Friday, January 6, 2017

Hello, I'm Hungry

I'm a sissy and can only handle literally three drops of hotsauce on my avocado. And that's AFTER training for it!

Ladies and Gents, Ready Your Forks 

My name is Joie Foster, and welcome to Refining My Palette, my shiny new blog all about food and food illustration. Yes, it's a food pun. Deal with it, there will be plenty of those here.

I'm a Los Angeles-based illustrator, and I work in a variety of industries including comics, animation, and tabletop games. I've always been a food lover and wanted to learn more about it, but focusing on making my art career work has pretty much taken over my life.

I went to art school, and predictably it was a lesson in "what's the cheapest and fastest ways to eat?" I spent my entire undergrad breathing and bleeding art... and eating a ton of ramen. Or Hot Pockets. Lean Cuisine. Tiny Costco pizzas... Wendy's value menu. You get the picture.

Graduate school brought me a whole new dilemma-- I'd learned a bit about cooking and food, but now had absolutely zero money in San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities in the world. I legitimately could not afford to buy or cook meat in my postage stamp sized apartment, so I had to get creative with vegetarian meals I could cook en masse and eat the leftovers for two weeks. So, you know. Rice. Lots and lots of rice.

One of my more creative attempts at using up my Thanksgiving  leftovers this past year.

So now I'm an "Adult." Or so says my driver's license. I've since learned at least some basic-plus (that's when you're one step past basic, but definitely not intermediate) cooking skills, and have come to appreciate better food than my academic career might indicate. I've also entered an age decade that begins with "3" and just gotten married. That's about the most adultiest-adult thing you can do besides paying taxes.

We got tons of great kitchen gear from our amazing family and friends, and as I was reading the very complicated instructions on how to season our new wok I thought, "Wow, I really wish I knew more about food so I feel like I can do this thing justice."

And thus was born this new little side project of mine: refining my palate. Learning to cook better, learning to define tastes better. What spices can I use besides just basil, salt, and pepper? What sort of flavor goes well with another? What IS the best way to cook a steak? Why is it that you have to tie a turkey's legs together?* Only, as I'm an artist, it isn't just going to be a side hobby-- no. It'll also be an illustration expedition as well. So Refining My Palette it is!

So welcome, please feel free to subscribe and follow me on social media and stuff. I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram. If you're curious about seeing more of my comics and illustration work, please feel free to check out  my portfolio website!

*Oh yes hungry reader, I, along with my husband, was in charge of cooking the 23 pound turkey for Thanksgiving this year. We had absolutely no idea what we were doing... but somehow the thing turned out delicious and no one died from undercooked poulty. Whew. Skin of our teeth on that one...

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