Behind the Recipe: A 36-Hour Scramble
Follow along as I prep, shoot, shop, and juggle everything in between.
Change of plans! Today was supposed to be all about filming my Callos a la Madrileña recipe—one of my all-time favourite Spanish peasant dishes—and getting this week’s recipe in your hands. But real life had other plans.
With a big shoot suddenly scheduled for tomorrow with The Butcher Shoppe, and a full slate of prep, errands, and filming ahead, I had to hit pause and reorganize the next 36 hours. The recipe is still coming (Sunday!), but in the meantime, I thought I’d take you behind the scenes.
This post will update throughout today and tomorrow as I prep, shop, cook, and try to keep it all together—with Angus riding shotgun, of course. So keep checking back, hit refresh, and get a glimpse of what recipe development and production days really look like.
Let’s gooo!
9:34 am - Tripe, Trotters, and Blood Sausage
So, looks like I’ll have a little more time than I originally thought to get some filming done. That tripe and pigs’ feet need to be braised for a while, so I plan to film that set up, film the veg prep, and set all of that to braise, and then hit the road to pick up everything but the meat for the Butcher Shoppe shoot tomorrow.
9:35 am - Don’t Forget The Bread
A great bread is essential. Look around your hood – you’ll find some!
10:03 am - Lock In The Meat For Tomorrow
My good friend Antony Starr is lending us his very cool pad for tomorrow’s shoot. It’s got a fantastic kitchen and a lush backyard setup—but more importantly, it features something I’ve never cooked on before. So yeah, I’m taking a bit of a risk tying an entire photoshoot to this contraption. The best way I can describe it is an open fire pit shaped like an egg, but without a lid. It has a clever grill ring built around it, so I’m hoping to create distinct hot and cool zones as I go. Should be interesting. We’ll see!
1:12 pm - Change of Plans (again), Let’s Have a Flood
I truly wish I had the foresight to film the flooded kitchen. What a disaster.
1:45 pm - Sneak Peek
Did I mention that tripe is the stomach lining of a cow? Yup, that’s what this is. Trust me, it’s delicious!
3:10 pm - How I Use Tech To Help The Process
I tried to keep this as un-boring as possible.
5:03 pm - Fiesta Farms & A Quick Walk For Angus
Had to take a bunch of business calls today—plus deal with a flood and my aching L4/L5—so filming the Callos recipe got pushed back. The trotters and tripe are blanched and ready, so the plan now is to get up early Friday morning, handle the braising, and finish the video. I’ll spend that morning editing what I captured today and working on the hook and first 90 seconds of the video—arguably the most important part. By the time that’s done, the braise should be ready, and I can jump back into filming and finish the cook.
Around 5:00, I headed out to grab the rest of the ingredients for tomorrow’s Butcher Shoppe shoot. The weather’s looking a bit sketchy—honestly, I’m nervous we may have to cancel. Gah. Fingers crossed we don’t.
Anyway, here’s me and Angus doing a quick Fiesta Farms run, followed by a celebratory walk to reward him for all his hard work (mostly snoozing next to me, but still).
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…more to come