doing quite a lot of photography, so now the balance is tilting a little bit more towards photography. So, I’m going and reading about classic photographers, and just going back into film.

Every time I start something, I get really obsessed with it and I deconstruct it. So it’s a little bit of, I guess between photography and styling.

Mostly, I would say styling. So as you can see, just for example, on the blog, I do use original recipes, but a lot of the recipes are adapted from other sources because that really helps me minimize the time that I have to develop, test and do something with the recipe, and leaves all the time to do the styling. Which, is what I’m mostly interested in. That’s what I do for a job, so my heart will run with styling and sometimes it runs away with photography.

What happened was, photography, I have always been interested in since I was a kid. I was lucky enough that my parents also loved photography. They are not photographers. They just loved it as a hobby, so we were always exposed to that. So, I guess that is where the love of photography came from at an early stage.

And, the food styling, in a sense, we were always cooking at home and I was always interested in the kitchen and that is what lead me into culinary arts.

In culinary arts, a big part of it is plating your dishes. It’s part of the process, but it’s more than just spending time in the kitchen and preparing it, I love the part at the end where you get to present it or create a crazy way of putting it together or just a classic way with a little spin to make it a little more modern. I guess that’s where my interest came from.

I knew there were food stylists. Actually, I guess I knew, but I never thought I would do it full time. When you see a magazine or something, I think most of us think of the photographer. “Oh, what a good photographer,” right? It wasn’t until I started blogging and doing things on my own that, “Oh, there’s a stylist!”

And now that I work for a company doing full time styling for other clients, there’s a photographer, an assistant, and cooks. There’s a whole other layer of things. So, no, I didn’t know you could do it full time. Doing it, I was like, “Oh, there is potential here.”

I’m lucky enough in Vancouver, people love, love food. And everybody is a foodie. It’s an easy thing to do. It’s not like you’re trying to explain things to people, like this is whatever dish. So, it was a surprise, a very, very happy surprise.

On Cooking:

I’m originally from Mexico. I was born in Mexico. We do love our food down there. So, I guess the same as when I was a kid. We were not the typical Mexican family that you would see in the movies where, “Oh, we are all gathering together there around the table and making food.” It was just regular food, Mexican food. But, I was always interested in it.

My brother is a pastry chef. Well, he’s not doing that anymore, but he was doing that for quite a long time. There was also that component. So, that was when it started. I was good in the kitchen. With just regular stuff, I was good.

I guess going to cooking school really helped me boost that on to a professional level. I just learned so many things and I think I take it for granted now because when I’m cooking or when I’m doing things, I just do it quickly and done.

When I have friends over and they see me, they say, “How do you cut like that?” Just things I take for granted I learned in cooking school that you wouldn’t have learned maybe so much if you were just at home. That’s where my interest came from, from actually just being hungry all the time.

On Food in Mexico:

Mexican food is, I think, internationally has a good and a bad rep. A good rep because it’s yummy, a lot of people like it, but it has a bad rep because a lot of people think it’s burritos, chips and salsa and guacamole and that’s it. That’s snack food. There’s so much more to that.

In Mexico City, I will say that it’s like the epicenter of almost everything there. You can find all sorts of food. It is basically like New York, but in Spanish. It’s huge and there are so many trendy restaurants now that retain our food culture, but they make it more modern. Like I said, you will not find there a burrito. You will not find there chips and salsa. It’s a whole different level of cuisine.

There’s a mix because of all of our history. There’s a mix of Spanish influence, French and our own food comes from the Aztec times, corn and different kinds of mushrooms and desserts. It is quite huge and broad, but I do love it in Mexico City.

Every time I eat Mexican food in Mexico City, it’s like a little party with your family and it’s so good and it’s always so yummy. That’s in a nutshell how I will describe it there.

On a Specialty Mexican Food:

The name in Spanish is called huitlacoche. It sounds really gross, but it is really amazing. What it is, is a fungi that grows in corn. So, it’s a pest, you know, something that actually grows in the corn. But, Aztecs harvest it and they will eat it. It is very good for you and also, it tastes amazing. Unless you knew about it because it is an Aztec word, it would be hard for you to find if you don’t know the word. Locals know it. We eat it all the time. It’s a earthy flavor thingy. But, the thing is, you never Google how it looks because it looks really weird, but it tastes amazing.

It would be its own dish. It looks like little fibers, very thin fibers. What people will usually do is sauté it with onions and garlic and put it for example in a tortilla to make a taco or they can put it on top of something as well, rice or something else. You can put it in mole sauce. It’s very famous, mole. They can put it in mole and you can eat it with mole.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Jamie Oliver’s show and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and I just discovered an Irish cook.

His name is Donal Skehan. It’s DonalSkehan.com. He has all these little YouTube snippets and he as all these different shows but they’re really cool and are very quick and easy. They are usually really decadent desserts. I just discovered it recently. So, I have been watching those little ones and it’s really fun.

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

For websites, I would say, Food52 for sure. That’s like the almighty site for everything.

For blogs, I would say, she’s quite big now, Top With Cinnamon, is one of my favorite ones. She’s really, really good. She has lots of great desserts and her recipes are usually very simple and her photography is amazing.

Another one would be Bakers Royale. Her photography also is super. It’s crazy. And I’m sure everybody knows all about her too, but I always go back to it, What Katie Ate from Australia. It’s also stunning photography. I think she puts more of her commercial work rather than just her recipes, but if you go back to the archives, her history I will say, there are beautiful photos and her style is very unique.

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

Instagram, it’s called Slice of Pai. She’s a local photographer and she is really sweet. She always has really beautifully photos and I’m always so jealous because she posts these photos like, “Boom, I was having coffee,” and it’s beautiful and it makes me happy. She loves Paris and she puts a lot of things about Paris. So, that’s amazing.

On Pinterest, I’m going to say, she has the best food boards. Every time I see it, you are amazing, please never leave earth. It’s called Lucy supergoldenbakes and her board for food photography is great. She finds the best stuff in there.

Laura from The First Mess is what it’s called. I follow her, well, we are friends too. Well, we have met online. We are online friends. But, Laura from the First Mess. She’s great, she posts so many beautiful things. She has a vegan blog. Her photos are always stunning and she lives on a beautiful farm in the Niagara region. And of course, she just has fresh veggies coming up from the ground and it’s just happiness and wholesome foods.

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

Chocolate.

Name one ingredient you cannot live without.

Chili flakes.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Yes, so, Barefoot Contessa Parties! it’s called. It has a lot of classic recipes and some of the recipes might be a little bit old school like cupcakes with chocolate, but great book to have.

Maybe it’s not a cookbook, per say, just Gather Journal. It’s culture magazine, and it’s a biannual magazine. The photography in there is just breath-taking, the styling is stunning and their recipes are really good and very easy to make.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

There’s a band called St. Lucia. They have their latest album that is called When the Night and that would be one because it reminds me of summer. They’re a little bit of 80s vibe, but you always want to have summer. When it’s kind of crappy outside, I put it on and say, “Okay, let’s get something cooking here.”

Keep Posted on Gabriel:

Instagram. Artful Desperado on Instagram would be the best one. That’s where I keep in touch with everyone and post regularly. So, yeah, you can find me there almost every day.

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

March 6, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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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:

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:

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:

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:

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

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:

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:

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.

On A Whole New Way to Treat Yourself:

On Learning How to Bake:

On What it’s Like Baking Wedding Cakes:

On a Dish That is Special to Her:

The Pressure Cooker:

On Keeping Posted with Robyn:

On How Her Family Background Influenced the Foods She Enjoys:

On How Where She’s Lived has Influenced the Foods She Enjoys:

On a Food that Surprised Her:

On Foods That She Misses:

On Her Passion for Cooking:

On Starting Her Blog:

On Her Culinary Bucket List:

The Pressure Cooker:

On Keeping Posted with Samantha:

On Starting His Blog:

On Food Styling and Photography:

On Cooking:

On Food in Mexico:

On a Specialty Mexican Food:

The Pressure Cooker:

Keep Posted on Gabriel:

On Her Newly Discovered Passion for Food:

On Starting Her Blog:

On Food Styling and Photography:

On Learning How to Cook From the Internet:

On Cooking Through Trial and Error

On Good Online Resources for Learning to Cook:

The Pressure Cooker:

Keep Posted on Courtney:

Have Courtney's Special Recipe Sent To You Now: