About Us

“We’re starting this site to get out of the house, experience new foods with good friends, and hopefully get a book deal and a star on Hollywood Blvd.”

Now meet the chefs!!!

Chef Alex

I was born and raised on Southwestern NY.  My mom and dad taught me a little about cooking.  I ran a pizza and wing delivery place at SUNY Buffalo, did some bar back work and line cook jobs at a few Buffalo restaurants.  I got to play with some basic recipes while at SUNY Buffalo (pizza sauces, wings, sandwiches) and got to work with seafood and home made foods at the Raintree Restaurant.

I’ve done some home brewing with the neighbors on the side!  Favorite beer is Guinness, Youngs Double Chocolate Oatmeal Stout.  DO NOT like Budweiser.

So now, I love to grill.  I like to get the kids involved in ccoking.  I love hot foods, I’m growing some cayenne peppers.  This year I made some Jalapeno hot sauce (Jumpin’ Jack’s Jalapeno Jiuce) and a Jalapeno Habanero sauce (Nick’s Nightmare).  The kids have a ball pounding out raised dough and they mix my sauces.

My Favorite foods are chicken wings, cajun foods, steaks and seafood (crab, lobster, whitefish, scallops and shrimp).  There’s not much I don’t like.

We’re starting this site to get out of the house, experience new foods with good friends, and hopefully get a book deal and a star on Hollywood Blvd.

I met Chef Brian a couple years ago.  His wife used to draw blood from me at the doctor’s office, and she’s not very good at colonoscopies.  I met Chef Cavan’s wife in NY back in 1998 while working for some crappy horse company.  I’ve known her ever since, and got Chef Cavan buzzed at his wedding with some peppermint schnapps – because it gives you fresh breath!  Chef Cavan claims to cook, but never invites anyone to his house.  I think he takes pictures of crap and claims it as his own.  We’ll see how the cook off goes!

Chef Brian

The experience of dining has always been one of my favorite hobbies!

My first memory of cooking was fixing La Choy Chicken Chow Mein from a can for my parents.  My sister and I dressed in aprons and hair bonnets, and (pardon the stereotype, I was 10yrs old) taped our eyes back in the classic asian form.  We served the “dish” with homemade menus, place settings, and chopsticks made from twigs.  It was a great success, or so I was told!  Not so much of a success was cooking fresh corn kernels over a skillet of oil for some fresh popcorn.  Who forgot to tell me you were suppose to shake the skillet as it cooked!  The flash flame singed the ceiling and I learned you cannot put a grease fire out with water!  2 valuable lessons at such a young age!

I am a born and raised Lexingtonian and we are in no short supply of fantastic places to eat around here, but have found the most amazing places within a day’s drive as well!!
A few of our favorite (franchise and locally owned) : Maggiano’s Little Italy (Chicago, IL), Giordano’s Pizza (Chicago, IL), Terry’s Turf Club (Cincinnati, OH), Bourbon N’ Toulouse (Lexington, KY), Nagasaki Inn (Lexington, KY)

Sampling these well-known dishes has ignited a passion to recreate the same meals at home and tweak to my own preferences by adding a pinch of this, a splash of that, or surprise substitution when I didn’t have something the dish called for; Seems like most of my dishes have arrived from methods like this.

I draw a lot of influence from my grandparent’s southern (read everything fried and covered with gravy) meals and fresh vegetables from the garden, to my father’s craving for the over-the-top cookouts, to my mother’s tried and true go-to-week-night dishes.  I’ve been fortunate that my wife is equally interested in cooking and is fantastic with baking and deserts!  Together we create some pretty amazing meals.

This site is born from those passions and combined with my good buddies Alex and Cavan, there is plenty here to chew on!

Chef Cavan

I’ve been passionate about food in some shape, form or fashion as long as I can remember. Growing up in Madisonville, KY my grandparents played a significant role in my life and they both were wonderful and inspiring cooks–I was always encouraged to help out in the kitchen. I also have very fond memories of watching Justin Wilson (I gar-on-tee) and Julia Child on PBS while I would visit them. And, that was cooking before cooking was cool.

I enjoy eating as much as I do cooking—and I really like cooking. I’d say my go-to cooking method is the grill; however, cooking anything in the Dutch oven in the fall or winter is a very close second. I think my single most favorite dish to cook is braised short ribs.

I generally stay true to my “simple but elegant” cooking philosophy. I firmly believe you can make a dish with 5 ingredients taste just as good as one with 20.

In addition to a lifelong love of food and cooking I have a lifelong love for horses and have worked in the horse industry for 10 years.

Some of my favorite meals/restaurants are: Foie Gras and Sauternes Duck Sausage with Truffle Aioli (Hot Doug’s, Chicago, IL), Achiote Marinated Suckling Pig or the Molé Enchiladas (Rick Bayless’ Topolobampo, Chicago, IL), Ale-8 Braised Pork Belly (Jonathan’s at Gratz Park, Lexington, KY), Roasted Duck (Azur, Lexington, KY), Veal Marsala (The Vineyard, Bethlehem, PA), and Enchiladas (Los Dos Molinos, Phoenix, AZ).