FAQ

Are you a pastry chef?
I was! A pastry cook. Before the pandemic, I worked at a five-star hotel for 3+ years, and had worked my way up in Chicago kitchens for years before that. I was premed through college and felt tied to a path I don’t know how I got locked into. Luckily I met my now-husband the summer after graduation. He had just finished a year as a physicist followed by a year as a line cook, and was taking classes so he could to medical school. He told me how to knock on doors to get into kitchens to learn, we bonded over our love of food, and I helped him with medical school applications. Here we are years later - I became a pastry chef, and he’s a doctor.

What do you do now? Do you think you’ll ever go back to kitchen work?
I work from home now for a tech company. I really like many aspects of my job, especially being able to work in my PJ’s with Rosie curled up next to me after a whopping 45-second commute. But everyday my kitchen day feels more and more like a distant past and an old life. I should probably at least stage around the city, get my feet wet again if for nothing else than my own fulfillment.

What is your favorite thing to make?
I don’t know! Without fail people ask me this question when they find out what I (used to) do. I still don’t have an answer. I like making everything, and I loved the small nuances you notice from daily repetition to truly master a craft. The daily multitasking, my everchanging prep lists, it was like a groundhog day video game sometimes. Samesame but different. Most of all I loved being paid to play with food.

I love cooking and hate my boring 9-to-5 office job. Should I become a chef?
No. Keep it a hobby. Most of the reasons people like cooking at home, you don’t actually get out of a professional kitchen job. I was lucky I truly enjoyed kitchen life, separate from also loving food. But even so, it’s physically and mentally exhausting. There is a lot of repetition, not nearly much “creativity.” It’s not for everyone.

What is this blog? Are these your recipes?
Most of the time, no. I started this blog as a way to document my thoughts after making recipes from my cookbook collection. It turned out to not always be that though. I always mention where my recipes come from, or how I synthesized random internet information into something of my own.

Why are your recipes written in this format?

Because this is how I like to read them! I hate having to read the recipe and look back and forth for the amounts. When I jot down a recipe, the main goal is to reorganize this information in this format, so naturally it stays in this format for my own reference when I rewrite it for the blog.

Why aren’t your comments turned on?
Because I made it during quarantine 2020, like almost to shout into the void a little. I still like that aspect, even though I’m very glad many internet strangers have found my recipe reviews and tips helpful. If you want to reach me, you can use the contact form on the front page or at the bottom of this page.

Why do your pictures suck?
Because I am a shit blogger!!! (jk no one actually asked me this before)
I cook to cook, the blog is secondary. I don’t ever make something “for the blog.” This is a chronicle of real life cooking. More often than not, I want to post and I realize in the writing stage that in the whirlwind of cooking didn’t photograph like the latter 90% of the process. There are more random pictures of a bowl of raw ingredients on my phone than anything else.