Latest / The Kids Menu / 06: Get To Know Christiana & Chef Mark

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06: Get To Know Christiana & Chef Mark · The Kids Menu

• Chef Mark: Okay, so I have a curiosity because you're in the midst of studying for your board certified nutrition specialist exam. Did get that right? Christiana Cortina: Certified nutrition specialist, CNF. Chef Mark: And you're studying vitamins. What's a food that we would be surprised to learn has a high amount of vitamin C in it? Christiana Cortina: Ooh, okay, good question. So I don't know if there is something that's really surprising as Chef Mark: Mm-hmm. Christiana Cortina: like a food itself, but I will say that most people think of oranges when they think of vitamin C. And Chef Mark: Yeah. That's kinda the number one. Christiana Cortina: yeah, orange juice, which they do have vitamin C, but red bell peppers are the greatest source of vitamin C. And then kiwis also have Chef Mark: Okay. Christiana Cortina: a lot of vitamin C. Chef Mark: Okay, so that that's great. That that actually really satisfies I was hoping to find something s surprising that I didn't know. I didn't know that bell peppers have a significant amount and I didn't know kiwi at all. Christiana Cortina: Yeah, yeah, they do a lot and citrus fruits in general. So, speaking of citrus and lemon juice, I did make your mayo recipe. Chef Mark: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Okay. Christiana Cortina: the first thing I will say is I did I did mess up a little bit, but I fixed it. So I'll tell you what I did. And this is Chef Mark: Okay, let's hear all about it. Okay, I'm I'm excited to listen. Christiana Cortina: It's just so me of like not like I looked at your recipe on the paper, right? Chef Mark: Yes. Christiana Cortina: And it's so clear. Like you don't even really have to read anything. But br it is. So I Chef Mark: You really don't. It's for kids. Christiana Cortina: literally I used my food processor. And what I did is I put all of the ingredients in in what at once, including the oil. So and then, yep. Chef Mark: my gosh, okay. That's the essential step is waiting on the oil. Okay, good, good. Christiana Cortina: So at the end I was like. I saw it before I hit mix and I was like, shoot. Chef Mark: Ha ha ha. Christiana Cortina: Like I wonder if that's gonna make a difference. mixed it all up and it was really thin. And I was like, yep, that's Chef Mark: Yeah. Christiana Cortina: it's cause I added the oil late. So what I ended up doing, instead of starting from scratch, because I already used all the chickpea liquid, Chef Mark: Mm-hmm. Christiana Cortina: I just added a bunch more oil and just kept mixing it. Chef Mark: Yeah. Christiana Cortina: And then I just needed to add a little more lemon juice, citrus, vitamin C, and some more salt, but it ended up working out and it turned out really good. Chef Mark: Amazing. that's super cool. So you experienced what many restaurant cooks experience. I have made so many broken dressings where the the Christiana Cortina: Mm. Chef Mark: oil does not emulsify into the liquid base. So many vinaigrets and mayos. And even in my recent times, with all of my knowledge and experience, I've had times where something went wrong, I went too fast. I was working with a kid, I used a different type of oil, like all kinds of things, and it doesn't come together. And it's still possible to rescue by then doing the same technique and slowly drizzling in the remaining oil and that as it's coming in is getting broken super small and then can kind of get broken down and suspended in the mixture and start to thicken everything and become more more close to solid than liquid. And and you rescued it. That's so exciting. I'm im I'm impressed. Christiana Cortina: That makes sense. I Thank you. It was so good too. I like I was like licking the spoon and my boyfriend said that gave him the ick. That I like that I Chef Mark: That's okay. I feel like Christiana Cortina: liked the mayo spoon. Chef Mark: I want to lick the mayo spoon, but I don't want to see anyone else doing it. That's so I agree. Christiana Cortina: That's true. That is really true. It was so good. I I think I asked him like four times, like, did you put the mayo on your burger? Or are you gonna use the mayo? And he's like, relax. I'm like, it's really good mayo. And I'm like licking the spoon. So I really did like it. Chef Mark: What else did you put it on? I'm I'm curious to see what you used it with. Christiana Cortina: So I actually used it to make the pickle slaw, which was really good. From Chef Mark: Yes. Christiana Cortina: if you are have listened to our episodes, you know that I did make Chef Mark's pickle slaw, which is one of my favorite recipes. And then I We did burger bowls, so I didn't have a bun. I just had sweet potatoes. So I was dipping the burger and the sweet potato Chef Mark: yeah. Christiana Cortina: in the mayo and the ketchup. So I used a lot. Yeah, it was Chef Mark: Yum Yum. Christiana Cortina: delicious. Highly recommend. And it was really easy, especially I'm assuming if you do it correctly, it's even easier. So I'm excited Chef Mark: Yes. Christiana Cortina: to have it. I have a little bit more in my fridge and I'll definitely remake it. It's really good. Chef Mark: Cool. And I I was gonna mention to listeners, make it. You can get the recipe in the show notes. And I had just made a video and posted it on Instagram showing the detailed process using an immersion blender. And people really enjoyed the video and the recipe is also available on the the link in my bio on my Instagram. So go get the mail recipe, make it, and then have fun w as as a playground with it. You can just add it, all kinds of different things to it to make dressings and sauces and just have fun. Christiana Cortina: And the spoon, Chef Mark: Lick the spoon, don't let anyone else see you. Yeah. Christiana Cortina: maybe in maybe in private. Yeah. I actually I saw your Instagram video and I was saw you like you do the oil like last. I was like, yep, yep, that's the way to do it. It's okay. Chef Mark: Sorry, that might have been a little bit of a late thing to share with you after you had already made your error. Christiana Cortina: It's fine. It was my fault. And like I said, it's just I was I'm fast. I do things fast and then I go back and I'm like, I need to slow down. So I'm working Chef Mark: Yeah. Christiana Cortina: on that. right. Well, today we're gonna just talk a little bit about myself and Chef Mark and kind of our story of how we met and how we decided to start the kids menu. Chef Mark: Yeah, we're gonna share our origin story today. I'm I'm excited to tell people about how this all took place and it all happened so fast and organically, and it's just fun to tell people about what all happened. I have a coffee shop that I like to hang out at and I just make friends. I talk to everybody there. I go there every day and I talk to literally everybody, and some people have called me the mayor of the coffee shop, which is Christiana Cortina: Yeah. Chef Mark: I think a a very apt assessment. I think that's correct. and so I I have someone I've known for a couple of years. years just casually and learned that she's a IBS coach and and does some nutrition and helps people in food and wellness and had just been chatting with her off and on for the all this time. And then one day she just happened to mention, I think I need to connect you to my friend Christiana, who I went through the program with. And she she does like stuff around kids and coaching and I think you guys would just really be good friends and threw that out there. and then maybe I'll let you take over from here Christiana Cortina: Yeah, so She we did our master's program together and we met our last semester and she connected Mark and I. so we decided to schedule a Zoom and I was really excited to meet Chef Mark. I checked out his website obviously and was like, this is really cool. and Chef Mark: That's cool. Christiana Cortina: yeah, I did. So our first Zoom, we like kind of had instant chemistry and like a friend way, and we were hitting it off and Chef Mark: Mm-hmm. Christiana Cortina: kind of just telling you. Each other, our stories. I do remember Mark telling me that he met our mutual friend at a coffee shop and me saying, my god, that's so California. And like then thinking, like, my gosh, I shouldn't have said that, that might have been offensive. But then he like made Chef Mark: Ha ha ha. Christiana Cortina: a joke about it and imitated me, and I was like, okay, like we're friends. So That was yeah, because it Chef Mark: I'm glad it worked out that way. Christiana Cortina: really just poured out of my mouth and I was like, I would never usually say that in an intro networking meeting with someone, but it just came out. so it's safe to say I could clearly be myself. And Chef Mark: Mm. Christiana Cortina: yeah, anything kind of you wanna say with our first Chef Mark: I I just thought that was I thought it was so funny when you said that. And and it actually made me like you more because I wanna work with people who are casual and fun. I don't wanna be in stiff work environments. I've been very allergic to the whole corporate work world. I d I've never really gone that direction. So I wanna collaborate with people who I I feel are fun and have good energy. So that actually was very becoming. I really liked that. Christiana Cortina: Yeah. Chef Mark: Yeah, and then I guess the next thing we did was we said, hey, let's just discuss if there's anything that we could s foresee ourselves working on together. Cause we really have this overlap, this shared kind of love of kids and food and nutrition. what might we be able to create together? Cause it feels like we should do something. This is not to be wasted, this connection, Christiana Cortina: Yeah, and it mark mentioned have you ever thought about starting a podcast? You said you don't remember saying that, right? Or do you remember? That's so weird because when you said it, I was like, Chef Mark: Yeah, I don't remember saying that in the first meeting. That's crazy. Yeah. Christiana Cortina: wow, he's like on it. I was like, he's like planned this out like it you said it and I was like, you know, I mean I like to talk. I have a lot to say. So in my mind, yes, I've thought about it, but I've never thought about what it would take to do it or actually doing it, especially Chef Mark: Mm-hmm. Christiana Cortina: alone. So when you said that, I was like, yeah, I've thought about it. and then what happened was is we both scheduled our next meeting for a week or two later, and Chef Mark: Mm-hmm. Christiana Cortina: we were like, let's brainstorm. And both of us came back to our next meeting. And literally for me, like when I have an idea, usually wake up in the middle of the night and type it on my phone. So I was Chef Mark: Mm. Christiana Cortina: waiting for that to happen. I was like, okay, one of these nights, I'm gonna wake up at 1 a.m. be like, I have an idea for me and Mark to collaborate and type it in my phone. And it didn't happen. And all I could think about was you saying, have you ever thought about starting a podcast? So Chef Mark: Yeah, and and my experience was s so similar. I just remember driving a bunch and just ruminating those a lot a lot of times when I think it's just driving and traffic or whatever, just thinking what c what could become of this? What what could we do together? And I had been personally wanting to do a lot more video and social media stuff, and that was kind of like my own direction and like creative expression, but it just didn't make any sense. I couldn't think of any way that we could do that meaningfully, and then podcast just kept kind of just like staying there and hanging on, and so it was the only thing that I came back to. our meeting with, I said, I only have one idea. I kinda remember that I feel like we both we both said okay, I have one idea. Do you want to share yours? And it was almost like we didn't really, but it's like count of three. One, two, three, podcast, together. It was kind of that. Christiana Cortina: It really was and it was really scary. I don't know if I ever would have had the courage to start a podcast by myself. so it felt really awesome to have Mark there to be like, yeah, let's do it. and be kind of willing to figure out how we were gonna do it. Chef Mark: Yeah, and I'll just say right away, same. I would have been I wouldn't have had the trust in myself to keep the motivation going, to keep something going all by myself. And that's kind of been my experience with starting different endeavors. Like I need to work with someone and collaborate. And you've been so helpful in that to like keep us on track with different things to be organized and just have somebody to know that I have to be accountable to. Like, we gotta get this episode recorded. I gotta do the next step of planning and prepping. So it's been really cool. Christiana Cortina: Yeah, it's been so fun. And it's like you said, when you I don't know. I feel like I've had a lot of experiences, networking wise and collaboration-wise, where I'll meet with someone. I mean multiple times, where like I'll meet with someone, we'll talk about an idea that sounds like really fun and cool, and then I'll like try to touch base with them again, and they'll either like not respond or like they're Chef Mark: Mm. Christiana Cortina: not super motivated, or maybe vice versa. Like maybe I'm not that motivated to do it, and they are just kind of like waiting for me to be more motivated. So I really feel like our drive and ambition was so equal that we were able to push through together, which is really cool Chef Mark: Yes. Christiana Cortina: because I don't have that experience often in just kind of business development and collaborating with other people. Chef Mark: Yeah, that's cool that you share that. Cause I don't I don't know if I have really honed in on that quite as precisely myself, but I've had the same experience. And sometimes I've been the flaky person, sometimes I've been the one who's like ready to go on some project and someone's just not there with for whatever reason. So I think we both have Christiana Cortina: Right. Chef Mark: the drive, like you had mentioned, and the timing for whatever reason. We were both just ready. And I think that's so cool. And like we just knew there was some sense of like, this is just gonna happen and we're ready to go. Let's let's do it. We had this mutual trust built like so fast in the beginning. Christiana Cortina: Yeah, and I I I feel like too, I just wanna say with other what you said with the timing. It's like I feel like we were both at the perfect time in our careers for this to make sense to do. And with trying to collaborate with other people, maybe they were already super busy or didn't have time to add in something else and the timing just didn't work out. f in those past s situations. So I like what you said of like the timing was perfect for both of us. Chef Mark: Yeah, totally agree. And just one little tag onto that part of it is I was like letting go of some things in like my business life. I was having these different opportunities come up, and one was it was summertime when when we kind of first were launching into this. And so I had a lot more time because a lot of my work is kind of centered around kids in school. And I was letting go of a few things during that time and had a lot more time on my hands. So just seasonally I was like, this is a moment that I feel just ready and I want to fill fill it up with something good and fruitful. Christiana Cortina: Yeah, I love that. Well, do you want to rewind a little bit and tell our personal stories, maybe not professionally, and then we can kind of give listeners more details of like our creation of the podcast? Chef Mark: Yeah, that sounds great. so yeah, going back to I've shared I have shared a little bit about my childhood and a little bit about my work and how I got up to here, but I'll I'll just talk a little bit about myself more personally. I currently live in Nevado, California, which is just about 30 minutes outside of San Francisco, and that's actually where I grew up. I've been here basically my whole life. I went to college about an hour away and spent almost 10 years there in Davis. I went to UC Davis, but I've kind of been here in Marin County my whole life. and I think that's been really formative. Like I think I'm so crafted by this place of having all this good food available to me, all tied into the food part of things. and I think I might have taken that for granted. I I've I'm sure I did 'cause I was a kid. I had no way of knowing. I didn't know what I had. so, you know, I was in this good environment with my Food food in the area and then I also had at home I had my mom cooking good home cooked meals all the time. And then I also had my grandma and my great grandma in the vicinity. They lived nearby enough that we could spend time with them and they were always cooking good food, home homemade stuff. They were kind of both from the south and so they had kind of a traditional American approach to cooking and I also had my aunt in the in the mix and then on my dad's side of the family and my my grandma over there in Southern California. So lots of people in my life making good home cooked food and That has really shaped who I am. I I saw how important that is. And then fast forward to, you know, post-college. I got married quite young and I really realized that it was so important to learn how to cook. Neither of us knew how to cook. And so to be able to feed ourselves well seemed super important. And that context of like, home cooked food is really nourishing to the soul. And I don't know if I had language for that back then, but I started to see, okay, what would that be like to start to do a little bit more of that myself and kind of just started this journey. Of cooking when I was about 23, and just the progression of how that happened, I became obsessed with it in a way that I've never felt about anything. And I've always had hobbies that I'm really into. I grew up playing music a bunch and studied music in college and was obsessed with playing drums, guitar, piano, bass, teaching kids music. I did all of that and had this obsession, but food came into my life, and I was even more obsessed. I didn't think that was possible, so that kind of blew me away. and so I spent the next seven years. Just cooking really, really seriously at home. and then that kind of brought me up to working in a restaurant and all that. And I've maybe talked a little bit about the professional side of things in a previous episode. but that led me to working in restaurants and then the next 10 years from 30 to 40, which just happened recently, 40, was all Christiana Cortina: Ha ha ha. Chef Mark: every possible iteration of working with food and I don't know, just e every kind of job that would relate to food. I did catering. I worked at a company that made packaged foods. I worked in a bunch of restaurants. I did private chef events and kind of worked in my own business. And so all of those things just really shaped me and helped me like become the person who I needed to be. I think all of those experiences were formative and Without being overly dramatic, it's like it be helped me become who I needed to be to be here and be someone who is proud to see myself on camera, hear myself talk, and Christiana Cortina: Huh. Chef Mark: make a podcast. I would not have wanted to do this a little while ago and I would have been cringing too hard seeing myself on recording. and I did that for many years. I cringed at watching myself on video and got a little better at it. So I know that kind of brings brings us up to where we are now. did that answer what you were hoping to hear? Christiana Cortina: Yeah, it did and I'm still in that the place of cringe when I listen and and watch myself. So Mark is my guiding light of hopefully me getting used to it because it's really hard to listen to myself right now. Chef Mark: Yeah, I I'll just say I I think you're great. you have a great way of speaking. And my kids unprompted have heard you speaking and said that it just sounds like a professional podcast. she's really good at talking. So there's objective feedback Christiana Cortina: I love that. Chef Mark: that you're doing great. And I know it's hard to go through that. And so I'm I'm just here to keep providing that very true neutral voice to come back into your head of like, you're doing really well. Yeah, of course. Christiana Cortina: Thank you. I appreciate that. I'm learning. So I yeah, thanks for sharing all of your your personal story and letting people Chef Mark: Yeah. Christiana Cortina: know kind of your journey. I'll tell you yeah, Chef Mark: Yeah, I wanna hear yours. Christiana Cortina: I'll tell you a little bit about mine. So I it's funny, like my origin story is a little different or is the same in the way that like I grew up in Maryland, in a town called Millersville, which is like 20 minutes from Annapolis, the capital of Maryland. And I lived there in the same house with my family my whole life with my mom and my dad and my sister. And I went to college also like an hour away at Towson University. And I got my bachelor's degree in elementary education. I always knew slash thought I wanted to be a teacher. I played school a lot with my little sister. I was always the Chef Mark: Mm-hmm. Christiana Cortina: teacher, making her do, you know, tons of worksheets. and it just kind of felt like my calling. So when I went I Became a teacher and I really thought, okay, yeah, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna love it and I'm gonna do this for the rest of my life. fast forward, I graduated and then that was when COVID hit. So my first year of teaching third grade was all virtual, Chef Mark: Oof. Christiana Cortina: which was really challenging and, you know, completely different than I thought it was gonna be, obviously. And then the second year when we went back into the classroom, that was even more challenging with having the kids miss almost a full year of school. I taught in a Title I school. I was living in Baltimore at the time, which is also, about thirty minutes from Annapolis. So yeah, I was like, I can't do this forever and I don't want to. So I spontaneously applied for my master's degree with the motivation of my cousin, who's now my mentor and inspiration. Shout out Vanessa if you're you're listening. and she kind of was just like, yeah, just do it, go back to school. And I decided to go back to school for nutrition because I've always loved food. Chef Mark: Mm. Christiana Cortina: Food's always been a special thing to me. Eating's always been special to me. I've always loved everything about cooking, eating food. I knew I didn't want to be a chef my whole life, but it was always in the back burner of my brain. I was like, Chef Mark: Mm. Christiana Cortina: maybe I'd be a chef. Maybe I'd be a chef. But there was something that didn't quite sit right with me, knowing that I That wasn't for me. so yeah, I decided to go back to school, get my master's. I quit my teaching job. I moved abroad with my best friend for a year and we taught English abroad while I was getting my masters, and I kind of just learned so many different things about nutrition and found my path forward. And I've talked a little bit about that journey too. So I don't want to keep talking about myself, but that's that's pretty much it. Did I miss anything? Chef Mark: I don't know, yeah. Is there anything between a few years prior leading up to now that made you feel prepared for by the time that we met? Christiana Cortina: I mean, yes, because when I originally went back to school for nutrition, I always knew I wanted to work with kids. And I kind of had this thought, like, I'm gonna go back to school, and then I'm gonna help parents know what their kids should be eating. And I thought it was gonna Chef Mark: Okay. Mm. Christiana Cortina: be about me teaching kids and parents what to eat. And as I learned more about The presenting concerns in families, it was more about how do we get our kids to eat. and so I really did a lot of my own research and my own education on picky eating. I know we've talked about that term before, but creating a positive environment around food. because you know There is obviously lots of nutrition research about what is supportive for your body or your kids' bodies, but none of that matters if you can't get your kid to eat something. Chef Mark: Mm-hmm. Christiana Cortina: so yeah, that's that's something that has made me feel very pre prepared. And then just diving deeper into the eating disorder world and learning about eating disorders has made my mission to come from a preventative lens always, and always being really conscious of the risk factors of someone having an eating disorder and being really careful about the words that I choose and the way that I choose to share knowledge about food. Chef Mark: That last part sounds like especially important. Being careful with your words and th those words mean so much and and impact people so much, especially when you're a child. Like I think we probably all have memories of something that somebody called us when we were young, like elementary or middle school, and it sticks with you. So if we can, you know, continue to share knowledge and guidance around food with like gentle and thoughtful language, that could be so healing. So I think that's really special. Christiana Cortina: Thank you. I agree. And I will tell you that I would say pretty much every single adult client that I've worked with tells me something that they remember from their childhood that impacted Chef Mark: Mm. Christiana Cortina: their relationship with food in a negative way. so I think that is really important to mention and just help people know that it's really common to have those experiences, but it doesn't have Chef Mark: Mm-hmm. Christiana Cortina: to impact your relationship that it's always going to be negative. Chef Mark: Hmm, yeah. Well, fast forwarding back to this summer and as we begin to start to brainstorm this podcast, can we tell a little bit more of our story of how that all c started to come to be? Christiana Cortina: Okay, so the start of the podcast. How did we I don't even remember. We were like, let's do a podcast. Chef Mark: Yeah, and I think somewhere in that time frame we started sending voice memos back and forth. And that was kinda fun for me because that was actually a new thing. I don't have any friends that I do that with. All my friends are guys and guys just don't do that. Like and I I like talking and I realized that I was really enjoying it. So I would start you know, I don't know who started it, but we would send us little things back and forth and that was a really efficient way to communicate and get a lot more I think detail and nuance to what we were saying and I think I was doing it when I was driving a lot of the time. I could just share thoughts that I was having. When were you doing yours primarily? Christiana Cortina: Well I It's so funny because I voice memo my best friend Emily all the time. that's how we keep in touch because when we lived in Spain together, we lived together, we walked to the bus together, we worked together, we ate together, we knew every Chef Mark: Mm. Christiana Cortina: detail about each other. So when we got back to real life, it was like how are we gonna keep in touch? so we had our ongoing voice memos and when I was in Spain, that's how people predominantly communicated was through voice memos. Yeah. So Chef Mark: Interesting. that's cool. I love that. Christiana Cortina: it wasn't weird to me. I was like, like maybe. Maybe it's making its way over here and people are starting to to voice memo, you know, to for their main way of communicating. It's so much easier. I it. Chef Mark: It's nice. Yeah. So we just started sharing a lot of thoughts about our own personal beliefs around food and cooking and ideas for the podcast and just like general thoughts that we're having. I think insights ab about life and or I don't know, about food and stuff that we were hearing. Like, I heard this thing on a podcast. Like I learned this fact. I made this dish. We were talking about things that we were cooking and just kind of sharing fr as friends, like things that we were doing in our own personal lives. what what other topics were we covering in those Christiana Cortina: I was gonna say, I remember you saying, I need this observation with this family, or like when I was Chef Mark: Mm. Christiana Cortina: teaching these kids to cook, I noticed this. Like, what are your thoughts? And I thought that was Chef Mark: yeah yeah. Christiana Cortina: really cool because it would like kind of let me use my expertise with very little context and kind of give like maybe what I thought could be going on, or Chef Mark: Mm. Christiana Cortina: maybe a way to navigate the situation. I do also remember now that just to f rewind, when we had one of our first zooms. I said something about a food being nutrient dense. And I remember you immediately calling it out. You were like, wait, I noticed you didn't say unhealthy or healthy. what's that all about? And I Chef Mark: Yes. Christiana Cortina: went into why I don't like to use those terms and why I don't really call foods good or bad and how that's part of my philosophy. And I feel like you really resonated with that and were like Chef Mark: Yeah. Christiana Cortina: t telling me I'm I'm eager to learn more. I feel like this is what language you might have been missing, even though when I like looked at all of your posts and checked out your website, it was like you had always had a positive like take on talking about Chef Mark: Mm-hmm. Christiana Cortina: food. so I feel like I don't know it might have just the language was like, Chef Mark: It was a re it was a real epiphany. Thanks for reminding me of that. I think I was really ready at that moment in time to be growing and upgrading and kind of just learning so much about how to talk about food in a much more holistic and nuanced way. And I was just eager to hear your perspective 'cause I really respected it. I was like, you've thought through all of this stuff clearly. You have a very like set way of talking about things where you have like certain words that you kind of keep going to and certain words that you're avoiding. And that's I just thought it was really cool. I could see that you had so much to offer I was just eager to Mm-hmm. Christiana Cortina: Yeah, that's so nice. I'm really glad. And you I feel like you some people it's really hard for them to shift that mindset and kind of resonate with it. So it was really Chef Mark: Mm-hmm. Christiana Cortina: cool that you I mean, like I said, you already were kind of there, but you just like so quickly adopted that language in like such a natural way. So that was awesome. Chef Mark: thanks. Yeah, I feel like I'm someone who wants to try to be eager to learn and change always. That's my goal. Christiana Cortina: Yeah. Also something I just have to mention is how Mark was like, we should use Jira. And he was Chef Mark: If if you don't know what Jira is, it's project management software. Carry on. Christiana Cortina: Yeah, he's like, let's use Jira. And I don't even know if I'm saying it right, but for some reason, like you didn't say figure it out and and organize Chef Mark: No. Christiana Cortina: it, but for some reason I took it upon myself. And I was like, all right, I'm gonna figure this out. You know why? Because I like to be organized. I was like, all right, I'm gonna make this really organized. Chef Mark: Yeah. Yeah, you jumped head first into that. Christiana Cortina: I did. It was horrible. I'm not tech tech savvy that much, but I really mastered it and I was like so proud of it. And the way we have our whole system set up now is all on Jira. Yeah, it's dialed in. Thank you. I Chef Mark: It's dialed in. And it's all because of you. Let's just say that. It's all because of you. I I immediately abandoned it. I was like, I don't know why I even mentioned this software to you. I hate it. I I cannot stand it. The way that it's laid out. All the things that happened make me so mad. But you have made it work for us really well, so thank you. Christiana Cortina: Brought it up and shared it. I was like, look at all these things I did. And Mark was like not into it at all. I was like, this was your idea. Like you told me to do this. Chef Mark: I couldn't even see where things were. I was like, I don't understand. What what am I even looking at? It felt overly complex. Christiana Cortina: Meanwhile, I have like labels and like tasks and all of these things and I'm like so excited and yeah, so but now it's it's locked in. It's locked in. So Chef Mark: Ugh You did such a good job with it. Yeah, and I'd greatly appreciate it. Christiana Cortina: yeah, of course. I'm glad you told us about it because even though there's things I don't love about it, I am like, I think it's a good place to house all of our material. Chef Mark: Yeah. It's hel it's helped us a ton and so we will not be leaving any time soon, but I still don't love it. It's not something that makes my soul happy. Okay, so following up on the voice memos, I had the idea at one point for whatever reason I saw that there was a transcript being created on our iPhones from every voice memo that we had, and I thought we have so much data there. Just we've had so many conversations, and I wonder if I could copy and paste all of those transcripts, which were so, so, so many. We had so many memos we had sent back and forth. And I brought that all into I used Claude and just had it kind of give some feedback and summaries over what we had talked about. And I felt like that that helped me kind of gain some confidence and get some forward. direction of I think it gave us 12 kind of episode ideas. Some of them were trash and most of them kind of were, but it gave us ideas Christiana Cortina: Mm. Chef Mark: of like, here's things you guys have discussed. Here's common like ground that you share, common language that you share. And that that helped me actually get a lot of momentum to get started and just like get things moving a little bit. Christiana Cortina: Yeah, definitely. I I know it was so I'm just thinking of all the titles it gave us. Like they were so cheesy. Mark hates cheesy. so we had to Chef Mark: So cheesy. Yeah, I c I I can't go there. Christiana Cortina: Yeah, we had to get rid of the titles. But I agree. It was a really good starting point and it was nice to obviously not have to go re-listen to our audios and Chef Mark: yeah. Christiana Cortina: because what we I feel like when we were trying to plan, okay, what are we gonna talk about? What are we gonna do? It was harder to like sit down at a a chosen moment and think about it versus when we were just like voice memoing back and forth, like things that came up for us that day or like things we thought of randomly. So I feel like that was super helpful to give us some like ground in, okay, how are we going to now turn all of these voice memos into a podcast that people want to listen to? Chef Mark: Yeah, and I think that's a good point of we have this foundational just casualness that we just talk with each other and then we also have sense the need to kind of organize all of that. So I think that's the line that we're towing and keeping food fun and keeping our podcast and our tone fun is like a huge part of what we're doing and it it feels the most important to keep things kind of like loose and that was easy to do through the voice memos and harder to do if we just sat down and were like, What's the episode title? What's the topic? We gotta outline this thing strictly. It just wasn't working. Christiana Cortina: No, the scripts were not for us. So we realized quickly that our conversations, we have some topics and ideas and then we try to let them flow and make it more casual because it works better for us. Chef Mark: Yeah. What's your next memory of things that unfolded as we were working? Christiana Cortina: we did a cooking, a virtual cooking lesson together. Chef Mark taught me how to make tofu parmesan. Chef Mark: That was so fun. Christiana Cortina: Yeah, it was really fun, except Chef Mark: So good. Christiana Cortina: I didn't learn till after that you can buy already drained tofu. So I showed up with Chef Mark: Mm. Christiana Cortina: soaking wet soggy tofu that I had to let drain while we were preparing the ingredients. Chef Mark: That's right. That's right. Christiana Cortina: And I almost asked, you know, should I drain this in advance? But I didn't. But anyways, it Chef Mark: Yeah, let's let's just help listeners right now. I'll I'll just say what the thing is to buy. My favorite tofu to purchase is the super firm tofu in a vacuum-sealed package. It's just like a thin plastic and there's not any significant water in there. All the other styles are gonna be in like a rigid tub with water, so the super firm tofu is the way to go. Christiana Cortina: Yes, that's what I buy now. It was life-changing when I found out you don't have to buy tofu that you have to drain. but yeah, I just remember doing that and it was so fun and it tasted so good. I don't use tofu often. but I know I knew Chef Mark had a bunch of tofu recipes, so he taught me how to make that and my boyfriend really loved it also, which he Chef Mark: Mm. Christiana Cortina: never really gets that excited about tofu, but with that dish, he really liked it. So it was like a chicken parm, but with tofu. Chef Mark: Yeah. Christiana Cortina: So yeah, I just remember doing that and that being really fun. Obviously cooking we both feel is such a good bonding experience. Chef Mark: Mm. Christiana Cortina: so yeah, and Mark made me measure, which was really, Chef Mark: Yeah. Christiana Cortina: not my favorite thing, but it kept me accountable because if he wasn't there, I would have just been throwing stuff in the bowl. Chef Mark: Yeah, and maybe after having made it you could freestyle it a little bit more going in the future. Christiana Cortina: I freestyled it and it wasn't as good. So Chef Mark: Okay. Some some things are really helpful to have like certain proportions nailed down, like I think the seasoning on the outside of the tofu and the the way that Christiana Cortina: Mm-hmm. Chef Mark: the sauce is made with specific amounts of each thing. You can have that consistency and that that helps me sometimes just to like crave something and then know I could actually reproduce it perfectly if I follow the exact proportions. And sometimes it's just fun to just throw a bunch of stuff in a pan and just see where you're led. and no intention of maybe recreating it, but sometimes measurements do help. Christiana Cortina: They do, they do. I agree. should we talk about making our logo? Chef Mark: Yeah. I think this is such a fun thing because I was once again just led into this moment in time. My Instagram feed was a bunch of designers and this one guy specifically Alan Peters who does logo design and he actually talked about his process of how he does it and he's world class. He does phenomenal stuff. I had no intention of making something that great, but I followed his Christiana Cortina: Ha ha ha. Chef Mark: method, which was to start with your brand and all the words that are associated with it that are nouns, so just objects that you could think of that would be related to that. And I kind of started that process process and then seeing if there's different ways you could mix those together and c come up with some sort of icon or some sort of mark that would incorporate multiple things and I didn't really have anything going super well yet, but I remember the the day that I really started working on it was actually on the fourth of July. And I didn't have any plans to do anything like festive or holiday in the morning. So I just actually found a coffee shop that was open that day. I had to drive very far from where I lived to find one place that was open. And I just sat out in the sun and just worked on this thing. And that was like telling to me 'cause it was coming from this place of deep joy and desire. I was having so much fun creating this brainstorm for what our logo could be. And then I had some ideas and took pictures of paper. I actually do it did it with penciled paper, which I never do. I'm very much nowadays a computer person. but Christiana Cortina: Yeah. Chef Mark: that felt kind of important to do it manually. And then I just sent you photos of a few ideas that I had and I had an inclination toward which things I liked in there. And then you told me which ones you liked and that was also very affirming of just how we worked together because you went straight to the stuff that I like. liked and helped me see yeah this is the best one and I had this feeling but it is really good Christiana Cortina: doing something and you were sending me stuff so I was like my attention was divided and if my attention is divided I'm just very matter of fact. Chef Mark: Mm-hmm. Christiana Cortina: So I remember just being like not that this not that this I d I just remember when you were sending me options, I just looked at it and knew. I didn't really think about Chef Mark: That's so cool. Christiana Cortina: it. Yeah. So it's cool that you say that you were had the feeling that you liked that one, but then I I solidified it for you because I was just like, yeah, that one. I made a quick Chef Mark: Yeah. Christiana Cortina: decision. How did we decide the noodle? Chef Mark: That was from you, 'cause I we had started with I started actually looking at kids menus once we had developed the name and so I actually Christiana Cortina: Okay, I remember that now. Chef Mark: was looking at images of kids menus from restaurants and seeing what people do and kinda finding common themes to kinda get some inspiration. And I found bubble letters on one of them and I thought that looked really cool. and then I don't know where the fork came from to be honest, but I started to think what could we depict a food and I was looking at like kid foods, like chicken tenders, pizza, could we depict a singular food that would like kind Of show this as kids' food. And then you had already shared about how your favorite food when you were a kid Christiana Cortina: Yeah. Chef Mark: was buttered noodles. And you kind of threw that out there. I was like, that's a nice idea. I don't know even how I was thinking of spaghetti or macaroni. And I was like, don't I don't know how we would show that very succinctly. Christiana Cortina: yeah. Chef Mark: So then I asked you, What shape do you think? Yeah. And Christiana Cortina: Yeah, and I said bow tie noodles. Chef Mark: immediately I just went, Yep. before I even saw it in my brain, I just went, Yes, that will be. so beautiful and clear and of just made this really quick outline of that. And then I forget if the fork came first or after. Christiana Cortina: No, I just remember feeling like really happy that you were Chef Mark: Mm. Christiana Cortina: excited about it being a buttered noodle because that felt really special to me. Yeah. Chef Mark: That's cool. And I I just I just felt really happy working on the whole process. I had such a fun time creating something from nothing and going into this kind of discipline that's not my primary skill set, but I was learning how to do it better and then to run things by you and have you be on the same page, be affirming, and be so collaborative and have I good ideas, be clear. And then we just kept working forward. and then I guess we we chose colors that were based on our own personal brand color schemes. And we plug and played those in and it was like the yellow was a little too pale and the background was a little too light of a cream color and the yellow was from your brand is that correct yeah and so Christiana Cortina: Yeah, I think it was my my logo color, yeah. Chef Mark: then I just deepened the the hue of both of those and made them like more saturated and rich and that ended up just like clicking and I just kind of made this little tweak and showed it to you and a few tweaks later you're like yep that that looks amazing and Christiana Cortina: That's it. Yeah. Chef Mark: kind of got got it from there. We we worked on a tagline a little bit too and that emerged and I'm really happy about that. Do you remember the exact origin of the keeping food fund tagline? I don't remember exactly Christiana Cortina: I don't think I know. I do know that Mark so gratefully made the music, which is really cool with his background Chef Mark: Mm. Christiana Cortina: in music. so that's a really cool thing I think for listeners to know. But I don't remember the origin of our tagline, but I do remember us working really hard on it and making sure that it embodied everything we wanted to say Chef Mark: Yeah. Christiana Cortina: on our podcast and about our mission. So Chef Mark: It was hard to kind of embody that in a very few number of words. That would kind of just Christiana Cortina: Yes. Chef Mark: get the right feeling and not be too descriptive and not too like defined, but also that would get our vibe and capture and help us and help us stay on track for what we want to do with this thing and help people know what to expect if they are to listen. Christiana Cortina: Yeah, exactly. Chef Mark: Yeah, and so just to elaborate on what you said, I did create the music, which I'm very proud of, in the little intro segment that we put in every episode. And that was that was a really cool experience too. Another creative moment in time. I had it on my Jira task list for Christiana Cortina: Mm-hmm. Chef Mark: many weeks. It was a long time and I was avoiding it because I haven't written and composed music for such a long time. College now is like 17 years ago since I graduated, eighteen years ago. and I just felt kind of like imposter syndrome creeping in. I'm like, well I don't know how to do this. There's like professional people who did this better than me. I'm just a cook guy now. I can't do music. Christiana Cortina: Ha ha ha ha. Chef Mark: But finally when I I decided today is the day I'm going to sit down and try something. And I literally had fifteen minutes before I had to start cooking dinner for my kids and I just set up I grabbed my son's keyboard and plugged it into my computer because I could use it to control other sounds and just started playing something and messing with the sounds and I found the little mallet things and I was like, that's like a kid instrument. And I kinda kinda kept vibing off of that and I kid you not, in that fifteen minutes the whole thing was there. It just came to me and I couldn't believe it. It was one of those things where I needed to be ready or push myself, probably both. And as soon as it happened, it just came about and I was like, That's awesome. It's simple, it's cute, and it that'll work. And I sent it to you. And it was like no notes. You were just like, Yep, amazing. Christiana Cortina: No notes, yeah. It was great. Yeah, I love when inspiration strikes like that and it's just like something gets knocked out so quickly. It just had to be the right time. So Chef Mark: Yeah. Okay, so Christiana, for this week I want you to make my kale Caesar salad. This is by far my number one kid-approved vegetable recipe that blows kids' minds, changes their minds about veggies, and parents are like completely shocked that their kids like the veggies. Christiana Cortina: Perfect. I'm so excited because I've heard you talk about it multiple times that you were having it, that your kids were making it, that, it's your best recipe. So Chef Mark: I love it so much. So this the simple walkthrough is take the homemade mayo you have if you still have some. Do you? Okay. Christiana Cortina: I do. Yep. I have a little bit. Hopefully I have enough. Chef Mark: Okay. You can scale down the recipe if you need to. I I trust you to do math, maybe, or you can ask me. I don't know. you'll you'll Christiana Cortina: I'll ask you if I need to. Chef Mark: Add a few simple ingredients to it to make my actually fully plant-based vegan version of Caesar dressing. and then from there you're gonna take a big head of green kale, strip out all the stems from the leaves and throw away the stems, and then tear the kale into small pieces, wash and dry it. And the drying part I love to do wrapping it up in a towel, swinging it around outside. And for listeners, this is literally the funnest thing that I've ever done with food with kids. So much joy of the kids just swing it around a towel and having all the water fly out, and then you're left with dried kale, and then you gum come back inside, put the kale in a bowl and a little bit of olive oil, and then squeeze it super hard and kind of like crush the kale as much as you're able to do, which is known as massaging, which I still feel like is creepy and weird, but we massage the kale Christiana Cortina: Ha ha ha. Chef Mark: and dress it up with the dressing that you made and and that's it. You can add croutons or any sort of I like to do toasted penko bread crumbs for like mini croutons. And then I also have a video Christiana Cortina: Ooh, okay. Chef Mark: for making crunchy quinoa, which is very similar, salty and a bunch of oil and super crispy and crunchy, but that's the kale Caesar salad. Christiana Cortina: Perfect. I'm so excited. I can't wait to let you know how it goes. Chef Mark: Yeah, I'm excited too. Christiana Cortina: All right, well, before we leave, I just want to say at the kids menu, we're always learning, growing, and striving to do our best with the information we have. And we don't have all the answers, but we believe in staying curious and continuing to learn along the way. We're committed to approaching food and bodies with compassion and respect for the many ways people experience both. We'll see you next time. Chef Mark: All right, bye.