Interview with Radical Recipes
About a week ago I was feeding my Twitter addiction, you know, Twitter parties, witty comments about lost keys, motherhood and weight, when I came across @radicalrecipes.
I'm a pretend foodie (I like Doritos too much to claim to be a true foodie) so I like to follow the amazing foodies on Twitter. When I see a name with recipes in it, I tend to check out a few of their tweets and see if I’d like to follow them. Then something on @radicalrecipes caught my eye. His bio says he’s only 9 years old.
Wait a second.
What?
I slowed down and read the bio again:
I'm 9 years old and I'm turning my mom's recipes into my Radical Recipes Cookbook For Boys. I want to be a pro-baseball player or a chef when I grow up.
I just kind of sat there for a second. So impressed and shocked and worried that it was a joke, I reached out to him immediately and then made sure his mom knew about what he was doing. I mean, I am a mom first, after all.
Sure enough, his mom reached out to me as well, and gave him permission to do an interview with me.
There are a few reasons this is so exciting to me.
First, how great is it that this 9-year-old boy had an idea and he's actually following through on it?
Secondly, what a great idea! All the younger cookbooks are geared towards little girls! And well, little girls aren’t the only ones cooking anymore.
Finally, what a great thing to support. Kids getting away from the TV, off the video games and into the kitchen where they can truly discover what goes into making good food, and how delicious good food can taste. And I mean real food, not, you know, Doritos. *wink
So I was able to talk to Michael on a Saturday morning with his four siblings in the background, and my kids running around the house. It was perfect.
I thought I liked Michael before the interview, but by the end of it, I not only liked him, I was very impressed with his drive, his hard work and his knowledge about what he is doing. He's a very inspiring kid.
Here he is:
Sarah: Can you tell me what you're doing in your own words?
Michael: I've always like cooking, since I was little, like when I was one or two, I started to watch my mom cook. I would help her stir. And my grandpa comes over during the holidays and he's in the kitchen too. So one or two years ago, I found a tomato soup recipe. I made it and it was really fun to make.
So I went to the bookstore with my mom to get a cookbook, and all the cookbooks were like girl, pink, princess cupcake stuff. And I wanted to have my own boy cookbook. Because cooking is not just a girl thing. So I started to write my own book.
And I've spent the last couple of months putting all the radical recipes for boys together.
And I'm going to get a website too, which should be up in about two weeks, it will be www.radicalrecipes4boys.com I started tweeting about a week ago, and I've found some cool people.
I even get to go to a local restaurant and help the main chef cook at a grill. And I hope I can get the book published and help other boys learn how to cook too.
Sarah: That's amazing. How did you get permission to go and cook with a real chef in his restaurant?
Michael: Well my grandma lives right next door to it. And the chef's name is Michael too. And when my grandma was telling him what I’m doing, he invited me there.
Sarah: How are you editing the recipes to be for boys? Are you changing the recipes? Are you adding things that you like?
Michael: I'm changing them. If you had ribs or something, I like to add a special sauce that I made. Changing them so their easier for kids like me.
Sarah: Well that's great. And I have to say, I think you're right. All of the cookbooks are for little girls, but boys like to cook too! It's a stereotype that you’re breaking so I’m glad you’re doing this. But, when you said that all the cookbooks were for girls, you mentioned cupcakes. I happen to know that boys like cupcakes too. So how would you make a cupcake recipe?
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