Jason Phillips is a writer and editor in the food and travel industry. He caught the traveling bug at an early age, growing up in a Navy family. As a young adult, Jason became a Merchant Marine and worked aboard US-flagged tugs and barges. One of his duties was cooking for a crew of seven, and he fell in love with crafting homemade recipes that helped keep the morale up on long or difficult trips.
As a merchant marine, Jason has often cooked and volunteered to do the grocery shopping. This led him to local farmer’s markets in various Caribbean and the United States ports. In these far-flung ports, he gained an interest in local ingredients and food preparation. Jason would pick up local recipes and techniques in his galley, and the idea of a cookbook entered his mind.
When Jason came home from the sea, he prepared regional cuisine from where he had recently visited for his family and friends. They often enjoyed the meal and would ask him where he learned it. He would tell them about the ports and the newfound friends he encountered, and they would listen intently. That’s when he decided to combine a travel memoir with his cookbook.
Jason’s culinary journey led him to a culinary academy where he became close friends with his chef instructor, Art Grayson. Chef Art encouraged Jason to become a food writer after proofreading some of his college papers for theology. Jason’s first writing project was a cookbook and travel memoir about his time spent offshore, The Sea Cook: Recipes and Tales From the Galley. He took the culinary techniques he learned from Chef Grayson and from cooking onboard a moving platform and turned these into regional recipes from the different ports of call he sailed to.
The publication of The Sea Cook led Jason to pursue food and beverage writing as a full-time profession. Since the book's publication in 2021, Jason has written for many online and in-print publications. His two favorite pastimes are traveling and cooking, and he does both often.
Jason’s Instant Pot journey started in 2020 when he was gifted a 7 in 1 Instant Pot Duo. He was leery at first as a dyed in the wool classical chef. However, he took to it instantly. The idea of cooking foods like dried beans and pot roasts in less than an hour was intriguing. Plus, the easy-to-follow recipes were a game changer in how Jason started preparing meals at home.
When Jason started cooking with an Instant Pot, he was also learning how to cook with an air fryer. These appliances used different techniques and faster cooking times than the commercial cooking methods he was accustomed to. But, he adapted to cooking at home, which is different than cooking commercially, and he loved the results.
Currently, Jason is experimenting with and loving his Instant Pot Duo Crisp With Ultimate Lid. Even though it is quite large for a two-person family, he still finds excuses to use it several times a week. He uses the air fryer function most, but he also loves pressure and slow cooking functions.
Jason can be contacted through his Facebook Group, The Sea Cook, and Linkedin.