My name is Jacob Teske…I am many things…at my core I am food.
I get downright excited about food. Everything about it…it’s history, the ingredients, the methods, acquiring it, seeing it, smelling it, reading about it, watching food shows…For me, cooking is art, a way to express myself and to bring joy and happiness to others. Each meal is a blank canvas left to my imagination.
Why Meat For Dessert, you ask? It started with a joke really. At some point in my early adulthood I stopped liking sweets…completely. I don’t like cookies, cake, or ice cream…none of it. Some of you may be asking “how is that possible”? I don’t know the answer to that, just that I used to love sweets, now I don’t. My pallet has focused primarily on the savory and the quest for Umami. So anyway, anytime I was asked if I wanted dessert, I always joked “Sure, I’ll have some more meat”. Meat is what I crave above all else and is almost always the thing I build my meals around. You will not see posts here about sweets and desserts. Not that I couldn’t create such delicious concoctions, it’s just not my thing. Neither is baking. Carbs are usually just something I add to a meal to balance things nutritionally, not a focus. And to be honest, I’m not really into precise measuring or following instructions. I liken baking to paint by numbers, art is still the outcome, but it’s been predetermined.
I have absolutely no professional experience (My years of cooking at Dairy Queen in high school really had no effect on me in that regard) and quite frankly had no real interest in food at all until I was about 20. Prior to that I simply ate to live and frequently ate such culinary delights as canned tuna and rice.
When I was 22 I moved to a very ethnically diverse neighborhood in Minneapolis and the rest is, well, history. I got curious with all the various markets and restaurants now available to me within blocks. Asian, Middle Eastern, Bavarian, Indian, Hispanic, etc. I started experimenting, trying different ingredients and flavors, talking to the people (the ones who spoke English anyway), eagerly consuming new information and reading anything I could get my hands on regarding food. All of a sudden, food is starting to be a focal point of mine, I’m living to eat.
Then came four years in the Florida Keys giving me access to superb fresh seafood as well as communities of Japanese, Cuban, and Caribbean among others. After years of building on this, drawing inspiration from travelling, eating out, looking at menus, shopping at any and every local and ethnic market, watching food porn on TV, extensive reading, pictures in books & magazines…I am where I am today.
I create tastes and experiences. I make recipes. I love to learn about new flavors and ingredients and to try new things, learning their history and why they work together as well as the science behind cooking. Now I think about food just about every minute of every day…seriously, it drives my wife crazy and is why she has been so “encouraging” in getting me to start this blog. My culinary journey is continuous and I invite everyone on board for the ride.