Cooking With Chef Chris

2009 March 17

Instead of wondering whether you're going to get your date back to your place, why not just start there?

That is the premise of a new cooking show for bachelors filmed on location at Jack's Steakhouse in Baldwin Park, Fl., and produced by ICPlaces.com. I worked on the set throwing out lines when Chef Chris and co-host Steve Samblis got tripped up. I also wrote titles and show notes to appear with the video segments at Mevio.com.

The meals are meant to be easily prepared by bachelors who aren't chefs, and most dishes take less than fifteen minutes and cost less than twenty dollars. Chef Chris gives a step by step process so any guy can wow their lady. Below are some samples of the text.

Bananas Foster Defrost Her

Fire your girl up with a simple dessert that tastes as impressive as it looks.

2 Bananas
2 Tbsp Butter
1/4 cup Light Brown Sugar
White rum, 4 oz
Banana Liqueur, 1 oz
Nutmeg or Cinnamon
Vanilla Ice Cream

Melt the butter over low to medium heat while you quarter your bananas. Add brown sugar and let it get nice and caramelized. Brown your bananas on all sides for about a minute while you scoop out the ice cream, then put the bananas on top.

Turn up the heat a bit on your pan and add the rum and banana liqueur. To get big flames going with an electric stove, make sure your syrup is hot, or light it up with a kitchen lighter. As you let the alcohol burn off, add your cinnamon or nutmeg. Pour over the bananas and ice cream, and enjoy.

Five dollars, five minutes, five stars. Now don't let yourself be a flash in the pan.

Got a Wish? Make Her Fish: Grouper With Leek Ragù

This quick and light pan-seared grouper with a mushroom and leek ragu will have her calling you chef, or anything else you want.

2 filets grouper, or other white fish
1 leek
7 button mushrooms, sliced
2 shallots
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp heavy cream
1 tbsp brandy
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
Flour
Salt and pepper

Prep the fish with a little salt and flour both sides. Sear in a medium-high pan for about a minute per side, then put it in a 350 degree oven for just a few minutes. Turn the pan up to high heat and melt the oil and butter together. Add the leeks then garlic and allow to soften before adding the shallots and mushrooms and cooking a little more. Add the tomato, salt, and pepper before adding the heavy cream and brandy. Let it heat through for a minute or so and serve alongside the fish. It’s a gourmet dish for less than 20 dollars.

The rest, Ra-guru, is up to you.

Take a look at Cooking with Chef Chris on Mevio.com, and check out Steve Samblis at ICPlaces.com.

GrindVision Studios: Website Content

2008 December 07

I recently finished overhauling the site content for GrindVision Studios, an Orlando-based web 2.0 and social media marketing firm.

This is another case of the site owner being king of his... domain. All of the copy is mine except for two pages: Home and About. After approving the complete copy, the site owner wrote different material in. I advise against this as a brand's voice needs to be unified, but sometimes people really want to be their own voice, or like to change their mind frequently.

The link above will take you to the Video Services page. The thematic concept for the voice of the site centered on the word embed. Since viral video is the service that got them started, I went with the notion of embedding a brand into the social consciousness of a market.

Contact me for a complete sample of the copy I wrote for GrindVision Studios.

Easily Amused, Inc. - Website Content

2008 October 02

When the guys at the Easily Amused design studio found themselves busy enough to quit their day jobs, get an office, and turn the studio from side project to full time endeavor, they came to me to revamp their functional but dull website content. For a crew of creatives in their middle twenties well known in edgy local artists' circles but also with a flair for corporate charm, I had to come up with an equally broad voice for their website.

After looking around the internet for sites belonging to similarly aged, sized, and experienced firms, I found a huge gap between corporate and cool that needed filling. There comes a point when the hip drips too much and visitors can feel talked down to. On the other hand, use words like solution too much and you begin to sound like a white bread MBA from a second-tier state university. What to do?

I kept the most intense bursts of style confined to headers, titles, and taglines, and mellowed all the copy with an IKEA-like breeziness that doubled as an appeal to the older audience.

Homepage Header:

About Header:

Portfolio Header:

Services body content sample:

Print & Graphic Design

Good design doesn't just sit pretty — it does the talking that gets your audience talking.

Our designs and graphics connect you to your audience through a wide variety of media. We produce design briefs ranging from simple brochures, band posters, books and magazines, to entire advertising and branding campaigns. You come to us with your ideas, concepts, or brands, and we turn them into visuals that stick.

We're also dedicated to developing and reinventing aesthetics, because we like to keep our work graphically forward. That doesn't mean we're going to push experimental techniques on you. It simply means our concepts are always fresh, and we're able to provide the unique solutions you need.

idesign Web - Website Content

2008 September 15

Auckland-based idesign Web Ltd. came to me to create fresh website content for their design and development company.

I kept each page to under 300 words in accordance with the design and used the keyword phrases they provided at least twice for SEO purposes. Normally I would advise against such a high density. Each page had 3-6 keywords which resulted in anywhere from a 3-10% keyword density. No matter how good you are at weaving the keyphrases into the content naturally, that's a high density. A somewhat lower density may have slower results, but won't distract visitors once they're reading.

Once submitted, some of the content I wrote was altered. You can email me for a complete sample of my original headings and body content.

Home Page Body:

At Auckland-based idesign web, we design and develop the creative, custom websites that put you out in front of your competition.

idesign web is an Auckland-based, full-service design studio. We are a team of creative professionals dedicated to building the custom websites and web applications that connect you to your customers. Whether you need an ecommerce, content management, Flash, multimedia, SEO, or internet marketing solution, we can help. With idesign web’s designers and developers you get the quality and creativity that will strengthen your message, solidify your brand, and improve your bottom line.

So look around. Find what you need in our long list of services, or check out our portfolio to see what we've done for others, and what we can do for you.