About

About Me

I didn't used to cook very much. I was married with 3 kids, and my wife did most of the cooking while I worked my tail off at hi-tech startups in Silicon Valley.

In 2006 my wife and I divorced, and I found myself faced with feeding three hungry kids every other week. Luckily for me, my mother lives close by and is a fantastic cook.

On my off-weeks from the kids, I started spending evenings with my mother learning our family recipes. Gradually, I got the hang of this whole cooking thing and was able to unleash my newfound culinary skills on my kids. They were blown away that I had learned to cook. With school and their many activities, mealtime became quality time for us.

The more I learned to cook, the more passionate I became. This eventually led to my taking a year off work to attend culinary school, where I earned my "Diplôme de Cuisine" through the Le Cordon Bleu program in San Francisco. This was followed by a stint at La Petit Rive restaurant in Mendocino.


Fast-forward 10 years, and now I am retired from my hi-tech career and have found myself remarried to the lovely Katie Parsons, who brought along two kids of her own. So, while I may not be a chef in a fancy restaurant in San Francisco, I am co-head chef with Katie (who has some serious culinary chops of her own) at Chez Briggs-Parsons.
As I dove deeper into the culinary world, I started noticing that cast iron just seemed to cook certain foods a lot better than other cookware--like getting that perfect sear on a duck breast, scallop or salmon filet. Even simple foods like pancakes, hash browns and cornbread are just better when cooked with cast iron. It also really complemented my rustic style of cooking. See my cast iron cookware and bakeware.

On this website I have included my best cast iron recipes, plus other delicious recipes I have found online. I have also included information on cleaning and seasoning your cast iron. For those of you wanting more information on the world of cast iron, I have also included information on purchasing, and restoring your cast iron, which is supported by an incredibly friendly, supportive and knowledgeable community.

Happy cast iron cooking! 

John Briggs - The Cast Iron Chef

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