Food on the Dole

Food on the Dole was a site I created back in 2008 as a way to exercise my writing muscle while thinking about and producing food as a young chef. It helped me develop in both categories as I learned that my main interests lie not in the world of restaurants, reviews, or lists, but in the source of food and recipes—especially the people who make it happen.

During this time I held roughly 100 Food on the Dole Salons: 6-seat events in my apartment where strangers came together to cook a menu I’d devised that day after visiting the market. We focused on singular topics, be they a certain cuisine, or culture, or ingredient, with a goal of connecting people over food. This built my voice around food as a chef and writer, helped define what it was that I was interested in about food, and showed me that it wasn’t the food itself that mattered the most to me—it was what happened when people gathered around it.

Food on the Dole got less attention from me after about 5 years—the last real bit of writing posting in September of 2013—as I started work on my first cookbook. But it’s always held a special place in my heart as a time and place where I learned who I was as a chef, and as a writer. I’ve moved the archives over here to my main website for ease of management, and to stroll down anytime I’m hungry for a taste of nostalgia.

Browse the Food on the Dole archives here.