Chef/Owner Ryan Trimm (Sweet Grass, Memphis TN) flew into town to throw it down on some serious fucking southern cookery this weekend. We mashed him up with local talent chef Michael Serpa (Neptune Oyster, Boston) who has a great reputation for his mastery of oceanic cookery. It was great to have these cats in my kitchen and learn the tricks of their trade. Fun fact, and random coincidence: everybody calls both of these guys by their last name. Trimm was an extremely charming, thought provoking, humble-badass. His food was full of life, flavor and inspiration. At one moment, this dude had my entire range covered in hot pans for his seafood-ham-sausage pirlau, and flawlessly held it down on 6 pans. Mad skills yo! Serpa's offerings all featured salt water fare (get the clever title now?) and were clean, bright and in many ways, very mediterranean. Our homie Sammy Jackson (KO Pies, Southie & Eastie) came through to lend a hand, drink a few cold ones, and tell some hilarious Aussie tales. He also helped me scrubthelivingshit out of my grill. As always, my two cooks (they're so much more to me than that) Marky & Stevie came to help, learn and grow. They are incredible. Mark actually got to sit down and dine with his beautiful gf Ashley; she's a major sweetheart. It was a great day, thanks to Trimm and Serpa! Oh yeah, beautiful pictures taken by the lovely Tara Morris.

I recently had the honor to compete on Guy Fieri's new, super fun, cooking challenge based game show, Guy's Grocery Games. It was a blast!!! I'm on episode 5 of season 1, so check it out, as well as the rest of the season. You won't be disappointed! The show felt like a cross between super market sweeps, chopped and the price is right. WHat's not to love about that? 

I gotta give mad props and love to my three competitors: Cassy Pugh, Marcel Cocit and Philippa Sklaar. They were all amazing folks, and to quote Walter Sobchak, worthy adversaries. The judges, Troy Johnson, Jet Tila and Lorena Garcia were also really rad people, and respectful toward everyone. For a competitive show, there was a lot more support and camaraderie than the home viewer might expect.

What was Guy like? I'll tell you, he is fucking electric. That man was born to entertain. He was kind and playful all day long, despite being smack dab in the middle of working ten 20 hour shifts back-to-back. And, mind you, he had just come off the set of filming Guy vs. Rachel. Dude's an animal, and it was SO inspirational to be in his presence for a few hours. Guy gave me some really deep and personal words of wisdom, and I truly hope I'm lucky enough to cross paths with him again, even if it's just for an ice cold beer together. I mean, especially if its for an ice cold beer!

This dinner had sick plates from my two homies Richard Kuo and Josh Lewin. I'm too damn lazy to write anything about it, but look at how beautiful some of these pictures are. My girl Tara Morris snapped these shots and they are almost as stunning as she is!

Remember that time SpaghettiO's pissed off the world with their Pearl Harbor Day tweet? Well, I took that shit to heart because I've been a SpaghettiO's fan since a baby. 

So, in an effort to clean the good name of the fine folks at Campbell's, I decided to throw it down on my favorite Japanese dish: Ramen. But instead of using ramen noodles, I triple washed SpaghettiO's and put them up in there!

For help and expertise, I reached out to my homie chef Mark O'Leary aka The Noodle Ninja. Where'd he get that nickname you might ask?? I'll tell you. Mark is the baddest dude in Boston when it comes to making handmade ramen noodles. He also kills it with the broths and braised pork belly.

We got together for a Friday night pop-up in downtown Boston and sold bowls of SpaghettiO's ramen for $12-14. The goal was to donate proceeds to a veteran based charity, but we barely broke even. Oops. Or should I say, UT-OH SpaghettiO's!

The Future of Junk Food started out as a fun and funky Spring seasonal menu. (Photos above depict original spring menu from April of 2013.) I loved the concept so much that I decided to follow through with it all through the Summer months, swapping out iconic offerings as often as local, sustainable produce varied. 

Fast forward a year and a half, and in January of 2014, my homie and fellow chef Mark O'Leary approached me about doing a dining series together for a startup company. Kitchensurfing to be exact, and they were looking for some in-the-trenches chefs to make a big splash for them as they continued to gain traction throughout the pro chef world. 

Marky was my first sous chef (ever) and we have been down a tumultuous road together. It really meant the world to me that we once again joined forces, and brought TFOJF back to life. 

Our mission was simple. Progress. We wanted to raise our voices and start a national conversation about advancement for the processed food industry. Check out this gangster video I slapped together while listening to some old Dr. Dre.

Over the course of 2014, we hosted a six part pop-up series in Boston and Los Angeles, cooked with over a dozen insanely talented chefs, recreated over thirty iconic American junk food staples (with sustainable ingredients) and fed hundreds of fellow junk food junkies.  It was a great run, and we certainly made some noise and uproar for the sake of processed food reform. 

Here are some behind the scenes action shots along with some of my favorite dishes that we created. Click on them to enter a lightbox fullscreen showing.

So, I cannot divulge any hard facts, but I recently had the pleasure of cooking steaks with Adam Richman! We also crushed a few pints in Boston's West End, where we ultimately ended up discussing our shared love for Hip Hop music. Rad! 

Adam's love for Hip Hop came as no surprise. I mean, the guy grew up in Brooklyn during the 80's. I honestly think that out of everyone I know, I am the Hip Hop guru. I peep tons of MC's, I can recite mad lines, I understand lyrics and metaphors that fly right over most cats heads', but Adam graciously made a student out of me. He truly is a Hip Hop Scholar. A master. This dude was dropping MC Shan and Melle Mel lines. 

If I ever want to get on his level, I've got a lot of research and listening to do. The golden age of hip-hop from '76-'90 eludes me.  It was so fun to politic about the music, MC's, and lyrics with Adam!!! I haven't done that since I was living in NY, and it brought me back to those good ol' days.

Samuel Monsour & Adam Richman

(Photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki)

On January 17, 2014 (after being awake for 36 hours) my wife Astrid and I officially launched the iPad version of our Paleo Lifestyle App, #true28. Our flagship phrase is "it's more than an app, yo!" and this class proved that to be true, yo! We call #true28 a lifestyle improvement movement. We founded it on the principle that bridging the gap between the Paleolithic Era—how we’ve lived for 2.6 million years—and the present will bring us closer to our true nature. 

We developed, designed and programmed the software all by ourselves, which was a huge undertaking (neither of us are programmers). The app navigates users through a challenging four-week journey of self-rediscovery, embracing the ideal that the true nature of humanity is to live happy, healthy and meaningful lives. Each of the four features—#power, #provisions, #presence and #progress—reincorporate unique Paleolithic qualities into our modern Western lifestyle.

In February, we were lucky enough to teach the app as a class at the BCAE. We got together every Saturday in the 28 day month and proved that our project was way more than just an app—it had the power to bring people together for self love, positivity and health! Together, with our fantastic students, we took the challenge, and leaned on one another for strength, support and compassion. It was an amazing, humbling and uplifting experience! 

Photos above from our 4 week class. The class truly brought the challenge to life. Students participated in Q&A sessions, shared their weekly trials and tribulations, got a hands on exercise class guided by fitness guru (my badass wife) Astrid Bengtson, and got their bellies satisfied with paleo brunch prepared by yours truly. (All exercises and recipes were content of the app).

I recently had the amazing opportunity to kick it with Alton Brown, one of my all time favorite food personalities. I've been watching him on TV and learning food science from him for 10 years, so it was a real trip to have conversations on food and cooking with him live in the flash. He's a super cool cat, and if you ever doubted his knowledge or thought it was scripted, you were wrong. The man is a walking copy of Modernist Cuisine, and could def give Harold McGee a run for his money. 

My episode of Cutthroat Kitchen is scheduled to air on Sunday April 27th! Stay tuned for updates.

I had an absolute blast at this year's Beyond Beef event! My big homie Matthew Gaudet let me take up some room in his kitchen at West Bridge for my prep, which was super cool. His whole crew over there are on point, and hospitable as fuck. I even got to ride shotty in Matty's beamer and test out the seat warmers. Gangster! Tons of great folks participated in this event, including some of my favorite people in Boston, like Karen Akunowicz (Myers & Chang) , James DiSabatino (Roxy's) , Kevin O'donnel (The Salty Pig), Michael Leviton (Area Four) and Mr. Handsome himself, Michael Scelfo (Alden & Harlow) #bromance #mancrush

This years Boston based Chefs Collaborative Trash Fish Dinner was held (once again) at Michael Leviton's Area Four in Kendall Square, Cambridge. There was an insane amount of talented chefs on the card, and all I can keep on saying is how fortunate and inspired I feel to be working side by side with such talented ladies and gents.

I obvi gotta give a should out to the four main folks over at the Collaborative that put this thing together without a hitch, Alisha Fowler, Rob Booz, Melissa Kogut, and papa bear Michael Leviton. (His daughter helped for as long as she could, but it was a school night, so eventually Michael insisted she go home and get some rest for her big exam scheduled the following day. So cute!) Rob did an expert job of corralling all of the chefs. That guy has balls for sure.

The chefs involved hailed from the finest eateries in the area, including Barry Maiden (Hungry Mother), Cassie Piuma (Sarma), Carolyn Johnson & Katherine Hamilburg (80 Thoreau),  Jeff Pond (Area Four), Larry Lebowitz (Guckenheimer), William Kovel (Catalyst) and my two really good homies, Josh Lewin (Beacon Hill Bistro) and Katrina Jazzayeri. 

I actually had the pleasure of prepping my course out of Josh's Beacon Hill basement kitchen. It was totally radical maaan. His crew treated me with tons of love, and were super helpful, despite the fact that I took up prized real estate during their two busiest days of the week. Josh and I had a blast fabricating 150 pounds of fish together. (syke)

Much love to everybody at the Collaborative!

The fourth Mick Dundee Challenge—a savory Australian meat pie throw down—took place on April 27th in the shipyard of East Boston. It was a grey, chilly, somewhat shitty day. Except it wasn't, because mass quantities of great people, pies and booze were present! There were 13 chef competitors at this event. Big Sammy Jackson (KO Pies) was the former champ. By the end of the day, there was a new champ. Well, sort of. Chin Kuo (Saus) won 1st place, making him the only 2 time champ in the series! I came in second place and I ain't mad.

My pie was damn good if I do say so myself, but Chin's was just that much better. For the record, I did a sous vide Jamaican curried beef brisket filling with a cardamon & turmeric scented crust and smothered it in a lemongrass-ginger ketchup w/ shaved serrano chilis. (Now I'm drooling.) Chin did a pork and onions pie, which I regretfully didn't get a chance to try. My boy Daren Palacios came in third, which made me super proud. He doesn't have a professional chefs background, but he cooks with love, care and integrity, and it makes his food beaming with soul! Can't wait to try and get the belt back at MDC5 and hope to see y'all there.

At the ripe age of 30, I finally got my cherry popped at the James Beard House! Much love and appreciation goes to my big homie chef Michael Scelfo (Alden & Harlow, Cambridge Ma). He was the chef of the evening and I was merely a set of hands tagging along to help in any way possible. 

Believe me when I tell you that this man is my big homie. He's been a cross between a mentor and a brother to me ever since we met. It was an honor and a pleasure to be a part of his team for the evening, and I had a blast working alongside his super talented crew. His GM Jen Fields and Sous Chef David Tollerud really held it down, as well as everyone else. 

Afterward, we swung by my homie Richard Kuo's place, Pearl & Ash. After a sick tour of their insane wine stash, Richard took it upon himself to straight up fucking slaughter us with almost every menu item. It was an incredible feast. By the end of it, Michael was ready for bed. As for me, well, I had to catch a Greyhound back to Boston at 4:30 am so I ended up closing down a nearby dive bar.  

A small group of friends and I (in Boston) put together a thoughtful and indulgent dining series that was a game changer for all of us. Revelry for Charity was originally conceptualized by my homie Stephen Torres of Imbibe & Inspire. As we hosted this twelve-part dining series, we paired twenty-four celebrated American chefs together over the coarse of twelve months.

I learned a LOT, not just about cooking. As the back-of-house curator, I had the opportunity to expand my national network while improving skills in fields like communication, planning, night-of orchestration, event promoting and financial projections. It was also an eye opener for me with regards to the power of hospitality. We brought people together and made them feel really good, which made us feel really good, and we also took their ticket sale money and donated it to some really inspiring charities. It was really cool. Revelry for Charity will always have a special spot in my heart. Much love and respect to all that were involved. Especially Patrick Maguire, Mark Lutz, Steven Hacker, Kevin Mabry, Daren Palacios & Pickle. 

Check out this epic slideshow; simply click on the image to begin scrolling. It's an onslaught of killer photos that span the entire series, all taken by the incredible Tara Morris.

My first James Beard House dinner where I actually contributed to the card went down on April 23rd 2015. I threw together a dope team of chefs to cook with me—I love community, and I'd be bullshittin' if I didn't admit that having these greats next to me really took the pressure off.  The theme for the menu was inspired by my work with The Future of Junk Food, and the JBH deemed our offerings as an evening of "American Comfort Food Redefined."  

The crew was mad tight and included Eric Gabrynowicz & Stephen Mancini of Restaurant North (Armonk, NY), Michael Scelfo of Alden & Harlow (Cambridge, MA), Derek Wagner or Nick's on Broadway (Providence, RI) and Brian Mercury of Harvest (Cambridge, MA). Two of my best friends in the whole wide world prepped with me and held me down at the event. They truly made our two hors d'oeuvres and our entree course fucking sing! Biggest thanks in the world goes out to my homie Sammy Jackson of KO Pies (East Boston and South Boston, MA) and my Cuzzy Jeffrey Laboda of Caseus (New Haven, CT). Needless to say, the food was dope. 

Photos by Tara Morris.

Writing my first cookbook turned out to be an adventure of epic proportions!  Once I found out my homie and fellow chef/author Richard Chudy was into the idea of collaborating on a burger cookbook, I just had to join forces with him! I'd like to think we did a lot of unique things throughout the creation and development of this project, which has been expertly guided by our publishing team at Union Park Press since day one.

For starters, we created a late night pop-up burger mini series so we could share our recipes with the public as we developed them; these events gave us an ear to street and also provided an electric energy to our cookbook that jumps straight from our parties onto our pages.

We also replaced a lot of "googling" with scouring our own cookbook collections in search of expert advice and opinion. This has lead to quite a tasty offering of regional American flavor. Several times, when simply reading cookbooks wasn't enough, we (by playing six degrees of Kevin Bacon) got in touch with various food and beverage gurus in hopes of picking their brains. We didn't want to limit the information we shared throughout our pages by offering just our combined knowledge because, well, we wanted this to be a learning process for ourselves as writers and chefs. 

I could keep going because I am just in love with the way this cookbook has turned out. From the homemade studio kitchens to our late night cheeseburger text messaging rants, from our outstanding photographers to the insane amount of amazing people that dedicated themselves to testing our recipes, from our journey as friends to the soul that has been given to this cookbook, I am just so proud and excited to share this humble hamburger tribute with the world!

Here's a few sneak peaks!

In Spring of 2015 I threw down against 15 of Cutthroat Kitchen's most most evilicious competitors and won the whole thing! As always, Alton Brown is dope as hell to be in the presence of, and all of my competitors were mad cool. The crew is one of the best gangs of folks I've ever worked with. Props to everyone who ended up cooking in this tourney.

Special BIG UPS to my man chef Yaku, who made it all the way to the end with me. He cooked with a whole lot of heart and soul. My proudest moment was during the judging of the last cooking round, where I had to make coconut macaroon's out of a hammock.

The end result was not just a victory. Judge Simon Majumdar said my dessert was literally the best coconut macaroons he had ever tasted. That was dope! Check out Alton's after show where he and Simon recap the final episode:

Images and Videos ©2015 Television Food Network G.P. 

One of last things I did before leaving my post as opening executive chef of jm Curley and Bogie's Place in Boston was film this rich-and-meaty segment with (who is now) my homie Adam Richman. Adam is a super cool cat. He's so well traveled and has experienced so much, but when he shares his knowledge, its never preachy. His heart is so fucking big, and he's so passionate about sharing his adventures. He's a true inspiration. He also knows more old school hip-hop lyrics than anyone I've ever met—I guess growing up in Brooklyn during the 80's will do that. When he came through my kitchen, I showed him how I get down on a classic steakhouse preparation: Bone-In Ribeye with Foie Gras Compound Butter and Roasted Bone Marrow. Aside from extremely high-heat and attentive execution, the most important element with offering a dish like this is thoughtfully sourced ingredients. Livestock must be farmed with integrity! Check out this video short highlighting our segment:

And now, a sustainability interlude: As chefs, we must fight against shitty commodity farming practices like daily administered preventative antibiotics, growth hormones and in cheap GMO corn and/or soy feed. We can do so by purchasing meats from farms that make their practices transparent and proudly share their methods with the general public via web and farm tours/ For beef, I can't speak highly enough about grass-fed and finished cattle. These feeding methods also tell me that the farm is raising their animals with love, care and integrity. If you think that a thoughtfully sourced piece of beef accompanied by foie gras compound butter is an oxymoron, I'd urge you to think again. Hudson Valley Foie Gras Farm is dedicated to providing a happy, healthy life for their ducks. To me, genuine care for the animal is the most important aspect of raising livestock, and the folks over at HVFGF have their whole hearts into what they do. Another dope foie farm is Patería de Sousa in Spain—to many, they are global leaders in this field. Check out this cool video that The Perennial Plate put together to showcase this Spanish farms mission to make raising foie gras humane. #ChangeMenusChangeLives

Top Two Images and Videos ©2015 The Travel Channel, LLC. 

In cahoots with promoting my new cookbook American Burger Revival, my wife Astrid and I stopped by Hallmark's Home and Family to hang with the Fam and cook up some tasty burgers with co-host and chef Christina Ferrare.

We took a ton of great farmers market veggies and made some of my favorite recipes from the book to create a custom stack, featuring grass-fed beef, raw kale sofrito, quick pickled red onions and hickory smoked heirloom tomatoes. Oh yeah, and Parmigaina Frico! I had such a blast and hope to make it back soon. You can watch the whole segment right here:

Images and Videos ©2015 Crown Media.

Some of the first few new friends that my wife Astrid and I made after moving to LA (September 2015) were our neighbors Abby Ex (Producer) and Nichelle Hines (Actress/CRO of Cycle House). It turned out they were working on production for a reality show based on Nichelle's cycling studio, Cycle House. Nichelle is a working actress but also has extremely deep passion for fitness and helping folks get/stay healthy. Her classes will kick your ass and her big heart will keep you coming back! 

When Nichelle's girl Carmen Ortega requested an afternoon birthday soiree in the Hills, I got the call to fry up some chicken for these health nuts!  It was a dope time and my homie Jordan Olson (professional model) rolled up with me to help with prep, pop some bottles and look good as hell like he always does. You can stream the episode (Episode 3, Odd Man Out) online but I'd recommend watching the first two episodes first so you can really get into all the juicy drama that goes down.

Aside from my Pecan Crusted Organic Fried Chicken w/ Raw Honey, Thyme and Just Grated Nutmeg, I'd say that the biggest hit were the Shoe Fly Pie Bites w/ Brûléed Meringue Air, Salty Peanuts, Blackstrap Molasses and Orange Zest (see below). 

Top Two Images ©2015 E! Entertainment Television, LLC. A Division of NBCUniversal. 

I don't even know where to begin. I just returned from a 17 day journey to Black Rock City, where I was the chef (being constantly held down by my sous chef Stevie) of the world traveling gypsy pop-up concept Cirque Gitane. Our camp hosted 103 guests from all over the world, and we offered 5 meal periods per day, including breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner and late night. (Basically, our kitchen offered food 20 hours a day.) It was a mind-bending experience, and perhaps the most challenging project of my career. I'm completely drained, but I felt the need to start this post, so here it goes. My shitty first draft.

Perhaps my greatest take-away from Burning Man is the bond I forged with my crew, and the reconnect with my long-lost cook Stevie, who's permanently relocated to LA and is now my right hand man; my General at Arms; the first employee of Caliber & Dice. Burning Man was what brought him back in my life and I am eternally grateful for that. <3

I experienced a great deal of spiritual connection, both internally and externally, and cooking breakfast + dancing with Susan Sarandon was nothing short of chronic. 

That's all I've got. I'll get this updated with stories, emotions and better photos in the weeks to follow. For now, here's some shots from my iPhone...