About
My friends and family always say when they introduce me, “This is Kristina, she’s a chef.”
Inevitably, the next question is “Really? Where do you work?” and then I have say, “Well, I’m a former chef who still works in the restaurant business…”
It’s complicated and drives me crazy, especially because the next question is always, “Do you miss it?” The answer is “yes and no”. Obviously, I don’t miss the day to day of it all that much, or I’d still be doing it. But I still love cooking and sharing that passion with others, and thus, FormerChef was born.
My main goal is to show people step by step how easy cooking can be. In addition, I’ve recently returned to gardening so I’m blogging a bit about being an urban gardener. Finally, I’m completely obsessed with travel to far flung corners of the globe. You can see my travelogues (much of them related to food, of course) at www.wired2theworld.com
Photography and Text:
All photos on the site are taken by me, unless otherwise stated. I have a Nikon D40X DSLR camera and I’m still learning how to use it.
The writing is all done by me as are the recipes. If the recipes are inspired by a book, restaurant or blog, I do my best to give credit where it’s due. I hope you will do the same.
All photos and text are copyrighted and protected under a Creative Commons License. This means you are free to use the content for your own purpose (enjoy the recipes! learn from my mistakes!). However, any of my content you want to re-publish in any way (photos or text) to must be attributed to me, may not be used for commercial purposes, and may not be copied, distributed or displayed without my permission.
Products and Books: Just about everything I recommend on my “Books and Gear” page I’ve purchased myself and used. Some things are similar to items I’ve purchased elsewhere. So, if you’re going to buy it anyway, I’d appreciate it if you did so though my Amazon store and help support this blog. I make about enough to buy a cup of coffee each month, but it’s something!
If I recommend something in a post, I will let you know if I’ve received that product for free or if I’ve purchased it myself. I’m happy to look at things for the blog, but just because it’s sent to me does not guarantee a positive review. If I don’t like something, I’m not going to write about it.
Contact: If you’d like to contact me (Kristina Johnson) about the blog, product or cookbook reviews, private or group cooking classes, or anything related to writing, photography or travel, there are a few ways:
- Email me at formerchef (at) dslextreme (dot) com.
- Follow me on Twitter @FormerChefBlog
- Become a fan of FormerChef on Facebook
Kristina’s writing, photos, and recipes have been featured around the web:
Photo Contributions:
Featured in “Best of the Blogs” at the Food News Journal:
11/30/2009
4/7/2010
4/27/2010
Interviewed on Style and Inspiration.
Featured Contributor for the “EAT” column for Hitched Magazine.
Featured Contributor to the Meatless Monday campaign with photos from Meatless Monday featured on the Huffington Post.
Featured on SeriousEats.com.
Recipe Contributor~55 Knives Cookbook
Finalist in the PomWonderful Photo contest.
Paper Chef online cooking challenge winner.
