Welcome to my little corner of the world, where everything seems to come back to food. I’ve always been the one who lights up at the thought of something salty, sweet, or sour, and I truly believe a good meal can make an ordinary day feel special. Here, I’ll share the dishes I cook and bake, the recipes I pass around the table with family and friends, and the moments that make my food journey so meaningful—so I’m glad you’re here to pull up a chair, grab a beer, and join me.
The Beginning
I really loved food from a young age. Okay, maybe not. I was not eating all the food my parents put in front of me when I was a kid. In fact, I believe my parents are both still in shock about what I eat nowadays. I would not touch onions, avocado, most vegetables (except you broccoli), and don’t get me started on mushrooms. However, I still had this desire to be a chef. I told my parents and their response ‘you don’t really like food enough, Travis.’ Which I suppose was fairly true. So with those dreams dashed at the tender age of 10, I went on with my life.
My father was the cook in our house growing up in western mountain town in Colorado. And from what my mother says to this day is that it is all because of one person, Alton Brown. Growing up in the nineties with my sister, Stephanie three and half years older than I, food shows were often on in our house. My father is a lover of really three main things outside of us of course: growing a garden and flowers, watching television, and cooking. The show Good Eats was often on the TV and dad would record them to watch them back over time. He was not the one always cooking until one day my mother had enough. He came in while she was making something and dad said ‘You know, Alton would not do it like that, he would do it like this….’ From that day on it was history, Dad was the cook and Mom forever his cleanup crew.
Dad was the cook, and I started joining in more and more as I got older and into my early teenage years. I would look through the cookbooks my parents had from America’s Test Kitchen, Good Eats by Alton Brown, and others and then suggest various recipes for us to have during the week. I enjoyed making these with my family, aunts, uncles, grandparents, sibling, and cousins. I would make deserts for the weekly episodes of Survivor when my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin would come over to watch. I would suggest having other family over to have a new dinner I wanted to make. It all just brought me back to the fundamental part that food really has become, a connecting point.
The Middle
When I went off to college is where this fondness for food really started to change and develop into something more than just something for myself. I moved from the western mountain towns of Colorado, up to Fort Collins, Colorado and went to school at Colorado State University. There, at the ripe age of nineteen, I met my future wife. We started dating, cooking, eating, and enjoying our college years together the fall of 2013. We went to countless breweries and restaurants around Fort Collins over the years we lived there together. In the late summer of 2017 we got married, and moved down to the Denver Area in early 2019. Over the years of time we have now spent together, our cooking and love of food has not changed while most other things have. We still both love to cook together, and now even with our daughter.
I have constantly over the years said how much I love to cook, entertain, and share the food and drink I love most with all of those around me. I never really envisioned myself doing anything with food in a public way. As our cookbook collection grew and the amount of food related media I and my family consumed grew, I knew I needed to do something more with food.
The Now
Now is where you join in on this journey of mine. I am working on recipe development (something brand new to me) and sharing those with the world for the first time. I am by no means a professional cook or chef, but I love to eat and share it with those who love it just as much as I do.
I plan to make new recipes over time, share those with you, and get your feedback. I have so many inspirations on this, from the memories I have of watching the shows Good Eats and America’s Test Kitchen with my father growing up (which are both still on repeat in our house to this day), and to more modern things of Podcasts like Proof, The Receipe with Kenji and Deb, and The Sporkful, or my own Culinary inspirations of Dan Souza, Alton Brown (yes my dad converted me whole heartedly), Kenji Lopez Alt, Molly Baz, and so so so many more. I just want to make something fun, welcoming, and collaborative. So I really do with you join me in this Journey, beer in hand, and lets cook.
Travis
