Mark Culinary Services

12/30/2022

Those who know me know I've hung up the apron some time ago now. I apologize to anyone who has showed interest in my business but I was finding myself and realized that my identity as a chef has been holding me back from being who I really am. I am grateful that working as a personal chef and having my own business was a much more enjoyable experience than the toxicity I experienced in the restaurant and catering industries. Even outside of that, I can no longer take part in the business of selling or preparing the flesh of factory farmed animals as this practice equates to enslavement, torture and genocide. I am still willing to cook on the right occasion as long as it is vegan, vegetarian, or pescatarian. Other than that I am leaving this page up as a memorial to myself for this chapter in my life. Thank you and I hope everyone has a great New Years.

12/31/2021

I came out of retirement on Christmas Day and cooked for some great clients out in beautiful Dunedin. I am taking gigs on a limited basis again.

03/28/2021

More classic Portuguese flavors. Grilled whole snapper taken off the bone, and yes I did somewhat bury it because fish taken off the bone tastes better but doesn’t always look pretty, and I make sauces taste good to actually be enjoyed not to decorate plates. I don’t like rules in cooking, plating, or elsewhere and I plate the way I know I would enjoy eating it - hot and touching, not cold and segregated like most of the “for the gram” chefs are doing now.

03/28/2021

Nailed this dish down in its second iteration. True to form, I’m doing too much as usual but there’s a method to my madness. This is a combination of 3 classic Portuguese dishes, bacalhau a bras, caldo verde, and clams with linguica.

03/28/2021

03/28/2021

It’s a different vibe on this side. I want my style and aesthetic to shine through anywhere that it can.

03/26/2021

Every time I buy a tenderloin, I end up eating the rest of it raw until its gone. I make a version of tartare with what I already have around and change it a little every time. Lately its been the fermented black bean chili oil, tobanjian, yuzu and sichuan pepper. Usually I eat it out of the mixing bowl or find some lettuce leaves or something crunchy to put it on. I figured I may as well plate it, admittedly I did too much. I fried wonton skins like taco shells and put a piece of romaine around them so it would catch any breakage like those taco bell tacos that have a soft tortilla around a crunchy one. This plate up serves no real purpose, the real prize was mixing it up and eating it like that.

03/07/2021

When you feel like making shrimp and grits but you don’t have grits or even Carolina rice grits but you have Vietnamese broken rice and you just end up making the entire thing Asian

02/18/2021

For our regular customers who just want simple meals, we still make the same effort in quality, presentation and flavor as we do for our events.