Jesse, as a chef, apparently you sometimes wake up in the morning thinking about what pan you’re going to cook in before you even know what you’re having for breakfast. Do you have to live, breathe, and dream this job in order to find success in the food industry?
I think it makes life easier if you're one hundred percent into what you're trying to do, sure. I think when you can have that admiration for something, you'll do better at making something about it. But you also don't need to know everything either; you just have to really be into it. If you're a fan, you're going to do even better. So when I wrote my cookbook Cooking with Vegetables, I had to ask myself, is this about me knowing everything, or is this about how much I love food and cooking? I think that’s why I’ve done well with my cooking videos on Instagram, because as much as I am a cook, I also fucking love this job. I love cooking, and I love making videos. It doesn’t have to do with what’s right or technically correct, it’s more just me being a fan and what my take is on a dish.
Both cooking and making videos have been a part of your professional life even before you started your Instagram channel, Another Day in Paradise, right?
Yeah, I mean, growing up in LA, I always wanted to be a professional skateboarder. That's just all I wanted to do. I started skateboarding — I didn't do competitions, we did what was called street skating. So my friends and I, we would just drive around in traffic with a bunch of other kids and film ourselves skateboarding at night, or making videos of ourselves doing tricks, things like that. So although my passion was skateboarding, the actual job was about what music we were using, what cameras we were using, how it was going to look. There was no Instagram or YouTube, so you’d get this bootleg tape and go around to skate shops and drop this tape off. Later on, I kept up with photography and started working as a fashion photographer, directing music videos, I was still so obsessed with taking pictures. But I’d also worked for a stint in restaurants, as a busboy, a waiter, a line cook, so I would supplement my income with cheffing.
“I think sometimes when you don't have total control of a project, it can be a lot more successful.”
And now you’re creating food content full time. Do you ever wish you’d just skipped over everything else and gone straight into this career?
Oh, no way. I got to really discover in my own time what I loved. I didn’t start my Instagram page until lockdown happened and I had all this time, it just sort of happened at the right time for me. And I think sometimes when you don't have total control of a project, it can be a lot more successful. I didn't have a plan, I mean, none of us knew that was going to happen, and it was suddenly like I got to figure out a way to put together the things that I knew and loved best, which is this weird little double job of cooking and filmmaking.
You’re right that your videos have a certain cinematic quality to them — right down to your signature graphic font, the sounds of utensils and pans, and the artfully messy plates covered in sauce.
I try to think a lot about my California roots, not only in terms of the food I’m making but also in terms of my art direction or visuals. Growing up in LA, I think that Gothic font was really everywhere growing up, in Hispanic culture, in American men's working clubs, but also in Europe, at pubs in Germany and Portugal and France… I also love the opening title of a movie called There Will Be Blood, it also uses that Gothic font, and that's part of my grading for my videos! I also wanted them to feel sort of cold and brutal and very focused on sound, as you said. In that movie, there’s such an intensity to the sound in that opening scene… So I’m inspired by that. It’s sort of like those mukbang videos where you can hear the person eating and the sound is gross but sort of satisfying. All of that plays into my work.
As a content creator, you’re of course not only cooking, but also making videos, posting, interacting with your audience… Does everything you have to do beyond cooking ever exhaust you?
The hard bit for me is actually making authentic recipes that work for my channel, really consistently. I definitely have times of feeling a little bit of burnout, but I actually love working by myself a lot. But at the same time, I don’t put out a video every day, I put out maybe one or two a week. That makes it a little bit easier. And I also have this wall of Instagram that kind of separates me from people, I’m not in front of an actual audience, you know what I mean?
But that wall is interesting because although it does protect you in some ways, it also opens you up to more active comparison with other creators, and comments from your audience right at your fingertips.
It can definitely be really difficult! I have that sort of “compare and despair” saying in my head all the time because I think if you even start doing that, you're pain shopping. There's always going to be someone doing better. There's always going to be someone that's getting more likes, more engagement. So yeah, I really try not to obsess about it too much, because it can of course really get in my head and it’s a cancerous way of thinking. And if you let it in too much, you start making content like other people, you start making recipes like other people, and it becomes very easy to lose sight of what you're doing. It’s hard but you really have to put the blinders on — I learned that when I was making my cookbook. I had to buckle down and stay focused on being real to myself… With Instagram, you get another chance every day, you can try again, post again tomorrow. But with my cookbook, you know, I felt like this might be my only shot, so it was important to stay focused on myself and what I wanted to do.
Is that also why you decided to write, cook, and photograph every recipe yourself?
Exactly, I sort of thought, “Okay, if this is your chance to do this thing, just go all in.” If I get to write another one, I'll probably have a little bit more help. (Laughs) But this time around, I wanted to go all in, just to see if I can do it. I also shot the whole thing on film, which is not cheap or fast, but thankfully my publishing house and my editor were both on board.
“Fresh, fast, and filthy, that’s sort of my mantra. That has to be there because otherwise I’m not going to enjoy it. It has to be authentic to me.”
Apparently you really struggled in school, so I can imagine that sitting down to write dozens of recipes was a bit daunting for you.
Yeah, I have ADHD, dyslexia, and OCD, which is like a little fun neurodivergent sandwich. It’s actually quite common with creative people, so sitting down to write the book was hard. I barely graduated high school, I probably hadn't even really read a book, cover to cover until I was in my twenties. Lately, I've really challenged myself to read as much as I possibly can. When I sat down to write the book, it was a daily panic for me for the first months. I didn’t know how to organize myself in this way at all. I don't really know what a paragraph is, you know what I mean? In the end I had to sort of try to forget all that stuff and write like there was no rules, and then it became a lot easier. I had an amazing team of editors helping me as well, and then it was such an incredible feeling finishing it. I couldn't believe it. It was the greatest sense of accomplishment I think I've ever had in my life because I really never thought I would be able to do that.
I love what you mentioned about writing like there are no rules. It goes back to what you were saying about approaching cooking like a fan, doing it with your heart rather than doing it with perfect technique.
When it comes to actually making a plate of food, I think if you think about it too much, you're fucked. I mean, of course, you have to use a spoon to put the sauce on — but where it falls is where it falls. I’m not a tweezers guy, I just put things on the plate and let them be. That’s also part of my roots, I loved fast food as a kid, and so even if I’m making a cookbook about vegetables, and the inspiration for the cookbook was this artichoke dish, the artichoke was really just a vehicle for mayonnaise. (Laughs) You know what I mean? I’m approaching it with that little bit of filth that I can relate to. There has to be something pickled, something friend — fresh, fast, and filthy, that’s sort of my mantra. That has to be there because otherwise I’m not going to enjoy it. It has to be authentic to me.