Kitchen Minute with Jen Delos Reyes

Jen Delos Reyes, Chicago, IL and Ithaca, NY

"On the weekends I love to take on elaborate food projects that can stretch out over days and take significant time and planning, weekdays I try to be more efficient, but also enjoy my time in the kitchen, usually about an hour plus clean up."

Jen Delos Reyes identifies with Wendell Berry’s description as a 'farmer of sorts and an artist of sorts,' an educator, writer, and radical community arts organizer. She is defiantly optimistic, a friend to all birds, and proponent that our institutions can become tender and vulnerable. Delos Reyes divides her time between Chicago and Ithaca, where she is invested in cultivating land-based community sustained projects.

She loves to prepare her own food and share it with others. Jen’s list of most-admired chefs includes—Eric Kim, Padma Lakshmi, Angela Dimayuga, Roy Choi, Danny Bowien, David Chang, and Kenji Alt Lopez. Adding. “I also have to admit I am a latecomer fan to Master Chef and love to have it playing when I am cooking dinner for motivation.”

When it comes to what she has for dinner every night, she tells us, "Every night dinner is like a Master Chef mystery box challenge in which the items in the box are all the things about to go bad in my kitchen. I am hyper-anti food waste, so this is what is always on the menu."

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