How do you write a letter to someone with whom you admire? I’m 49, and I have never written to anyone as a fan. I remember an interview once I saw with Neil Peart and he had mentioned that he had no interest in meeting those with whom he admired. I agree.
Honestly, I am writing this to myself not Mr. Sarno. If we ever meet, awesome - if not - all good too. I like my privacy, so I am 100% committed to anyone having the space they need to be the best they can be. You have my respect and support.
Derek showed up on my YouTube feed about a year ago while he was still living in the UK. This video he had on how to cook lion’s mane steaks completely reinvigorated my looking at how to remove meat from my diet.
I’ve been cooking since I could reach the stove. Am I chef? Nah, I’m a cook! I’ve learned a lot about gastronome, I’ve had an obsession with cooking for my entire life. Will I ever run a restaurant? Nope, not my thing. I’m a lifelong student. If you’ve known me in the last twenty years, once I commit to a subject I try and learn how to do it down to its bones.
I love growing food. I love making simple dishes, learning different styles of cooking. I’d like to think I make an honest attempt at learning the simple ways to make food from all over the world.
I can make you one of the best tiki drinks you’ve ever had. I’m no mixologist, but what I do is learn to make the components from scratch to create an excellent product. That’s why I like Polynesian pop (aka tiki) drinks as it has a lot of ingredients that make up new flavors. The history of tiki bars… maybe not so much? But the drinks - a lot of fun to mix. (I will say one thing about modern Polynesian Pop (Tiki) bars: they have little to no TVs and that is my jam.)
Tiki is all about layering flavors. One of the holy grails of Tiki is “fassionola“ which is a tropical syrup. I’ve seen a lot of recipes on this, and I dug deep into the way back machine to find recipes on fassionola and humbly feel I found a recipe lodged in the depths of the internet archives that has a better provenance than “it is reduced/boiled Hawaiian Punch“.
It came from a hearing on quack remedies regarding “passionola” as an aphrodisiac. They had what seemed to be a legitimate list of ingredients that included pineapple, mango, papaya, peach, apricot, apple, grape, and passion fruit. Which, aligns with what the original Hawaiian Punch recipe was. The things one can find! This felt truer to fassionola than folks have re-worked into modern tastes. But who knows?! I add hibiscus, like others do for the red fassionola.
Over the holidays I made an old fashioned for a friend, which upon the first sip there was this expression of joy from him that was my real satisfaction. He loved it and said: “You sir, should own a bar“. I told him that one drink would cost about $50 a pop. He looked at the glass and said: worth it.
I’ve had a similar journey with cooking and baking. With baking, I’ve baked more than I can remember. Outside of raising animals on my own, or really hard to get items, my goal was freshness and growing. Mostly small gardens, and hopefully on the land I have here in Georgia, we can get a real grow going! I dove deep into smoking meets, down to a science. I had the pleasure of working on amazingribs.com a decade ago and that experience taught me a lot. I roast coffee, which I love.
But, am I going to make money doing it this way? Nope. Were the results very good - yes! Was it good for my health? No.
As I started into my 40s, my body started telling me in ways I was not understanding that I was not well. Honestly, I was listening and just ignoring it.
What was happening though, was that my diet was negatively impacting my age.
I liked my meats. I liked my bread. Sugar was 1000% a thing in my life. All of this though was working against me. When I was 30, I was 165 and stacked. At 40, I was 220+ and was getting sick. I maxed out at 275 as I was really sick in 2022 from a virus.
My bloodwork was not good. I had to change. In April of 2024, I moved to vegetarianism. Vegan is hard for me as I have some genetic traits that makes it difficult to source all the nutrients I need through that diet.
I guess I am a pescatarian, but I stay pretty low on the seafood and focus mostly on veggies. I went from 276 lbs to 217 in eight months. Now, I’m on the long road to building back up my muscle mass and right sizing my BMI.
I used to not be able to jog a mile without my inhaler. Now, I barely use my inhaler at all.
All of this is not due to Derek Sarno - but what he doesn’t know is how much his approach to cooking and changes in his life helped me find my own path in the last year.
He has been incredibly open in his journey and even though I do not know him personally, he has a positive effect on how I reflect on the changes I make.
I’ve made one comment on his channel, thanking him. That’s all I’m comfortable with.
Why has he made an impact? He’s not perfect - nor is he trying to be. And there’s also Ms. America Frankie. So my admiration is like 50/50 Derek and Frankie. Okay, mostly Frankie. Frankie needs to meet my dog Roxie. Princess Roxie of the Clan Roxilla who is snoring loudly next to me as I write this.
In all seriousness though, my goals are to keep moving forward. That means in some ways I am refining myself. In some ways, redefining myself.
If you want to get to know Derek from his channel, I highly suggest taking a look. I find that his journey helps me understand mine. And that helps me feel content.
The best way I can think of to give back is to let you know about Derek. He’s an original and that is the highest compliment I can think of to give.
Thank you so much for reading and don’t code tired!