"Among cooks, I am the best engineer. Among engineers, I am the best cook."
— Someone's great uncle
Two passions, one brain
Cooking and IT are the two things I keep coming back to. They're more similar than people think - both are about understanding systems, finding efficient paths to good outcomes, and knowing when a shortcut is worth taking and when it isn't.
By day I work in IT. But I've never fully left the kitchen.
The kitchen background
I started in a Wetherspoons kitchen - high volume, no fuss, you learn fast. From there, The Alchemist, where the food and drinks are actually interesting and you're expected to care about what's on the plate. Then Civerinos for Italian simplicity and proper ingredients. A stint at Five Guys, which taught me more about consistency than anywhere else. Bread Meets Bread. A few other spots.
But the place where cooking actually clicked was a quiet, posh local restaurant - the kind of place that makes roasts bigger than you are, finished with rosemary and thyme and genuine care. I went home and tried one myself. That was the moment it stopped being a job and became something I actually wanted to do.
Between jobs, and sometimes just because, I still pick up shifts at a local Greek street food place. It keeps me sharp. Small menu, high repetition, everything has to be right quickly.
What you'll find here
The food is all over the place - deliberately. I cook what I'm craving, not what fits a neat box.
Most recipes have a note on what freezes well, because batch cooking is one of the best things you can do for your weeknight sanity. The McMuffins, the pulled pork, the chashu - make it once, eat it six times.
The freezer philosophy
A good freezer is worth more than a fancy knife. I flag anything that freezes particularly well, what to freeze vs. make fresh (the mango salsa doesn't freeze - the pork shoulder does), and how to reheat without destroying the texture.
A note on shortcuts
Not every shortcut is worth taking. The goal is always the dish, not the technique. When I do cut a corner I'll tell you what you're trading off - so you can decide whether it matters for what you're making.