Welcome to The Big Yellow Pot!
My name is Caitlyn Crews but YOU can call me Caity. I am a self-taught (and family taught) home cook, nutrition nerd and food enthusiast. Growing up in a family that was talented in producing the most flavorful dishes at Holiday’s was something I took for granted. Good food was like breathing for me and I never grew up picky or had many food aversions. My great-grandmother and grandfather were owners of a beautiful garden. They canned their own fruits and vegetables and had a few chickens. My grandmother taught me the inner secrets and workings of her kitchen tricks while feeding 4 hungry, growing grandchildren with leftovers to spare. She taught me most of what I know and I miss cooking with her more than anything on this planet. My mother took the family pound cake recipe and elevated it even further (nobody knew it was possible and I will NEVER share the recipe, sorry guys) and she cooked for me most nights growing up until I was about 15. My mother always introduced me to new foods from different cultures. She pushed our little family of two away from soul-food every night. With her I discovered the difference between Quail and Chicken, fresh vs frozen and marinades vs seasoning salt. However, even with all that deliciousness surrounding me in my developing years, I never connected with food deeper than saying “THAT WAS AMAZING” and then going on about my child or teenage life.
During my time at East Carolina University, I worked with a Doctor of Nutrition and Food Science and a decorated Chef in the department of Hospitality and Lodging. They gave me the opportunity to cook with and teach underprivileged kids in the Pitt County areas. It was a summer program where we taught food science to kids between the ages of 8 and 12 years old. It was hard work to say the least. Teaching food safety and things like coagulation and gluten formation really intrigued the kids. But I was also just as excited and learned alongside them. That's when I began to look at food like a complex formula and not just a combination of good flavors. How was I supposed to know about coagulation in the protein of eggs or that the lovely caramelization on my steak was the Maillard Reaction? Food became something that I was obsessed with; learning flavors and the inner workings of ingredients is something I still have not grown tired of. This is the main reason I started catering out of my home, the main reason Im so fascinated about nutrition and human development. I have been a creative soul since the day I was born always into singing, drawing, painting, interior design, dance, you name it... But something about this felt different and no matter what I was good at, nothing felt this good.
Nothing has satisfied me or brought me joy like the joy I feel when I am in a kitchen.
Now that you know a little bit about me and how I grew into an aspiring chef and foodie, I want to welcome you to a blog that is all about bringing this joy to people of ALL walks of life. You will find posts that have everything to do with cooking and recipes and you will find posts on social issues, economical issues and political issues. I want to touch every soul that reads this blog and bring them to find that one thing that changes food and eating permanently. Thank you for being here and following me on this journey to seeing my vision come to life. I warmly and eagerly welcome you to The Big Yellow Pot
A few examples of my work
INTERVIEW WITH CAITLYN:
What is your relationship with food? What does food mean to you?
My relationship with food is ever-changing but right now, it's my most enjoyable form of creative expression. I love to cook and I love to feed people. I never get tired of the process. Okay,.. Maybe washing the dishes is annoying but I'm a bit of a Capricorn in the way that I like to have control. Scratch cooking is the best way to access that control, starting with ingredients and turning them into something beautiful is what I love about the process of creating. In my eyes, its art. Food means comfort. Food means science. Food means health. Food means creativity. Food means culture. Food means whatever it needs to at the moment. Sometimes food is nutrition and nourishing your body and other times it's celebratory. It means the world to me and it's special for more reasons than one.
Why choose to be a chef?
I mean, when you love food like me, why not? I love the elegance of it all. The mise en place, the fitted coat, the plating tweezers, the knife sets and the attention to detail. The control. The music I hear when I'm juggling multiple tasks and the scribbles on paper when I find a new idea or trick. It fills me with joy. In the same token, the roughness of it all is quite nice as well. Flour stained pants from pie dough or cookies, oil shimmering in a pan or steam billowing out of a huge pot of salted water for pasta. Stained towels and the smell of sanitizer in soapy water, empty glass bowls everywhere from prep, skin left from a filet of salmon or the scraps used to make stocks; it's all art to me. The science of it intrigues me as well. The formation of custards or how a roux makes velvety smooth sauces and gravies. How a pinch of salt in baking changes the taste of a cookie. The cultures added to yogurt or apple peels turning into apple cider vinegar. It's just a unique piece of my life and I felt like I should choose a career doing something I absolutely love. I didn’t see the value in good food until college but I want to spend the rest of my life discovering how to create it.
When did you decide The Big Yellow Pot was ready for release and launch?
I didn’t decide this. It wasn’t truly something that I was sure I was able to do because I've tried in the past but failed. I got Covid-19 and was extremely sick for about 2 weeks. I wasn’t able to cater or even go in my kitchen to keep my mother safe. Even before, I just started a new full time job with benefits after being unemployed from October to March. I was foggy in the creativity area because that area is directly tied to my mood. I can’t create if I'm anxious or upset about something. However, I prayed many times for God to show me what I should focus on. A new job and limited time and inspiration was killing my social media engagement. I wasn’t consistent or coming up with new ideas enough to keep people interested. I realized that I just wanted to create for myself because I found the love of food on my own, so I know if I focused enough I could find it again. I stopped selling food for a particular reason that I get into later and focused harder on building a brand. I had this huge yellow pot & 2 weeks of time to sit & dream what I want for myself and my career. The blog was born shortly after.
Why did you stop selling food? What made you change your focus?
I touched on this earlier but my creativity was just at an all time low. In the beginning of the pandemic until March of this year, I was doing catering from my home. I was cooking, marketing, delivering and shopping all on my own. I was always super busy and doing meal preps, desserts and smoothies. I even rolled out a new line of beverages called Caity’s Lemonade that were infused with mint, rosemary and basil flavored simple syrup. Nothing I was doing seemed to bring my activity and orders back after starting my full time job in March. I wasn’t consistent with marketing like I was in the beginning of the pandemic. I also wanted to make sure that I wasn’t turning into a pastry chef. Reason being is because I taught myself how to make homemade pie crust and made drunken apple pies. Which was great, due to the fact its one of my favorites and in a chocolate driven industry, I was finding I couldn't find a good pie or crumble anywhere unless I made it myself. They sold by the dozen and it was going well but eventually it turned into cakes, then cookies, then cheesecakes and brownies. I just couldn’t get anyone to purchase savory foods anymore. I love to bake but cooking allows more wiggle room for improvisation and baking was starting to drain me. So I stopped making food for money, and only did small orders for meal preps for friends or family. I focused on learning my craft and just making foods that I wanted to make. It felt better and I was learning more that way.
If you could go to culinary school, where would you go?
Institute of Culinary Education or ICE in New York. I’ve visited and toured the campus. I am beyond impressed and if they’d take me with a scholarship, I would drop everything and go. They’re phenomenal, go look at this link for proof: The Institute of Culinary Education . They’re not paying me or anything, I just believe in their program.
Where do you hope food content creation will take you? What plans do you have in your culinary career?
Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to travel but I plan on traveling and staying somewhere like Thailand or Vietnam. I resonate with Asian cuisines the most right now and I would love to study under a chef for a month or two. I never got the chance to go to Culinary School and I've always wanted to do a long stint of travel to learn what I can from different food styles. I plan on still being a caterer. Food and celebration is like pb&j. They go hand in hand. Baby showers, birthdays or corporate parties would be my main focus. I plan to keep creating whether or not I gain fame or notoriety. I love doing this so even if I just continue to cook at home and blog my recipes, I'm totally fine with that. As far as any other plans, God has brought me this far, he will decide what other things that I gravitate to. Get used to hearing about God in the blog, everyone has their thing but I know how blessed I am, so I can’t stifle that.
Who gave you THE big yellow pot? What collection is it from?
Jewel Walker. She will be featured on the blog but ultimately, she was a woman who worked with me at a HORRIBLE company. We bonded over that and she bought me a 7 ¼ quart Cast Iron Le Creuset Dutch Oven in my favorite color, YELLOW! They don’t make this color anymore, so the pot feels even more special. She knew me less than 3 months and she believed in my culinary journey enough to purchase a pot valued at 400 dollars. She helped me through anxiety and taught me things as if she was my own mother. Her name fits her perfectly because knowing her is to know that she's a gem. That inspired the name behind this blog. That pot is my favorite piece of kitchen equipment aside from my knives. If someone who only tried my red velvet brownies was going to invest in me, then I could invest in myself and create something that I was proud of. Hence, The Big Yellow Pot was born.
What are you hoping people who read this blog will learn? Do you ever plan to start another form of content posting like podcasts or YouTube?
I pray that I bring people to become conscious about what they eat. My hope is that eating becomes less of a mindless activity and people start to care about the source of their food, how it changes or impacts environmental issues. I want people to learn about food insecurity and to take charge of their eating habits to avoid heart disease, diabetes and obesity. I want people to come together to learn about food and how ingredients work together and make scientific reactions. I want to make people aware and excited about food. It may not be the level that I experience but to change your mind about going to a fast food place and to go to Lowes food and pick out a rotisserie chicken instead. I want to foster change in the way people eat and how they view food and the world.
God willing, I will be on TV one day screaming in joy about how food changed my life and how I want to share that with others but if not, I am happy writing the posts in this blog and pouring my enthusiasm into the internet for a lucky soul to come across. A podcast would be nice if I had a team of people that were like minded about nutrition, food and agriculture but until then, I will continue to share my creations and post on my social media and blog. I would love to do brand deals or something along those lines but I know that comes with experience and time. I'm in no rush because I still have a lot to learn.
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