I served. Spent forty years in IT. Cooked through all of it.
Twelve years on active duty, then one weekend a month until I hit twenty-plus years and retired — because once you're in, you're in. Running alongside that, forty-plus years in IT: the kind of career that puts you on-call at 2 a.m. and doesn't ask about your lunch plans. Three kids, oncall rotations, and a weekend a month gone for duty left very little room for the hobbies I always thought I'd have. No time for woodworking. No time for the garage. So I put that need to build and make something into the kitchen. It turned out to be the right fit.
My wife is from Spain. When I was stationed there, I ate in a way I had never eaten before — tapas, slow-cooked dishes, and flavors built on centuries of technique I couldn't name but couldn't stop eating. She is an excellent cook. There are dishes she makes that I am not allowed to touch — no improvements needed or welcome. I made a vow while I was there to try everything I was offered, and I kept it. I ate Gallinejas and Entresijos in Madrid, things I would never try anywhere else. But in Spain, after a thousand years of culinary tradition, you trust the food. I may be partial — but I have not had a single thing there I wouldn't eat again.
When I became a parent — and later a grandparent — I wanted that for my table. I wanted the food to mean something. I wanted the people I love to taste where we came from.
The kitchen rewards discipline.
Preparation. Attention to detail. Following a process precisely until it becomes instinct — and then knowing when to improvise. Those aren't cooking skills. But they transfer directly.
When I finally started cooking seriously, I realised I already had most of what I needed. The only thing missing was someone to show me the foundations. That's what this site is.
Preparation. Attention to detail. Following a process precisely until it becomes instinct — and then knowing when to improvise. That's not a cooking skill. But it transfers directly.
What the military taught me about the kitchenOld World and New World — why both matter.
Spanish cooking is where I started emotionally. It's patient, ingredient-driven, and built on foundations that haven't changed in centuries. A good sofrito. Olive oil in everything. Food that takes as long as it takes.
But I've spent my whole life in North America — eating from every culture that brought its food to this continent. Tex-Mex, BBQ, Southern cooking, diner food, all of it. That New World melting pot is just as much a part of who I am.
This site lives at that intersection. Old World technique. New World hunger. Both traditions deserve respect — and both have something to teach you.
I built this for people like me.
People who came to cooking late — or who are just getting started — and want someone to be straight with them.
People who think the kitchen isn't for them. Parents who want to stop relying on the drive-through. Veterans who want to bring the same discipline to the stove they brought to the field. Grandparents who want to pass something real down.
Whoever you are: if you want to cook real food and you're willing to pay attention, this is for you.
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