Category Archives: Parliamentary Procedure

Travis Brock Kennedy, Chief Web Editor of Reclaiming the Good Name of the Epicurean

When I started Reclaiming the Good Name of the Epicurean this past September I envisioned a website where the diverse voices of professional chefs, home cooks, writers, artists, and artisans could come together to explore and celebrate the world of good food and drink. So far in the young life of this website mine has been the only contributing voice. Although I bring to the website professional cooking experience and classical training my perspective is, as is everyone else’s, limited in many ways.

Don and I on Santana Row in San Jose, California last April

For this reason I am thrilled to announce the addition of Don McGray, Reclaiming the Good Name of the Epicurean’s first contributing writer. Don is a long-time friend who shares my passion for cooking, eating, and celebrating good food and drink. We grew up together on California’s central coast and relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area at the same time. Our shared food experience ranges from tri-tip barbecue in Santa Maria to 2 AM okonomiyaki making in Berkeley to Lobster Rolls in San Francisco’s Castro District and everything you can possibly imagine in-between. We’ve pounded fresh abalone under the redwoods by the Gualala river, we’ve sprayed Febreze on a rotting pot of beans in our high school drama room, and we’ve consumed more alcohol together before our 25th birthdays than most people will consume in a lifetime. In other words we go way back, and the stories will slowly trickle out as we explore the recipes and foods that have fueled the madness thus far.

Don is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley where he double-majored in French and Political Science. He has lived and studied in the Rhône-Alpes region of France and has traveled and dined extensively in Europe. He is an exquisite cook with a broad and varied repertoire. Don will be bringing to the website a vegetarian perspective on cooking which will greatly enrich the content of the site. He lives and works in El Cerrito, a small community on the eastern shore of the San Francisco bay and in addition to his other contributions will also be bringing the geographic perspective of the East Bay to the site.

Don’s first post will be up soon, please join me in welcoming him on board! I’m supremely confident his posts will help the site grow into it’s vision as the place where the epicurean’s passions meet an affection for the greater world of art, music, and literature.

The Great Work Begins!

I’ve recently been hired as the pastry chef for a new LA bakery and have spent the last few days working on a menu with the owners. The unexpected long hours have prevented me from making my regular posts this week. Apologies for this, and I promise to have some fresh content up next week. In the meantime here’s a sneak peek at what I’ve been working on: