Scott Cumpstone and I share a passion for food and cinematography. We met at a holiday party last year and immediately bonded over our desire to create beautiful content surrounding the culinary world. Both of us have been searching for an outlet to be creative - the content we both produce for clients can be soul sucking. Scott's talents shine in the kitchen, with his wife Alicia by his side. He's too modest about his skills and experience, in his spare time he cooks alongside Matt Maienshein at the seasonal BYOB series "Mulberry".
We're inviting you on this journey as Scott experiments in my kitchen with his favorite, seasonal recipes and I document it!
“So Scott, what do you do?”....
When you get to a certain age that’s usually one of the first questions you ask when you meet a person for the first time. With-that-said, it’s always one of the hardest questions for me to answer. At 32, I’m not exactly sure what it is I do. All I know is that I’m a creator. Whether it’s film, food, or music, I always try my best to make something, although sometimes in vain. I hopped around careers in the above mentioned industries, but one thing remains constant; I love to cook for people.
I started writing out a long origin of my life in the kitchen. I felt a need to recount all the years or experience and “paying of dues” to make myself feel credible; to reassure myself I still belong. When you’re a chef, you’re part of a club, and once you find yourself on the outside looking in, it can feel isolating. But it soon hit me, that it’s all just a sense of belonging. And being a professional chef or not, food provides a sense of inclusion. Whether cooking professionally, or just for friends or family, you’re inherently creating a feeling of intimacy. And that’s why we love it so fucking much.
I’ve been fortunate to have a relationship with a few amazing chefs here in Philadelphia. I suppose I live vicariously through them. Once a month I even collaborate with a good friend for his amazing pop-up dinner series called “Mulberry”, in which I try to keep up and not make too many mistakes. Wanting to be involved in even more, I met Briana at Double Knot to shoot the shit, and pick her brain about culinary opportunities outside a traditional kitchen setting. She suggested doing a photoshoot, so we teamed up to to create a late-winter menu featuring seasonal ingredients from local purveyors. I had many late nights trying conceive the perfect menu, and then I just thought to myself, “Fuck it. I’m just going to make some really simple dishes. Food that I would serve to friends, to let them know they belong.” I went down to Riverwards and bought beautiful produce and picked up some stellar vinegars from Keep Well. This is what we made...




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