About the site

Let’s get one thing out of the way right up front: There’s a good chance this site isn’t about cooking like your grandmother. If the only thing Nana ever made for dinner was a reservation … if Grandmama brought cocktail peanuts and a bottle of Dewars to a potluck … then no, I’m not talking about her.

What I mean is the grandmothers — and grandfathers — who made comfort food before we had a name for it. The Sunday pot roast. Meatloaf night. Thanksgiving turkey. It wasn’t fancy, but it was good.

Who I am

I’m Drew, a husband and father who cooks for his family. I worked as a short-order cook in college. I won’t say I learned any great recipes there, except chili and baked mac and cheese. But I learned to be comfortable in the kitchen. It turns out that’s the big hurdle for most people to get over.

Fear of the unknown is a powerful thing. People just don’t know how much they don’t know about the kitchen. So they don’t know where to start. I get past that with basic foods and step-by-step pictures that take away the fear.

I talk to people all the time who have no problem with computers, with power tools, with sewing and embroidery machines. But the food processor and mixer? They’ve never been out of the boxes they came in as wedding presents.

I, on the other hand, never met a kitchen gadget I didn’t like. (Okay, I’ve had some cheap plastic things that I would have liked if they were sturdier.) Gadgets are toys for grown-ups. I still love getting new toys. And I like sharing that enthusiasm with other people.

What I cook

You probably won’t see any of my dishes on Iron Chef. I love watching it, but that’s not how I want to eat at home. That’s cooking to impress food critics. I cook to impress my family.

Most recipes start with what I’ve already got in the pantry, or in the garden. When I have a “special ingredient”, it’s usually something like tomatoes fresh from the garden. Or the traditional Christmas Eve rib roast.

Not just recipes

Yes, it’s mostly recipes. But I also talk about the quality of the ingredients: How they’re grown; why fresh, local and organic is better than factory farmed; why the conventional wisdom about fat is wrong.

And sometimes I touch on the politics of food. There’s billions of dollars at stake in agriculture, so you have to expect a lot of special interests to compete for your support. Just because they’ve spent millions of dollars telling you something doesn’t make it true.

I try to cut through the PR and junk science and focus on what will make our food better. Better tasting, better for us, better for the environment, and better for the economy.

Reviews and endorsements

I review lots of books and products, both food and hardware. These are usually provided by the manufacturer or publisher, and sometimes I’m compensated for my time. But I keep editorial control of what I write. That means if I don’t like it, that’s what I say. So when I do say I like it, you can believe it.

It’s not like I could hide it anyway. With all the photos you can easily see what I’m using on a day-to-day basis.

If you’ve got a product you’d like me to review, drop me a line at reviews@cooklikeyourgrandmother.com and tell me what you’ve got. Or if you want to advertise, take a look at what spaces are available.