Elliot is a high school chemistry teacher in Dayton, Ohio, and has taught there since 2011. Cooking started as a way to feed himself on a teacher's salary, which is why most of his recipes begin with a look in the pantry rather than a trip to the store.
He likes reverse-engineering restaurant food. His KFC seasoning blend took fourteen test batches over one summer, each fried and scored on a sheet he kept taped inside a cabinet door. The shoyu tare came out of the same habit: he wanted ramen-shop flavour from soy sauce, mirin and things already on the shelf.
The casseroles and bakes are what he cooks for his family on Sundays. Hamburger casserole was his grandmother's, written down from memory after she died, and it took him three tries to get the sauce right.
Elliot lives with his husband, Marcus, and a cat who has learned to open the pantry door.
