A man stumbles, presumably drunk, onto his friends’ porch in the middle of the night to crash in the bathtub. The next day, he creates a beautiful pot of stew with catfish and shrimp and delivers it to his friends’ porch. The friends accept and eat the stew, but do not forgive his behavior.
Scotty Scott isn’t your average social media influencer or content creator. The scene described above is a video on his popular Instagram page named for his blog, “Cook Drank Eat.” Set to sad music, it showcases a storytelling ability more suited to an indie film director than a food blogger. Like many bloggers, the food business is a side hustle for Scott, who works a regular nine-to-five job in the oil and gas industry and cooks, writes recipes and creates social media content in his free time. He doesn’t create content to appeal to anyone’s algorithm or formula for the most views. He creates food content because he loves it.
“I have a pretty rigid schedule I have to follow from nine to five and when I’m off, I do whatever I want to do,” he says. “Some of the food content out there is repetitive and I want to separate myself and make sure I’m not doing the same thing as everyone else. I create just to create. I think if I keep it unique and funky, people will appreciate that.”
Scott, who is father to two boys – a 3-year-old and a 5-month-old – also features family in his content. In one video, his 3-year-old eschews the figs Scott added to a plate of French toast, a scene that is not unfamiliar to parents of toddlers.
This chef’s wit and personality come through in his content and in his food. He released a cookbook last spring called Fix Me A Plate, and while some would try to call it “elevated soul food,” he doesn’t like that term.
“I’ve heard the term used frequently from many people attempting to describe new soul food recipes,” he said. “But I don’t call it elevated because that seems derogatory to the original dishes. It’s just carrying on the tradition of soul food.”
Scott, who also maintains a personal chef service, adds his own special touches to the dishes. For example, he makes southern fried chicken with Cornish game hens, adds fried oysters on top of a collard greens salad, and gives French toast a rum cake spin. He turns a classic millennial cafe dish of avocado toast into a southern chef’s kiss by adding pecan smoked chicken and a white barbecue sauce.
Like many in the food business, Scott’s process was changed by the pandemic.
“COVID changed the way I recipe tested,” he said. “Usually any time friends would get together I would bring a new dish with me to see how it tests on a crowd. I would also leave new recipes in the break room at work to see how quickly it disappeared. Since I couldn’t do that during COVID my partner ate a lot of soul food.”
His partner, he says, “does not share my passion for cooking, but she is an incredible taste tester.”
The Detroit native has been in Texas since 2012 and in Fort Worth since 2017. He has a lot to say about the Fort Worth food scene, and plans to say it with food. His next project is a food trailer to be stationed in the parking lot of the near Southside wine bar The Holly. It’s a grilled cheese trailer called Cheesy Does It, and diners can expect the same innovation as in his content creation and cookbook (and he will be making brunch items from the cookbook on weekends). A recipe he is working on, The Goudbutt, is a decadent sandwich with gouda cheese, truffle butter, apple and mint. When he describes this sandwich it is as if he is describing a sunset – almost too beautiful to be true, but it exists nonetheless.
“The apple is still crisp because it’s a quick cook, and sometimes it’s still cold; the truffle butter gives it a decadence and savoriness and the mint just sort of pops everything alive.”
I’m not exaggerating when I say I thought about this sandwich all day.
Scott also thinks the Fort Worth dining scene is about to change.
“Tex Mex is big, barbecue is big, but some types of food haven’t taken off here,” he said. “I’ve seen some cuisines that have taken off elsewhere that have not done as well in the city center of Fort Worth, namely a Vietnamese bakery, Korean BBQ and Ethiopian. I’m hoping that people here are ready to embrace different cuisines like these and others.”
I made his recipe for beef tips and rice for my family, and it easily rivaled a similar dish from one of my Julia Child cookbooks. He instructs the cook to properly brown the meat, and then give it a slow simmer after adding a combo of seasonings I’ve never used in one dish. Onion soup mix could be called its “secret ingredient” but when combined with soy sauce and Worcestershire, magic happens. I served this dish alongside some sautéed green beans with red onions sprinkled on top.
The second dish I made was his Potato Chip Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. These were … unusual and amazing. I asked Scott what made him think of such a combo, and his reply painted a fun picture of his process.
“I was just sitting there eating chocolate and potato chips one day – I’m big on sweet and savory,” he said. “When you have a chocolate chip cookie sometimes you put some sea salt on top to wake up the taste buds. Potato chips struck me as another way to do that. They have the same saltiness with a crunch texture. I’m not classically trained so I’m always experimenting. I’m always looking to learn.”
These cookies truly are a decadent reimagining of a classic. He uses a mix of two different flours and brown butter, which I have never tried. As a brown butter first-timer, I am simultaneously irritated I haven’t tried it before and glad Scott introduced me to it. The batch was gone in a day at my house, and these will be on the regular dessert roster forever.
Here’s the recipe, courtesy of Cook Drank Eat:
Potato Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup bread flour
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cup brown butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup crushed, salted kettle potato chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat.
Whisk together the baking powder, baking soda, flours and salt and set aside.
Add the butter and sugars to a stand mixer or large bowl with a hand mixer and mix until light and creamy (about 4-5 minutes). Add in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each one. Then add the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients ½ cup at a time and mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Scoop 2-3 inch mounds of dough onto baking sheet about 3 inches apart. Press down gently with your thumb to slightly flatten. Sprinkle all of the cookies except one with the potato chips for that one person that will be complaining. You know who the hell I’m talkin about.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until a light brown color. Cool 2 minutes on the baking sheet then remove and place on cooling rack. They’ll be completely in about 30 minutes but if you’re like my greedy ass you’ll eat one after five minutes and burn the roof of your mouth. Worth it though. Store covered in an airtight container.
Scott’s Cookbook is available on his website, Cook Drank Eat, at CookDrankEat.com. For more recipes and videos, visit him on Instagram @CookDrankEat. Making one of these recipes? Tag us on Instagram @ModernHippieKitchen or @FWBusinessPress.
About the cook
Once upon a time, shortly after graduating from TCU, Sarah McClellan-Brandt paid the rent by working as a reporter for the Fort Worth Business Press. Today she’s a social media specialist for a North Texas hospital system and in her spare time shares recipes and cooking tips with devoted followers of her Modern Hippie Kitchen