Kevan Vetter Encourages People To Get Creative In The Kitchen During Quarantine

With grocery stores becoming more scarce, people are being forced to cook with ingredients they might not usually cook with. So executive chef Kevan Vetter is here to encourage people to get out of their comfort zones and check out McCormick & Company's Flavor Maker app for new recipes to experiment with!

Video Transcript

- Well, you know, it's funny you bring it up. You are a bit of a. Cook I've been asking everybody, what are they watching? What are they reading? But as a chef, I have to know-- what have you been cooking? Are you experimenting with new recipes? Or are you playing it safe? What's it like in the kitchen over there for you?

KEVAN VETTER: You know, a little bit of both. It kind of depends on what's available. I think that's been the unique thing when you walk through the grocery store-- boneless skinless chicken breasts aren't there anymore.

And you know, a lot of people are cooking proteins. It's actually interesting to hover in the meat aisle, and look and see what people are picking up and putting back down. Maybe offer a little bit of advice of, if they look confused, of how to cook a cut they've never cooked. You know? How can you help out? Because, you know, boneless skinless chicken breasts, which is far and away what most people cook, they're just not there. There's thighs. There's legs. There's other things.

So yeah, a little experimental. You know, I got duck one day, which is always fun, some duck breast. Cooking to [INAUDIBLE] you know, definitely loaded up on some ground beef and ground turkey. So you know, there's ways to keep it fancy and ways to keep it simple.

- I just picked up some ground turkey myself with the full intention of, when the weather turns nice hear-- over in New York, it's supposed to be really warm tomorrow-- we were going to do turkey burgers or something like that. Is that the go to? What do you do with ground turkey? Is turkey burger your a go-to? What's your secret over there?

KEVAN VETTER: Yeah, we do tacos a lot, you know, with ground turkey. Made a lasagna last week. I hadn't made a lasagna in a long time. So I got some gluten-free lasagna noodles. Put that in there. Added some of of all-purpose oregano, garlic, and crushed red pepper seasoning. Layered in the ricotta. I got the last ricotta from the grocery store. I had to bend way down and reach way in the back.

But you know, it's-- I think, you know, for me, I love to cook. And you know, some days, it's simple. But you know, in talking to some of my friends who don't like to cook, it's been a really life-changing thing for them, where they relied on restaurants for carry-out or meals.

I have one friend who's cooking three meals a day now. And that's a huge change. And I could actually tell from her voice that she's enjoying it, you know? This is a whole new thing that she has to do.

So I think, as somebody who's cooked since I was 16, 17 years old, watching people learn and adapt and really go on another level of a cooking journey, I think, is really, really cool.

And McCormick is an awesome way to help people leverage that, through McCormick.com. We have a flavor maker's app with a flavor maker's video series that absolutely is geared towards people that, you know, have a lot of confidence in the kitchen but maybe not the skills or the knowledge. And we're going to help pull you along your journey, which is awesome.

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