Think of it as a man cave where guys talk food and drink instead of sports!
Guys and Food is for you and other guys who love food. You don’t have be a chef or work in the food business. You don’t have to be an expert or a gourmet. You may just enjoy cooking, you may like to explore history or other cultures through food, or you may just like to eat.
You’ll probably like Guys and Food if:
• Your idea of a power tool is an immersion blender.
• You’re more interested in who won Top Chef than who won the latest sporting event in the national headlines.
• You’re the type of guy who likes to talk about the last meal that you ate, the meal you are eating, and the next meal you’ll eat.
• You covet your friend’s Viking Stove over his new sports car.
We greeted the arrival of our Samsung NX58F5700WS freestanding gas range and convection oven with the fanfare appropriate of a visiting international dignitary. That didn’t happen when other appliances made their way into the house–not the refrigerator and certainly not new washing machine. They didn’t get a fraction of the attention and for good reason. For food people, a stove not only serves the utilitarian function of adding heat or flame to things that we will eat, it serves as a portal to a magical land of what could be.
In the reflection of the stainless steel, I flash-forwarded to Thanksgiving meals lovingly prepared in the not-too-distant future: a giant roasted turkey worthy of a Rockwell painting, mountains of two kinds of stuffing, and mashed potatoes that would make my wife and son embrace each other as they cried with delight. Soon after, many assorted Italian Christmas cookies would come out in piles to celebrate the birth of Jesus by way of gluttony. A few months later, a garlic-studded leg of lamb, roasted to perfection, would bookend a meal with an Easter Pie. In between all of those holidays, freshly baked cakes, pies and dessert bars would welcome my boy home from school, and rustic loaves of bread would be a daily occurrence.
Its predecessor, the generations old Magic Chef stove was functional with two and a half of the four burners working. However, its oven door broke off after daily use since the Nixon administration; we quickly forgot it before the deliverymen left the driveway. It came with our house when we moved in over a decade before. It was on its last legs then but we kept it because my wife and I had plans for a glorious kitchen remodel that would happen once we settled in. It made sense to wait and buy all new appliances all at once. Life and finances got in the way, and the remodel still hasn’t happened. A while back, the dilapidated refrigerator broke, and we replaced it. Not with the Sub-zero that was the stuff of my fantasies, but it’s a nice LG, and it gets the job done. But like Fantine in Les Misérables, I whist fully dream a dream of what life could be like in my fancy new kitchen.
It would be a bright and sunny room with lots of granite counter space and a center island. A rainbow might even be perpetually present over the pots of fresh basil, rosemary, and chives. It would be well organized too. Pots, pans, and Tupperware containers would be neatly arranged and would not cascade out in a cacophony like the contents of Dagwood Bumstead’s closet. The deep sink would be able to accommodate dishes in addition to the many canning, brining, and fermenting projects that would be done.
It’s more than just an appliance. With a new stove, comes the promise of new and exciting possibilities.
So too, this is a new blog and I am excited about creating this space for guys who love food. I am also excited about the Guys and Food podcast that is on the way. Stay tuned!
Did you ever notice that there is no place for regular guys to talk about food?
In all the media, of all of the television shows, of all of the places online– can you think of a place? Sure, there are plenty of men in the media talking about food—and they all seem to be chefs, don’t they? There is absolutely nothing wrong with chefs. But as with any profession, when guys talk about their work there is a different interaction, and a different agenda. Don’t you think?
I wanted to create a place to tell stories that would be interesting to everyday guys who care about, and think about food. I want to find the answers to questions that guys have about food-related issues; this is that place.
This is not the He-Man Women Haters Club. While all are welcome in this place, it is my experience that the phrase, “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus” is true. I am not diminishing women nor is it my goal to exclude them or undermine them as a gender. But this is a place for guys to be guys. For men to ask questions and make comments that they ask, in the way that they ask them. Think of it as a man cave where guys talk about food, instead of sports.
