Mom's Spaghetti is already a thing....but do you know about Dad's Meatloaf?

This a story about how it all started for me….without knowing it was how it all was going to start. I get asked the question all the time regarding my start in the industry and how it happened. Well, after years of trying to figure out that moment, it clicked one day while talking about an entirely different topic.

First off…I was given the opportunity at a young age to play around in the kitchen. It escalated to me making dinner a lot. I would be using a lot of seasonings that I couldn’t even pronounce and didn’t really have a clue how to actually use them. I was probably around 12-13….I would put seasonings together by smell. I also worked on a produce farm which helped quite a bit. Also growing up hunting and fishing and harvesting our own protiens provided a helpful and unique insight as well. But even with all of that I still didn’t think about this as a career. I grew up 25min from one of the best Culinary Schools in the world and had no idea it existed or that it was a possible path for my future till much later on.

So…what was that defining moment I didn’t even realize was so impactful at the time? It was something I witnessed while my dad was cooking. This would happen whenever it was said “there’s nothing to eat in this house”. He would take it as a true challenge that had to be won and for better or worse he certainly did. Our house was a split level home…I had made it halfway up the stairs and had enough line of sight into the kitchen to see what he was putting together. It was also enough at the time to encourage me to go back downstairs and start thinking about other options for dinner. Maybe if I called enough friends I could get invited to one of their homes for dinner!

What I later found out is that my dad, at a minimum of that one moment, was in fact a genius! What I saw was Kix cereal and Salt & Vinegar potato chips (Lays of course….this was the early 90s in Massachusetts in rural suburbia so not a lot of options) out on the counter while the food processor was being driven to its max. Of course I had to ask……. “Dad….what are you making?” I will admit, I was mildly frightened with the answer “Meatloaf”.

Here’s the thing….. It was really frigging good! While we just chalked it up to being lucky that day with his mad scientist moment, what I realized WAY later down the road is that it was brilliant. If he did that move on a show like chopped he would have been crowned King instantly. He didn’t have access to bread crumbs at that moment and used what he could find. Kix cereal is corn based and makes for a great binder just like bread crumbs. Salt & Vinegar potato chips are similar in that they too will bind well but now you have the additional flavor that happens to fit in with meatloaf really well.

Subconsciously, this would be the moment that made everything come together for me. Granted, I wouldn’t realize or understand this, for a couple decades…but that was the defining moment for me. Not having “anything in the kitchen” is my favorite way to cook…..its a challenge I enjoy and its helped put together some of my best work.

Somehow it took me all these years to think about trying to recreate it. It came as a thought/advice from a dear friend. Last night I did just that, and it was fantastic. I used ground beef brisket, my own bacon, some cured pork butt, a homemade smoked ketchup, and of course some “bread crumbs” made from Kix cereal and some Salt & Vinegar Chips.