Why I cook...

I have decided that I want to make this blog a bit more personal. I will still be posting recipes and cooking demos, but I will also give you all more of myself too. And to start I will answer the question I get asked most by everyone that finds out I cook for a living.



Doug, of all the things you could do, why cook for a living?

Here is why. For me growing up food has always been a central thing in my family. We gather around food, exchange stories, fight, laugh, cry, love. All those things that a family is. And some of my fondest memories as a kid are smelling the food coming from my grandmother, or great-grandmothers kitchen.

Sparing you unnecessary bits of my troubled youth, we will mention that my father, who’s dream was to be a chef, died when I was 12 and it has a profound effect on who I am today. One of the few memories I have of my father is of him standing me on a chair to stir tomato sauce while he added stuff to it to make stewed chicken. And to this day, every time I make tomato sauce, or stewed chicken I can remember his voice telling me to stir it in a figure 8 slowly and how good it smelled.

In high school when I first started baking it was fun to see the expressions on my friends face when I brought something that tasted good. And all thru high school I experimented with cakes, cookies, pies some of them weren’t as successful as others but it was fun and always boosted my ego and pride when it came out right. And that lead me to apply to culinary school.

I graduated from high school in June of 2000 and that fall went to a small school in upstate NY called Paul Smiths College, originally I wanted to do their pastry program but I could not get use to Being awake that early in the morning and switched to culinary arts. It was tough, some of my chef instructors were assholes. But I learned a lot about myself and about food. I have made some awesome friends, had some awesome opportunities and have worked all over New England. And that’s not bad for a 30 year old guy from the inner city who didn’t think he would amount to anything.

I know that I haven’t quite answered why just yet, I was giving you all the background. The way is really simple. I have always liked the idea that my food, something I made for someone else was enjoyed and becomes a part of their memory. Knowing that somewhere every time someone tells the story of their engagement it will involve something I made for them.

That is why I cook. Simply put I like knowing that I was able to satisfy one of humanities basic needs. The need for food. And if that food is good enough, it will live on in their memory long after the experience has ended.


To me that is the same as living forever, and seriously who hasn’t thought about living forever?



As always feel free to comment and share. If you want you can ask questions in the comments or email me directly chefdoug0723@google.com just put Laughing Chef Blog in the subject line

Goatee Update

I just realised that I hadn't given you an updat on the most recent question.

     I got more NO's the YES's on whether or not to shave so I just trimed and buzzed my hair.




As far as everything else goes, I really have nothing new to report. No new food experiences and I am feeling a bit too lazy to actually get up and make something.


While I have the oppertunity, I figure I will ask you all once again if there is anything at all you would like me to teach you to make or anything you would like me to talk about?