PHOTO BY MARK MENDEZ
A FEW YEARS AGO I GOT HOOKED ON THIS IDEA of homemade you-name-it. I have always loved to cook-I grew up helping my grandmother in the kitchen. I love to feed people, and I believe that all great conversations worth their salt take place around food.
But this was a different type of fascination. I’m talking about the basics, the fundamentals. I started to hunt for recipes to make my own ketchup, mustard and sriracha; I was waking up early to brine my own brisket for pastrami; and I had balls of homemade mozzarella and burrata hanging over the sink to drain. It was a lot of work, but it was so satisfying and of course, to me, lots of fun.