FOOD
22 • Thursday, February 11, 2021
OVER THE MOUNTAIN JOURNAL
BACK IN THE KITCHEN John Cassimus Partners With SpyPoint to Create Cooking Series
By Emily Williams-Robertshaw
Celebrate Day’s End
A good meal is everything to Cassimus. It’s embedded in his Greek ancestry. “I personally have a view that every day
Photo courtesy John Cassimus
W
ith his new cooking series, Darn Hungry, John Cassimus is not only exploring new challenges, he’s revisiting his roots with a mission to inspire people to create a simple meal that they can be proud of. In the 12-part series, produced by SpyPoint and published on its website, Cassimus hopes to inspire viewers to master simple techniques. He advises learning the basics and then building on those skills, a process that began for him while cooking with his mother in her kitchen. He went on to found the Zoe’s Kitchen franchise with his parents and later to establish the discount retail chain Crazy Cazboy’s. Pushing the limits is a trait of Cassimus’ that he carries into his personal life as well as his professional one. He flies planes, and he has climbed mountains around the world and run a 50-mile ultramarathon. He once bagged a 235-inch mule deer during a 12-hour stalk hunt. A sponsored bow hunter, Cassimus was first introduced to SpyPoint at an archery convention. After speaking with company officials, a SpyPoint representative began following him on social media, where Cassimus tends to post videos of himself playing around in the kitchen. In about September or October, he was tapped to create cooking content for the company’s users and followers. “What you will see “I initially was curious on those shows was what that done just completely about would be like,” blind by me, on Cassimus said. “I really the fly, creating have had an that content in my interest in doing something on head as I cooked, TV (or) the which is extremely internet, and the opportunity to challenging.” have some really high-quality content created to let people see what my potential is was very appealing to me.” Then came the real challenge. Without a crew or producers guiding him, Cassimus created 12 episodes of Darn Hungry. “I knew what recipe I was going to make, but other than that, I did not have any kind of guidance,” he said. “What you will see on those shows was done just completely blind by me, on the fly, creating that content in my head as I cooked, which is extremely challenging.”
DARN HUNGRY In a new 12-part series, produced by SpyPoint and published on its website, John Cassimus hopes to inspire viewers to master simple techniques.
is a celebration,” he said. “We are lucky to be here.” Dinner is the big finale after a long day of working and pushing limits, the final punctuation mark on a day well spent. “Every night, I sit down and eat,” he said. “That’s everything to me and I feel cheated if I don’t have a great meal.” The act of cooking that meal is a stress reliever. “I really love the creativity,” he said. “I don’t typically ever use recipes.”
Childhood Beginnings
Cassimus’ earliest memories in the kitchen were spent watching his mother – Zoe of Zoe’s Kitchen – cook. While he attributes the vast majority of his culinary knowledge to his mother, he gleaned some additional tips watching famous cooking programs such as The French Chef, featuring Julia Child. One of his favorite recipes of all time is Greek baked chicken. “It’s a very simple, traditional meal that is cooked a lot over in Greece,” he said. “It’s just a baked chicken with vegetables, butter and lemon, some oregano, garlic salt and pepper.” It’s a clean dish, simple and consistently delicious. “Anyone can execute that perfectly with just a little bit of effort,” he said. A drive to eat clean is not only a nod to the basics of Greek cuisine, but a hallmark of his life as a passionate outdoorsman. Some of the meals he especially enjoys today feature the game he has hunted, the
food evoking the memory and challenges of the stalk. “These animals live wild,” he said. “Caring for these animals after they’ve been harvested – how you prepare the meat and letting them age – is kind of like a rite of passage.” Clean eating is all about the protein for Cassimus. A clean meal features lean meat – fish, chicken, wild game or the occasional cut of beef and pork – paired with vegetables. Take those ingredients and stick to roasting, baking, grilling or pan-sauteing over frying. “You don’t need many ingredients,” he said. “Olive oil is critical. Use some lemon juice and some basic spices and then some simple techniques; do not just lather everything with cheese and butter.” He said all a cook needs to elevate those ingredients is a willingness to learn technique.
Valentine’s Day Advice
With Valentine’s Day on the horizon amid a pandemic, people may choose to cook at home rather than visiting a restaurant. Cassimus’ suggestion is to keep it simple. Try a light seafood pasta with some scallops or lobster, or grill a nice steak and pair it with a good bottle of wine. “You don’t really want a lot of food because you are typically going to celebrate with a huge dessert, a lot of chocolates and fun things like that,” he said. In his first installment of Darn Hungry,
Cassimus teaches viewers how to grill the perfect steak and create the perfect steak sauce. It’s truly about the technique. “The temperature of the grill is everything and getting comfortable with how that grill works,” he said. Understand how your grill heats and focus on cooking your meat at low temperatures. With a steak, that involves getting a good sear for a couple of minutes at a high temperature and then letting your grill cool down before finishing it off. “Sometimes it says 350 degrees,” he said. “It can be a very hot 350 based on if it is a gas grill versus a charcoal grill. Is the charcoal spread evenly?” When it comes to the science of baking, Cassimus leaves it to the professionals. If he were looking to create a simple Valentine’s Day dessert, he’d go for making a hot chocolate sauce and pouring it over fresh strawberries. “I think that the most important thing about cooking is that people need to have either an eagerness or a willingness to try,” he said. “It can be very intimidating to people.” Cassimus hopes his cooking series will leave people enjoying their time in the kitchen rather than dreading it. “It’ll save you some money, you’ll have a lot of fun with your friends and family and, hopefully one day, teach your kid how to cook like my mom taught me,” he said. To watch Darn Hungry, visit the Spypoint Trail Cameras YouTube and Facebook pages, or follow on Instagram at @spypointcamera.
