Hi! Welcome to Earth, Food, and Fire. With this food, gardening, and outdoor blog I hope to be able to pass on my love for food and everything outdoors!!
Having been employed in the restaurant industry for over 8 years, from a high school "student apprentice", to slowly working my way up to sous-chef at a small hotel, and doing a 3 month “stage” in Switzerland; I’ve had the good fortune of experiencing and learning to cook a wide range of cooking styles, techniques, and fantastic food.
You get to meet some of the most quirky and unique people in a professional kitchen. It's a melting pot of different social cliques all brought together by the love of food. I am grateful I can say the kitchen is where I met my wife, and some of my best friends. It is one thing I absolutely love about working in this industry, the people who work so hard to deliver great dining experiences (front and back of house), usually get along quite well regardless of what walk of life they are from.
I started gardening as a hobby, simply because as a cook, I wanted to know more about where and how our food is produced. I've always loved being outdoors, either trudging through the woods or working in the backyard, rather than stuck in a hot, poorly ventilated space with 5-10 other high-strung people. I am always more relaxed if I’m outside, either working on my latest project, walking my two greyhounds, or going camping in the woods with friends or family. Food eventually always plays a role though, you get hungry turning over a garden plot by hand, portaging a canoe through the woods, or after being out for a long walk in the park. Before you know it, I am thinking about what delicious things I can cook up when I get home(or back at camp!). My whole life seems to revolve around food regardless of what I'm doing.
This is where this food blog comes into play. "Earth, Food, and Fire", is inspired by my love for cooking, food, and the great outdoors. I thought to myself, why can’t I combine the two? I know how to cook, I love being outside and getting my hands dirty, I have more than enough experience cooking over a fire, and I want to be able to share this passion with other people and teach them how to cook real food, from scratch, either indoors or out and basically help you reconnect with the natural world in the process. Anyone can pop a microwave dinner or a frozen pizza in the oven, but I find that less and less, people these days (especially the younger generations), actually learn the skills of how to properly cook food from scratch. That which used to be passed on from generation to generation, is slowly being lost. Cooking should be something fun, it connects people. Eating is a universal thing we all do, yet you can have such varied experiences that it never really gets boring if you are willing to step outside your comfort zone and try something new.
I hope you enjoy reading some of these posts. If I can inspire you to go outside to build a fire and spit roast a chicken , or start growing your own lettuce at home (because it really is so darn easy to do!), instead of buying it at a store, or try to cook something you never would have tried before, I'll have accomplished my goal of helping others discover how amazing food really can be.
Markus Mueller
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