Hi. I’m Blake.

Nice to meet you.

My mind is an incessant whir of new ideas, creativity and Nutella. I have a million ideas a minute, and most of them are about how I can create unique, interesting and engaging content here on Blake Makes. Most of that content comes in the form of food blog posts, but not always. I have a burning desire to do something that’s never been done before, and I’d like for it to happen here. All of my ideas (foodie or otherwise) need to live some place other than my mind, so here they are on my blog and in my sandbox. This whole page is what I call my Sandbox Statement, and it’s constantly changing. Ideas come and go. Some fly and stay on this page. Others flop and disappear. I’m a doer and a tryer who’s not afraid of failure. I believe in jumping in, and figuring it out as I go along.

Not sure if I’m still talking about food? Good. That’s right where I want you (because that’s right where I am).

About Me

Hi. My name’s Blake, and I’m a 28-year-old blogger living in New Orleans with my wonderful wife and best friend, Beez, and our handsome poodle, Chopper. I graduated from LSU in ‘03 with a degree in advertising, moved to New Orleans and became obsessed with food shortly thereafter. In addition to my foodie pursuits, I’ve always been an idea guy, and I’ve always said that I want to ultimately make a living off my creativity. I think this blog is how I’m going to make that happen.

Me on facebook. Me on twitter.

A Food Blogging Calling

I’m not sure when or how it happened, but I have fallen in love with food blogging (but not for the obvious reasons). It feels like something I was born to do, but you might not realize it by reading my blog because (lately) there’s just not that much food on Blake Makes.

I am deeply fascinated by the act of food blogging, and I like to think of myself as a food blogger’s food blogger. I think there’s room for all types of food bloggers including chefs, professional food stylists, cookbook writers, food writers, amazing home cooks, horrible home cooks, moms-dads-kids-grandparents, food celebrities, food haters, fat ones, skinny ones, healthy ones, food entrepreneurs and professional foodies. Technically, I’m none of those things, and all of them at once.

A blog is a platform upon which I can build, well, anything I can dream up. It just so happens that I love dreaming about food. And, there it is. Right there. That’s why I blog. That’s why I have a blog. To dream and to try to make my dreams come true. It’s the perfect medium for doing so. It’s flexible, customizable, attractive, entertaining, engaging, cheap and easy to use. It’s a place where I can assemble an audience, test my ideas, recruit participants, succeed, fail, learn and, again, dream.

On Blake Makes, those dreams are communicated in the form of ideas.

Yummies

I’ll start with the food yummies. Right now, my favorite foods are Nutella (really, anything chocolate-hazelnut), crusty- charred-and-chewy naan, basmati rice, Banana Vanilla Wallaby yogurt, Honeycrisp apples, all the food I ate in Italy in 2008 (especially that white truffle pasta, and the ginger-cinnamon gelato), all the food I ate in Chicago (Alinea) and Paris (Le Cinq) in 2009, Junior Mints melted into hot movie popcorn, gingersnaps, meat pies (with pepper jelly and whole grain mustard) from Charlie’s Seafood in Harahan, fresh corn dogs, fresh-crispy-salty-hand-cut french fries…

I’ll end with the life yummies. I love the sound of walking over smooth river stones, or crunchy sidewalk/driveway gravel. I love to travel. I love riding in trains. I love ordering room service. I love cold, gray, rainy days. I wish I read more, but books rarely hold my attention long enough to finish them. That’s why I prefer magazines, although I mostly just look at the pictures. I love TV, and am never missing Big Love, Mad Men, Lost, 30 Rock, The Office, The Middle, Modern Family and Glee these days. I want to learn how to play the guitar, then the mandolin, then the piano and finally the violin. I want to learn conversational French, Spanish, Italian, German and Chinese.

Yucks

A good foodie should never be a picky eater. I despise picky eaters, and have talked badly both behind the backs and to the faces of the ones I have encountered. Never the less, I have a short list. I won’t use the word “hate,” but I don’t love fennel (although I’ll eat it), avocado (although I’ll eat it) and blue cheese (although Paris 2009 changed my mind). The life yucks are easy. I hate negativity. That pretty much covers all manner of sins.

Here’s Where You Come In

Stick around my blog long enough, and you’ll get what I’m cooking up. Like I say at the very top of this page, you’ll find plenty of good food here, but you’ll also find something else. Ideas. Ideas change the world, and I’m convinced that one of mine will change my world in a very BIG way. Big. Big like Food-Network-big, or a-million-readers-big. Something BIG is on the way. It’s just a matter of time.

Ideas

Idea #1 – Blake Makes a blog

Idea #2 – Blake Makes SOOPZ

Idea #3 – Blake Makes a magazine (that’s right, I’m publishing a food magazine)

Idea #4 – Blake Takes (Five)

Idea #5 – Blake Blogs: (Name)

Idea #6 – Tasting Spoons

Idea #7 – The Blake Makes Food Chain

Idea #8 – Blake Makes a book, Salt & Pepper