Crispy air fryer half chicken layered over bold mojo rojo and paired with sweet paprika charred carrots. A balanced plate of smoke, heat, and brightness built to move cleanly across the pass.

A quiet, intentional dish built on balance. Pan-seared trout with crisp skin, parsley crème fraîche purée with subtle heat, blistered tomatoes, and a bright lemon pan sauce finished with garlic and rosemary.

Creative cooking slows time. Between a 9–5 schedule and daily obligations, the act of cooking with intention becomes both resistance and remembrance of agency, alignment, and care.

I’ve noticed that most of my favorite meals are the ones that take a while to make. Not because they’re complicated, but because they ask you to slow down. Braised beef, braised chicken, salmon cooked gently in liquid, beef bourguignon, none of these dishes are about speed. You can’t rush them and get the same result. You have to meet them where they are.

Red beans and rice is a dish built on patience, smoke, and time. This Cajun-style version uses smoked turkey wings, and andouille sausage to create a creamy, deeply comforting pot meant to simmer low and slow.

Becoming a better cook isn’t about collecting recipes. It’s about building habits, recreating dishes you love, cooking something new, hosting others, and working with the seasons.

Food was always in the frame. Long before it became a service, or a practice I spoke about publicly, it existed in the little pocket of my life, between shoots, after long days, late at night, or early mornings when everything was quiet at home and when I used it as a love language for past relationships. Photography taught me how to use my eyes, how to see. Cooking taught me how to stay, how to feel. This is the story of how food moved from background to practice, and why The Pass exists.