This pot has been simmering for much too long!

You found me 🙂

However you arrived here, I thank you for showing interest in what I love to do!

I have grand dreams for this blog. I want to state them from the first post because ultimately my community will shape what I become. If I can build a group of supportive and constructive people around this content, then I will be a very happy man! My main dream is to make cookbooks, combining my photography, travel, writing and cooking all into one package. I have to start somewhere and this seems to be a great starting point, eventually linking everything to Instagram, Youtube, Reddit and Facebook!

Here’s a brief background and introduction of my story:

My father recently made me a book of my childhood photos. It’s odd, when kids move out of the house the parents have a lot of stuff that was left behind; a lot of memories but also junk that the kids would rather store there. Going through this rather sentimental album, I was truly surprised to see how many photos there were of me as a young child in the kitchen (see below).

The most ironic element of my story is that I was a horribly picky eater. I legitimately cannot remember eating vegetables as a child, despite my parents more than valiant efforts. I remember spitting up broccoli and cauliflower, refusing certain types of meat and commenting on strange after-tastes of most everything I put in my mouth. People who know me now as an adventurous and ‘try-anything-twice’ kind of guy may find this hilarious. If my parents are reading this they are probably rolling their eyes and laughing at the same time, because as an adult I had a two year stint as a strict vegetarian, embracing the very things that once ended up squished between a napkin.

As a teen, I thoroughly enjoyed watching food shows, namely competition series such as Iron Chef. I even recall having a competition with my Grandmother, choosing potatoes as our secret ingredient. The great thing about food is that it is around you throughout your whole life, no matter your age, three meals a day (sometimes more, sometimes less, but usually more).

I like to think that my real food journey started when I moved away from the nest and comfort of my family home to go to university. At that point my culinary knowledge was relatively theoretical, only drawing upon memories from the television and some meals that my loved ones had cooked for me. My first year of school was an abomination. I can barely bring myself to talk of such sins. I remember eating granola bars and juice boxes for dinner if I didn’t feel like cooking. I had a multitude of random living situations but sharing a kitchen with five people wasn’t necessarily conducive to embracing a full-out meal. But after almost a year of malnourishment and laziness, I started playing with food. I would eat out quite a bit and I would always think about what was in the dishes. I thought of a few of my favourites and would dissect them, recreating them at home with varying levels of success.

Living in my own apartment downtown, a stone’s throw away from a good grocery store, marks the exponential growth of my passion. I got to experiment and cook for my friends, lovers, and family members. Basically anyone who was hungry, I was willing to feed, and in some ways I am still that way. Straight up, I love feeding people and making them smile. Since then I have cooked dinners for 15+ people, casual multi-course dinners, tasted and travelled around the world, made it to the third round of Masterchef auditions (to take a chance but also to prove to myself that this is something I am passionate and committed to), and tried some ridiculously complicated and always unnecessary recipes just to see if they were possible.

With almost 10 years of solid experience and many stories along the way, I present to you, The Simmering Pot.

I welcome feedback at any point as I tell you my story through my food, my interests, travels and random musings.

Yours truly,

Robert
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The Simmering Pot