Cooking with Justin!
Oh hi. Thanks for stopping by.
I love food so much—and like a lot of people, I have a lot of feelings tangled in with it. Happy and sad and nostalgic, and as someone who has made a career out of writing, I find that the stories I love most often have some kind of dish attached to them. And as a Southerner, I think the best way to get to know someone or a region is to eat their food. I started this newsletter for my English in-laws, who were fascinated by some of the, um… curious food that comes out of Appalachia and my blue-collar upbringing. Now I want to share that with more people.
I remember the pride I had taking in my mom’s tater tot casserole recipe for our elementary school cookbook or the excitement of delivering the chess bars my dad would make my and my brother’s teachers at Christmas. I know it sounds silly, but I believe those people exist in those recipes. When I became an adult with my own kitchen, I wanted to find the recipes where I existed, which is why I started my cooking Instagram, @cookinwithjustin. And then, as I started my career as a journalist, I realized—what if I could spend my time hearing about everyone’s best recipes? Eventually, as a staff writer at Esquire, I wrote about my favorite meals growing up and started asking people about theirs. Food is one of the rare things, I believe, that still connect all of us, no matter the background or belief.
So this is my attempt at that. I do my best to send a recipe out every couple of weeks. The recipe is always at the top (because to make a cultural change, someone has to be brave!!). What follows is a story about my life, or a rumination about the South. I spend a lot of time thinking about the world and how we treat each other and what the best thing we can do to fix (gestures wildly). What I’ve settled on is that our best bet is to eat our way through it. I sure hope you’ll come along with me.
