How did your career as a cook, recipe developer and food blogger begin?
I think the best things happen by accident. I always had cooking as a hobby (I recently found my first try at a YouTube channel from 2019...which we will not speak about!!), but I never really put my back into it until the pandemic, where I had the time to explore TikTok. I started making videos first because I knew my boss was going to ask me how to use the platform to our advantage. Cooking videos seemed like a safe way to learn. Then those videos started taking off, I started my food blog, and I started taking recipe development much more seriously. If you are going to make a dinner based off of my recipe, I don't want to ruin your dinner, you know? What happened then was I was asked to choose between my job and my social accounts, and well...one was much more fun than the other.
Tell us about your new book, Justine Cooks!
I am so excited to finally bring this book into the world! I call it a plant-forward book for people who truly love food. It's meant to be highly cookable, but also adaptable to your palate, filled with exciting ideas, and repeatable. I injected new techniques into each recipe but didn't overtly call them out, so I also want it to feel like a book where you learn as you cook through it. Essentially I want it to be the book I didn't have when I first started to learn how to cook and explore flavor.
What’s your favorite part about the New York culinary community?
Honestly, how real and warm everyone is. Everyone is rooting for everyone to succeed, whether that's in restaurants, social media, or traditional media. There's a growth and opportunity mindset, not a cut-throat one. No pun intended, but I think we all know cream rises to the top.
What inspires your pescatarian cooking?
I get inspired by the challenge of it all, and I also let the ingredients inspire me. I've found it's much easier to build a dish when I have one hero ingredient to base everything around. Whether that's black rice (there's a killer Black Rice with Blistered Greens & Herby Tonnato in the book), or cabbage (there's a Lime Roasted Cabbage bowl in the book I can't stop talking about), I usually let one ingredient lead the way. And when it comes to fish and seafood, I like to see how much flavor I can inject into what is usually a less-than-favorite protein. Don't sleep on fish!
Do you have a favorite recipe in your new book?
Boyfriend Salmon. I just made it yesterday...and can't stop thinking about it. Take Ina Garten's Engagement Chicken and lower the stakes. It's just as delicious, but easier to make and will lock him (or her or them) into four more dates. But also gender is a construct and cooking for a man is over, so just make this salmon for yourself.
Follow along:
www.justinesnacks.com
@justine_snacks