Yes I like to cook...

“Beep! Beep! Beep!” Smoke alarms go off in the background. My roommate runs out of his room. “Dude! What the hell are you doing”? These were the beginning stages of it all. Now let’s backtrack a bit for context…

I was a Sophomore at FSU when I really began to get an interest for cooking. I think it all started out with my passion for science. The mixing of ingredients, the application of heat to catalyze reactions, the different flavors working together. It all felt very much like a chemistry experiment, and I loved it. It was my own lab to do as I pleased, no rules, no set limitations. Just me, my creativity, and my curiosity. Mix that passion for scientific creation with my gluttonous appetite and you get yourself a recipe for a master cook.

It wasn’t all pretty at the beginning; there was a lot of trial and error involved. You know, like setting off smoke alarms, melting spatulas, cutting and burning myself, burning food, setting things on fire. At first my skills lacked finesse and my food itself required sophistication. I cooked simple dishes that did not require too much technical intricacy.

As the years went by, my skills grew and so did my culinary reach. My curiosity grew stronger and I began to orchestrate more complex dishes. I was introducing less common ingredients and yielding very surprising results. A lot of my skills are self-taught; from watching the Food Network and cooking videos online to sitting in my kitchen practicing how to hold a knife or cut ingredients with the correct technique. Now, seven years after I truly took up cooking, I consider my skills to be pretty refined. I can go toe to toe with any of my family and friends, including my mother and grandmothers. Of course, there are certain things that they still blow me out of the water in.

This steep learning curve has yielded what I believe to be a very valuable set of skills. I can cook, and well. As my mother always tells me, I never have to worry about you going hungry or not eating well. This is also pretty popular amongst my friends and girlfriend. I’m usually the cook at our get-togethers or grill outs. It’s a fair trade off, they usually buy the ingredients and I cook. I really enjoy what I do, so I don’t mind one bit. It’s a really satisfying feeling to create something from scratch that tastes great and those around me enjoy. I will work continue perfecting my skills and keep producing great tasting dishes for myself and those around me.