I am Justin Pote,
and I started the blog August 6, 2015. I have always been drawn to cooking, especially cuisine that was different from what I ate at home. I started out with a Chinese cookbook when I was only 15, and was grilling chicken breast for my summer lunches the following year.
I joined the Army in 1997, as a Food Service Specialist, but not much happened in the Army. The real adventure came after I got home from boot camp. I soon found myself as a line cook in a 400 seat upscale dining atmosphere, where I learned more than just the basics (mise en place, chiffonade, broiling, grilling, sauteing, smoking meats, cutting meats, making aioli, how to make sauces from scratch, you get the picture)
This wasn't stuff that I learned in the Army!
I was in way over my head in the beginning. I had never cooked to order before, and I was nearly fired three times because of my ineptitude! But, because of the work ethic that I learned in the Army, I persevered and was awarded Employee of the Month in January of 1999. Three months later I was promoted to an Assistant Management position, and got put in charge of creating a nightly prep list and making sure that it got accomplished!
Even though I was in charge, I knew little about what constitutes "taste". I knew how to debone a whole chicken, skin and fillet a side of salmon, and how to portion proteins. I learned that the salt/pepper ratio was 2:1. I knew a lot of technical stuff; I can teach you that too. But, I still wasn't satisfied. How could I be!
I was making a Chicken Parmesan Pizza thinking that was good shit; but my co-workers warned me that I was going to get fat, and become unhealthy. I laughed at them; what did they know. I was 20 years old, in the prime of my life and had a very fast metabolism. I digress though, what they said eventually came true, and I found myself weighing 218 pounds! At 5'9", that was a lot of weight to be carrying around everywhere!
Many years later, being uncomfortable with my weight I started researching diets, and began working out three days a week. The diet that worked the best for me, and still use somewhat to this day, is The Glycemic Index diet.
"The Glywhat?" you say.
The glycemic index ranks carbohydrates according to how much they raise the blood sugar. The scale ranges from one to 100; the higher the number, the more the carbohydrate raises your blood sugar. This is important because if you keep your blood sugar level throughout the day you don't get as hungry, you never have energy crashes, and best of all, you lose weight.
The problem that occured to me was that some of the food was bland; so I began my quest to add flavor in the forms of spices, herbs, and different methods of cooking to amp up the flavor.
It is an ever-evolving, never-ending dilemma; but I wouldn't trade it for anything right now!
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