Detroit, MI — One small step for Jeff, one giant leap for foodie kind…

The launch of this website/blog probably won’t come as a surprise to many who know me. Some may even ask or wonder, “What took him so long?” But in reality, what held me back the longest was envisioning and waiting for a future where my love and passion for food and storytelling would be fulfilled and combined with my career in news. After all, for a brief spell during my last year and a half in Phoenix, it was… somewhat.

I’ve spent the last ten years working in the news industry. I’ve lived and worked in Mount Pleasant, Grand Rapids, Birmingham (AL), and Phoenix. The years and stress of covering countless hours of breaking news and mostly negative subject matter slowly weathered away my hairline, my joy, and at times, my hope in humanity. Ever so often, the ability to highlight a positive story or something great someone in the community did was one of the few things that kept me going in such a turbulent industry for several years. And then the pandemic…

The pandemic impacted many lives in various ways, and for two years, we as a society continued to move forward bit by bit in the dark. After the events of 2020, I found very little cause to stay in the news industry.

I knew a lot of journalists at the time in Phoenix and elsewhere who were jumping (or looking to jump) out of news. From the emotional wear and tear of continuous pandemic coverage to the Summer of Protests and election chaos, burnout seemed was vehement across the industry. For some time, I was even pondering employment outside of news. Then, in January 2021, I had an idea.

With the support of two of my managers at my former station, I launched a food franchise dedicated to highlighting restaurants and chefs who weathered the storm of the pandemic and stayed open. I wanted to feature these brave business owners and chefs who kept their small/local businesses going during uncertain times and received an outpouring of support from their loyal patrons. I was finally given the free reign to work on something that has always been a pillar of joy for me.

I built and designed my own page on our station’s website, set up and conducted all of the interviews, shot and edited all of the videos (for web features in the early days), wrote the stories and framed the various food series, and got to meet some great people and tell wonderful and inspiring stories of perseverance. For a year and a half, it brought me more joy than all of my years and achievements as a journalist combined. But, the underlying theme that lingered — while I was finally given a sandbox to play in, no station seemed willing to give me a chance to be on-air or put together a food story as a reporter would.

I eventually moved back to Metro Detroit in the summer of ’22 to be closer to my family. I was fortunate enough to find employment with a local station, where I continue working in the daily grind in the newsroom at the assignment desk. While provided a couple of opportunities to pursue my passion for food-related content, unfortunately, that underlying theme recently reared its head yet again. While I am grateful for all opportunities granted, my true desires for what and how I want to pursue my foodie endeavors have never fully been brought to fruition.

This is what has led to me finally pulling the trigger on something I should have done a long time ago — step outside of the sandbox. Nobody’s passions, dreams, or pursuits for happiness should be confined to the frameworks or limitations of another’s design, even if it’s not intentional. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is take that step outside into the unknown — the final frontier of living your most authentic self.

So, if you’re still reading (yay!) and have made it this far, I sincerely thank you. This is my first blog post of many, from which I hope to share with you my love for food and storytelling. I look forward to showcasing some great food around Michigan and telling the stories of chefs and the culinary world again. Get ready because we’re going on an adventure!