 Hey everyone, welcome back to the channel. Today we're gonna do a Q&A session so that we can all get to know each other just a little bit better. It's been almost a year now since I started this channel and I've gotten quite a few questions about my background and how I got into cooking and things like that. So I figured I'd make a dedicated video to answer all of those questions. So let's get into it. So I figured it would make the most sense to start off by talking about my background and how I got into cooking in general. So thanks a lot to everyone who's submitted these questions on both Instagram and YouTube, all of which you can see on the screen right now. So I'm currently 24 years old. I did go to college. I went to the University of Michigan and studied environmental engineering. So I graduated about two and a half years ago now. And after I graduated, I worked in environmental health and safety at the university for a bit. Then I ended up getting a job as an air quality engineer at an environmental consulting company. So to keep it somewhat short, within a few months of working at that job, while I liked it well enough, I knew that the nine to five sort of corporate job life wasn't really something that was a great fit for me and for my personality. So I already knew at that point that I sort of wanted to pursue something different, even though I had always kind of imagined getting a job as an engineer and that's sort of always what I had pursued. But about 10 months into that job, I ended up starting this YouTube channel sort of with the hope of eventually turning it into my full-time job. And at the same time, I had been learning about personal finance and the stock market. And I had found a way to bring in another decent source of income on the side trading stocks. So back in February of this year, I decided to take the risk and quit my engineering job to focus on this channel full-time and that's what I've been doing ever since. And as sort of a shameless plug here, I actually just started a second YouTube channel about personal finance and stock trading and I just posted my first video there a couple of days ago. So on that channel, my goal is to help people achieve a high level of financial freedom so that they can free up their time to focus on the things that they truly care about. So feel free to check out that channel too if you're interested in that kind of thing. It's called More Money, Less Problems and I'll of course link it below. But anyways, that's not what this video is about. So let's move on to my cooking background. So as most of you know, I've never worked at a restaurant. I didn't go to culinary school or anything like that. So I'm just completely self-taught. My parents did cook a lot of homemade meals growing up. So I got quite a bit of inspiration through that but it wasn't really until I started living on my own in college that I actually got more into cooking for myself. So I learned most of what I know through reading books, watching videos and obviously lots of practice but I'm also constantly working to get better and better because I know that I still have a lot to learn myself. So I started out kind of like most people just sort of following recipes because I knew I liked cooking but I didn't really know how to take it to the next level or how to feel more confident cooking from scratch. But then once I really started getting more into it reading more books about cooking and things like that it really started to click for me and I gradually became more and more confident. I realized that once you sort of know the underlying techniques and concepts behind cooking it's really not as hard as it seems from the outside. And so that's sort of why I started this channel in the first place because I wanted to help other people sort of have that same realization that I had and helped to teach the basics that helped me to initially become more confident in the kitchen. And aside from that it's just another way to keep myself accountable to honing my own skills because in order to put these videos out every week and know that I'm putting out the best quality content I have to be confident in my own cooking skills. So it kind of serves that purpose for me too. But when it comes to the books that have helped me out the most I do have a lot of them here. I tend to kind of just buy new cookbooks whenever I get the opportunity even if I don't really have the time to read all of them but I would say the book that influenced me the most was Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat because it really helped me to start becoming more confident cooking without a recipe. And from there I just cooked more and more continued to read more books and really just tried to learn as much as I possibly could. And after graduating college is really when I have more time to focus on my hobbies like cooking. And so that's when I think I improved the most. As far as how I got into sourdough bread specifically I know a few years back I used to buy sourdough bread from this guy at the farmer's market that I would go to. And so that sort of initially piqued my interest I think because he was talking about how it was naturally fermented and things like that. And at the time I didn't really know what that meant but it did sound interesting to me. And so when I got more into cooking and baking I eventually bought a baking related cookbook and there was a sourdough bread recipe in there. So I kind of just jumped straight into it and started with that one. As most of you know, once you get into it it's a pretty addicting hobby. You just want to keep improving and making your loaves better and better. So after that point I was pretty much just hooked. So that's basically the gist of my cooking background. So let's move on to a few specific questions that I got. So on Instagram, chaotic good eats asked what's something that you've learned the more you've been making content. I think the biggest thing I've learned which really applies to almost anything in life is just to focus on constantly improving and getting better. And most of the time you'll eventually get to where you want to be. So don't worry about making everything perfect right from the beginning because I know when I look back at my first few videos I'm not super proud of them based on my standards today. Even if at the time I thought they were pretty decent and I hope that in a year or two down the road I'll even be able to look at the videos that I'm making right now and see significant growth from now until then. So really if you focus on making each video at least 1% better than the last one I think you'd be surprised by how quickly that can actually add up. So that's sort of the philosophy that I've followed with this channel and I think it's worked out pretty well so far. So next Tina on YouTube asked what did you think you would be when you were 10 and what do you think you'll be doing when you're 50? So that's a good question. I think when I was 10 probably like most kids I mean I was really into sports obviously every kid dreams of being a professional athlete or things like that but more realistically I mean I knew I did well in school so I thought maybe I would wanna be a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer but at that point I definitely didn't really think I'd be doing anything cooking related. I mean when I was 10 I hadn't started cooking at all yet so I definitely didn't think that I would be doing what I am now. Now when I'm 50 that one is pretty tough because that's about 25 years out and a lot can change between now and then. So whether or not I'm doing something cooking related at that point is hard to say. I would hope at the least I'm teaching in some form or another because I think that's what I found that I'm the most passionate about is really just sharing what I know with other people and helping them improve their lives in one way or another even if it is something as small as becoming a better cook. All right so now we'll move on to some food and cooking specific questions. Starting with a question from Ethan on Instagram who by the way has a YouTube channel that you've probably seen as well but definitely check him out if you haven't yet. But he asked what's your favorite kitchen tool that most people probably don't have? And I think the obvious answer is my three in one avocado slicer. But if I had to give another answer I would say my dough whisk. And for those of you who've seen my baking videos you know exactly what I'm talking about. I didn't even know they existed until somewhat recently but if you make a lot of bread or other baked goods it just makes it so much easier to mix your dough. When you use a normal whisk the dough always gets stuck in the middle and it's just a hassle to clean and then when you use a normal spoon it doesn't quite mix the dough as well. So this whisk is kind of the perfect tool for that. So the next question from Instagram what's your all time favorite thing to cook and why? And this one's a pretty easy one for me. I would definitely say pizza is my favorite thing both to cook and probably to eat as well. It's sort of one of the first recipes that I kind of mastered when I really got into cooking. And I mean who doesn't love pizza? The whole process of just making the dough from scratch letting it rise, shaping the dough is just sort of therapeutic. And I personally think that it's pretty much impossible to beat homemade pizza. There's just something about it that's always better than the pizza I've gotten at restaurants. I actually do have a pizza video on my channel but it was one of the first videos I posted so it's not the best by today's standards but I will be working on remastering that video pretty soon both with a few updates to the recipe and obviously hopefully a much better production quality on the video overall. So next it's Ryan Turley on YouTube who I know also runs his own cooking channel which you may wanna check out asked what's the most exciting thing that you wanna cook that you've never tried? I wouldn't say there's one particular dish that I've really wanted to make but lately I have been making a lot more desserts like cakes and things like that because that's something that I never really made or had that much interest in in the past. But I think in order to sort of become a more well-rounded cook I should have some experience making cakes and pies and all that kind of stuff. You know I think it'd be cool to not only be able to master the savory side of cooking but master the sweet side as well. Now David Friedman on YouTube asked what are some of your hobbies outside of cooking and what would be your final meal? And I sort of already answered the other two. As far as my hobbies outside of cooking I would say the main one is working out. I've been lifting weights like five or six days a week since college pretty much. Obviously these days it's a little bit harder with gyms being closed and things like that but I've been trying to do what I can at home and looking forward to getting back into it once gyms do reopen. I have always kind of enjoyed being active so I'll play basketball every now and then but recently this channel has kept me pretty busy and just cooking in general, testing recipes, things like that tends to take up the majority of my time. But when I do have some free time I'll sometimes read, watch some TV, watch YouTube videos and things like that. So I'd like to get into some more hobbies now that I kind of have a little bit more free time with having this channel up and running and all that. But yeah at the moment I would say I do spend most of my time on cooking related things. As far as my final meal I would probably say just a nice plate of barbecue, like some ribs, cornbread, baked beans, things like that. I would say that's in general my favorite type of meal even though pizza is kind of my favorite thing to cook and eat on its own. I would say my favorite whole meal is barbecue. So I like all types of barbecue, chicken, ribs, brisket, things like that. So for my final meal I would say just a whole plate, a little bit of everything would be kind of the ideal meal for me. Now we have another question from YouTube. Have you experimented with xanthan gum powder as a dough conditioner and sourdough? I wanted to make sure I included this one because really the main reason that you would use xanthan gum I think is in gluten-free doughs which I know a lot of people out there are gluten intolerant. So it's definitely something that I do wanna work on. I haven't yet to answer your question but I do have a good gluten-free pizza recipe that I haven't put out on the channel yet but hopefully I will soon. It doesn't involve xanthan gum but you know for those of you who are gluten-free it is a great recipe for pizza. I hope to eventually work on some gluten-free sourdough bread and just bread recipes in general but I haven't actually started testing those recipes yet just because there's so many other things that I wanna work on but again hopefully I will do that soon. So if you made it this far in the video I appreciate you sticking around. Thanks again to everyone who sent in questions. I really enjoyed making this video and kinda seeing what you guys wanted to know. If you haven't seen my most recent video be sure to click that in the bottom right corner of the screen. Otherwise I'll see you all in the next one.