For chef Alexis Hernandez, food has always been about more than what is on the plate.
The Sun City Center resident has built a career spanning professional kitchens, restaurant ownership and television competitions, including Food Network Star and a winning appearance on Cutthroat Kitchen. Today, he is exploring another side of his culinary career through writing, sharing the memories and experiences that have shaped his relationship with food.
His new book, What the Pan Remembers, is a collection of personal essays about the people, places and moments he remembers through food. Raised in a Cuban American household in New Jersey, Hernandez grew up eating rice, black beans, yuca, plantains and breaded chicken.
His curiosity about cooking expanded when he began exploring cuisines beyond those he knew at home, eventually leading him to culinary school at Sullivan University in Louisville, Kentucky.
He went on to gain experience in professional kitchens before owning Union Hill Kitchen in Atlanta, Georgia, where he learned firsthand the challenges of running a restaurant. From managing a small kitchen to making last-minute adjustments when ingredients ran short, Hernandez learned that being a chef required more than knowing how to cook. His experience competing on competition shows brought new challenges, but he said some of his greatest lessons came from solving problems in his own kitchen.
“I learned a lot from television, but I probably learned more on the nights when something went wrong in my own kitchen and I had to figure out what to do about it,” Hernandez said.
That practical perspective also informs his writing. In What the Pan Remembers, Hernandez reflects on childhood meals with his sister, eating canned ravioli and other seemingly ordinary experiences that became lasting memories
He hopes readers will recognize pieces of their own lives in his stories and remember the people, places and traditions that have shaped them.
Now settled in Sun City Center, Hernandez continues to cook, develop recipes and share culinary knowledge through his website, The Other Side of the Stove, and his monthly Kitchen Notes column in the News of Sun City Center.
For more information, please visit https://theothersideofthestove.com/.
You must be logged in to post a comment.