ABOUT
Food as memory, care, and lived truth
I come to food from a place of listening.
Before technique, before titles, before any idea of what a chef is supposed to be, food was how I learned to pay attention. To people. To silence. To what lives beneath the surface.
My life has asked me to begin again more than once. Discipline came through military service. Perspective came through loss. Clarity came through standing still long enough to understand what I was actually carrying.
Scratch Test Kitchen grew out of that reckoning. It is not a concept built for scale or performance. It is a practice rooted in care, culture, and truth. A way of working that honors where food comes from and what it holds for the people gathered around it.
I believe the most meaningful meals are not about being impressed. They are about being present. Feeling safe enough to exhale. Leaving a table more connected than when you arrived.
Today, Scratch Test Kitchen exists as an evolving imprint.
The work remains small by design and guided by intention, whether it takes the form of a residential dinner, a collaborative project, or a quiet conversation that leads somewhere unexpected.