About

Hi, and welcome to my blog!

This blog is more about you than me.

So, a little bit about me and then a lot about you and how you can benefit from the information on this recipe blog.

The Author

That would be me. Charlé.

I'm the photographer, designer, bank, and dishwasher behind this blog. But, mainly, I'm the chef.

I started this recipe blog as a way of documenting my recipes and openly sharing what I've learned throughout my 20+ year professional cooking career.

I cook food people want to eat, document the recipes, and then share these professionally developed, easy-to-follow recipes with you. It's that simple.

Alongside running a food blog and YouTube channel, I also own a catering company and consult for restaurants and food startups.

My clients include everyone from the top 50 Forbes wealthy individuals to celebrities, luxury brands, and large corporations.

Saying that, I appreciate the quiet life, keep a modest profile with as few problems as possible, and enjoy cooking good quality homemade food.

Why this food blog is different

I've been a chef my entire adult life.

As soon as I started cooking at the age of 16 I sacrificed family and social life to gain as much experience and knowledge as possible to become an expert in my field.

Working at the highest level for prestige companies and cooking for some of the most well-known people on this planet.

During this time and continuing, I've been fortunate enough to learn skills regular food bloggers can only dream of. This puts me in a unique position to give you expertly developed working recipes instead of copied untested recipes that flood the internet daily.

You the readers are the most important part of this blog. You deserve to get full value for your time and in-depth detailed working recipes as well as on-demand support when you need it.

By supporting, reading, commenting, liking, and sharing the recipes here, you enable me to share even more with you and help you be the best cook you can be.

What you'll learn

• World cuisines - You will learn about a wide variety of world cuisines like Thai, Indian, Italian, South African, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Russian, Filipino, Scandinavian, Mexican, and many more.
• Home and comfort - Simple home-style dishes like Mom's famous melt-in-the-mouth roasted leg of lamb, or my version of a Viking style stew.
• Basics - Bare basics like how to chop onions and herbs the correct way. How to cook fish, spinach, and bok choy properly. How to cook rice and couscous so that it's fluffy and light. Soft-boiling quail eggs or making perfectly crunchy and light salad croutons.
• Everyday recipes - Making simple everyday staples like easy no-knead pasta dough, creamy mashed potatoes like you would have in Michelin-starred restaurants, and chimichurri sauce, the gourmands' mayo, and ketchup.
• Bread and baking - Baking bread is something everyone should be able to do. You will learn about sourdough starter, how to make sourdough bread, and how to cook a lovely delicately thin crêpe from sourdough discard. Learn about other bread, as in this amazing Russian Borodinsky dark rye bread few people know about. Make classics like carrot cake the best you ever had or again a touch of Russian magic with this layered honey cake.
• Fermentation - A discipline all by itself. We will do basic Lacto fermentation like with this sriracha sauce. Learn about Asian ferments like kimchi and how to grow koji so you can make your own soy sauce and miso. We will even look at how to make homemade Vietnamese-style fish sauce by using nothing else than whole fish and salt.
• Seasonal treats - With food, there are many more seasons than the four basic seasons we know. Many products only have a short life and then their season is done. Some products have a peak season, like this roasted young carrot salad and this summer chanterelle soup. Or this beautiful summer fruit salad with berries and melon. This cherry frangipane tart is best when made with cherries at the height of the season.
• BBQ and Braai - Same-same but different. My big love in life is a good South African braai. Here is an amazing slow-roasted pork belly you slowly cook on the fire. Plus a few good braai sides and salads. Cook this Ukrainian beetroot soup(borscht) on the fire next time. Or a fresh whole angelfish stuffed with Thai aromatics.

What you won't learn

• How to make useless dishes - Like mini pancake cereal or rainbow sprinkle blondies. There are dedicated websites for those types of recipes.
• Bad techniques and cowboy shortcuts - Here you will learn only the best techniques and how to use them properly. If there's a legitimate shortcut, we will use it.
• How to cook stuff that looks great but tastes nasty - Professional restaurants are guilty of this. Some of the prettiest food tastes the worst, and some of the tastiest dishes are no Instagram stars.
• Tasteless health food just for the sake of it - If something tastes great, and it happens to be vegan and gluten-free, then that's great. Otherwise, this blog is for responsible omnivores. I do include suggestions in each post on how you could tailor recipes to suit your dietary needs.

Personal advice