Who is the Average Cook?

Well hey there, everyone. My name is Scott McDonald, and I'm the Average Cook.

How did I get to this point? That is probably a long story. I was never really a child cook; I didn't really watch my parents a lot in the kitchen, and had enough sense to know how to turn on a stove, boil water, and make ramen. Hot damn. But as I grew older and was in Boy Scouts, I had to learn how to cook on a Coleman two-burner gas camp stove. Let me tell you, if you can cook a decent meal on one of those, you're set for life.

I kept practicing some techniques, trying to teach myself how to do some basics; not out of passion, not out of a love for food. It was based in just wanting to have some knowledge of it for when I was older and on my own.

Once I was in College, I guess that's when it took off. When my buddy Rob and I shared a town house at Virginia Tech, I didn't get a meal plan on campus. So it was either learn faster, or suffer a fate only known as "heat and eat". I experimented with the kitchen, I asked for family recipes, and scoured the internet to find things that I thought tasted good. It worked out pretty well. A Southerner once told me I could fry the hell out of a chicken (for a 'dirty Northerner', anyway).

After getting my degree at Virginia Tech in 2011, I accepted a job in Riverside, CA, and have lived in the area since. I've continued cooking, and have adopted it as one of my passions. This site is a testament to that passion.

What made me start this site? In the Summer of 2014, I tried out for Masterchef, the popular Fox reality show for home cooks. During my audition, I overheard other contestants being asked what their "food dream" was. Frankly, it hadn't crossed my mind. And I had only a few moments to let genius strike. As I thought about it, it became clear to me that I didn't want to  be some famous chef, and I didn't necessarily want to be a household name. 

What hit me was that a lot of my friends ask how I do what I do; how do I have a normal job, other hobbies, and still cook food that still looks good without an Instagram filter. I realized that I love to write, I love to share my ideas and get feedback. So when it came time to give my answer, I confidently answered with my intent to become a food blogger. But not some pretentious let-me-cook-with-the-most-expensive-and-rare-ingredients food blogger, but one for the common man. The average cook. I want to teach people to not be afraid of the basics, their equipment and reaching out for some fun adventures in the kitchen. They seemed to like the answer, but apparently not well enough to give me a shot at $250k. Oh well! Here I am, ready and eager to try to get this little dream off the ground.

This blog is going to have a lot of different content; I want to make videos for quick instructables, I want to have open discussions on kitchen questions, short posts with stupid GIFs, cliche photos of things I've eaten, reviews, whatever. I'll even willingly tell tales of my awful errors in the kitchen through the years (like that time I cut off my fingertip). The things my readers want to see are what they're going to get. So let's be open and figure this out!

Thanks for tuning in. Let's do this! 

-Scott