Written by R.D. Cooke – a Culinary Junkie just like you.

Soul by way of taste buds is the surefire way to a Culinary Junkie’s heart. A truth realized in retrospect only after submitting to my own heart being captured. Sense heightening, blissfully intoxicating, miraculously beautiful F-O-O-D has lassoed me in. Stolen my heart like a helpless baby in the night. There is no turning back from this waking life chasing when and where I will be with it again. These countless missions endured in search of culinary greatness across the globe, the mass of produce consumed to satisfy indomitable hunger cravings, my endless journey to fulfill the urges for flavorful surprise to romance my palette— it is all these things and more that make this diary of a Culinary Junkie life, possible. It is my hope that the many thousands of dollars spent on all things food since taking up habitat in Los Angeles were for something far greater than the momentary lapses of ecstasy triggered by the crafty culinary gymnastics performed by some of the chefs in this town. It couldn’t merely be that so much of this hard-earned money has gone to shit. I couldn’t accept it. The depth of beauty in a virginal bite of a Katsuya crab roll or Umami’s Truffle Burger sheds some light on it all. There is something distinctly divine in the eating out experience. Eating is not to be taken lightly, friends, the very act thereof is a gift. Though as with all great gifts and powers also comes great responsibility. Working out, staying fit, keeping the junk off the trunk so you can do it all over and over again, as guilt free as can be, should be a priority. I wonder how many others out there too seek the ritualistic joys of flavor penetrating the tongue, exploding in the mouth and riveting the entire body to pinnacles of comatose delight. There must be others out there that, like me, are driven by this innate pursuit of damn good food. It is my hope that through the search for meaning in this never-ending love affair with food, a light may be shined on the essence of what has contributed to the theft of my heart… all of our hearts. In the spirit of the truth always setting you free, my existence as a full-fledged junkie— a Culinary Junkie, is chronicled here.

*** Disclaimer: Fellow Culinary Junkies and anyone else who cares, please be advised that the above manifesto should in no way be considered an endorsement of any sort of behavior (spending habits included) on behalf of the author and/or CulinaryJunkie, LLC and it’s affiliates. The views and opinions expressed here are solely and clearly the result of a human under the influence of food— no holds barred, good f*#%ing food, and it should not be taken as anything other than what it is intended to be—Entertainment.***