Ah, yes. The backstory. Presumably you’ve come here seeking knowledge in regards to Borrowed Kitchen’s origins. If not, this is about to get real weird for you. Borrowed Kitchen started many years ago in an apartment (hence the name). Back then, I wasn’t trying to run a successful YouTube channel or create a blog. It was the mid to late 2000s, the internet mostly served as a means to obtain music to later upload onto a CD. Dark times.  If you’re interested in reading more about what it was like back then click here.

I digress. Back to our origin story.

It was a Tuesday. I’d just finished a conversation on my cell phone (another preposterous thing we did back then), when my stomach growled. “Feed me you bastard”, it said. Easy enough, I thought. I popped into the kitchen and began to survey my choices. Canned tuna fish, always a good option. Hmmm…boxed macaroni and cheese—could be a good. Ooh, what do we have here? Score.

I slid the lasagna from its box, jabbed a couple of holes into the plastic film and tossed it into the microwave—15 minutes later the microwave chimed. Show-time. I grabbed the food and then bolted towards the table, juggling the container from hand to hand as to prevent burns. We hadn’t quite cracked the code pertaining to microwavable safe, you see. Anyway, I gave it a quick stir, then raised a heaping fork shoving it into my mouth. I immediately spat it out, cursing to myself. How can it possibly be frozen and molten lava all at the same time, I thought. If existence is broken down into singular events that have the capacity to change our lives forever, this was certainly one of those moments for me. I began to cook. I taught myself how to do all of this with a great deal of trial and error. Which, is a nice way of saying that I’ve messed up a lot. If you’re new to this, you will too. And, that’s okay.

One of the biggest issues that I see with social media/content of this nature, is the misconception that it creates. People share their successes, not their failures. We’ve surrounded ourselves in an infallible environment that breeds contrast. They’re good, I’m not. Why can’t I be like that? Do that? Et cetera. etc. etc. There are many soapboxes that I could climb atop right now, but that is beside the point. We’re talking about cooking…

The goal of this website is to try and remind us all that cooking, like life, can be fun. I wanted to create a space where people could learn to cook, without any of the pressures of “success”. This isn’t about comparing and contrasting. It’s about eating good food. I’m certainly no expert, but I’d like to show you what I’ve learned so far.

—Borrowed Kitchen

 p.s. To those of you who tried clicking on the click here section, I commend your curiosity. Sadly, as you’ve learned…it does nothing. Or, does it?