Smart Blog
Discover our philosophy about human connection and wellness through sharing food, and meeting IRL! Tell your story to friends over a nice meal, and have a belly laugh!
You're Human in an Ecosystem: Justification for my Low-impact Diet
The human body is a biological ledger, and our skulls carry the receipts of our evolutionary history. We are not highly specialized apex predators, nor are we obligate herbivores. We are the ultimate generalists, and a quick look at the architecture of our jaws, teeth, and facial muscles reveals a system perfectly calibrated for an omnivorous diet.
“I will remember you.”
Beloved painting:
Subject: Portrait of Mr. Jack Moran
Artist: Steven Luscombe
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Cooking is an Artform: AI and Ethics at the James Beard Awards
Right now, a quiet panic is rippling through the culinary world. Food bloggers, who spent the last decade mastering search engine optimization and burying recipes beneath thousands of words of personal anecdotes, are watching their empires tremble. Cookbook authors are staring down a future where their meticulously tested volumes feel increasingly like relics. The existential threat? Artificial intelligence.
With a single prompt, an AI can instantly generate a recipe for a perfect, gluten-free, high-altitude-adjusted chocolate chip cookie, bypassing the food blog, the cookbook, and the traditional culinary gatekeepers entirely. The immediate reaction from the food media establishment has been defensive: circle the wagons, tighten copyright claims, and launch a crusade against digital "plagiarism."
The Green Neighborhood Network: Why Canadian Healthcare Should Champion Eco-Community Bulk Buying
The Canadian healthcare system is at its best when it prevents illness rather than just treating it. By building a platform that reduces the financial and mental friction of going green, Canada can empower citizens to protect their wallets, protect the planet, and rebuild the social fabric of their neighborhoods.
Gastronomical Love: The Craftsmanship is Art in the Fine Dining Experience
In an era of mass production, the fine dining kitchen stands as one of the last bastions of pure, unadulterated craftsmanship. While a factory can stamp out a thousand identical loaves of bread, it cannot replicate the "intuition of the flame" or the specific, micro-decisions a chef makes based on the humidity in the air or the unique marbling of a specific cut of Wagyu.
You are my author: anyone can be an author at SmartPigKitchen just by being kind IRL
At SmartPigKitchen, we believe that the barrier to entry for becoming an "author" isn't a degree or a publishing deal—it’s your character. The essence of being a SmartPig is rooted in sharing, loving, and practicing peaceful kindness. In short? Just don't be a "stupid pig."
The Liturgy of the Multitude: Art in the Age of AI
The traditional sanctuary of the "original" has collapsed, not by a single iconoclastic blow, but through the relentless erosion of the **aura**. That unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be—the singular existence of the artwork in the time and space of its creation—has evaporated. In its place, we find the dawn of a new social democracy of art, where the authority of the "masterpiece" is liquidated in favor of a radical accessibility. All art becomes performative and social.
The Seasoned Perspective: Why Life is Best Taken with a Grain of Salt (or A Bud of Black Garlic)
There is a fundamental truth in the kitchen that applies equally to the human condition: **salt is the great balancer.** It mutes bitterness, enhances complexity, and makes the unpalatable not only edible but deeply nourishing. In my life, "taking it with a grain of salt" isn't just a metaphor for skepticism; it is a survival strategy.
When you live as a differently abled person, you are constantly reminded of a reality that most people spend their lives trying to ignore: everyone will eventually lose some of their capacity to function. To be human is to be in a state of flux. Facing this leaves one with two distinct choices: to be perpetually angry when the world doesn’t bend to your will, or to laugh it off. I choose the latter, not out of a lack of seriousness, but because I believe in having a sweet disposition.
Cook like a Child: Why It’s Never Too Late to Start
We often treat life like a race with a frantic "finish line" in our thirties. There is a pervasive myth that if you haven’t mastered your craft by the time you're thirty-five, you’ve missed the boat. We see teenage tech prodigies and Olympic gymnasts and assume our brains have simply "set" like concrete. Heck in 2026 I write a blog! And I love analogue ❤️
However, history—and a certain 6-foot-2-inch tall woman with a penchant for butter—proves that the most vibrant chapters of your life can start well after your "prime." Just so you know, I freeze my spoiled milk to use in baking ❤️
The Point of the Void: Cartesian Solitude and Environmental Ethics
“Where environmentalism is concerned, the only way to avoid criticism is to do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. So go enjoy life a little already, but just a little“ –Smart Pig Kitchen
From the Heat of the Stove to the Heart of the Table: A Cartesian Guide to Slow Food
Stewing on Great Ideas
We are not merely "thinking things"; we are eating things, breathing things, and feeling things. There is a profound connection between the slow-cooking stove of a French philosopher and the global effort to preserve traditional foodways.
How Science Comes from God: The Miracle of the Cartesian Plane
The Cartesian plane is more than a set of crossed lines on graph paper. A Divine gift of clarity, it remains the essential foundation upon which the modern world is built. Without it, we would be lost in a sea of shapes, unable to calculate the path of the stars or the curve of a simple line.
So how does this relate to food? I'll let you know tomorrow…. But in the meantime have a nice chat about Descartes over a meal with a friend or soon to be friend! Share food: it's good for your health!
Speak Positivity: The Architecture of Breath: How Words Literally Shape Your World
We often treat words as mere descriptors—labels we slap onto a reality that already exists. But what if words aren’t just *about* the world, but are the very substance it’s built from?
The power of speech is a double-edged sword; it is a creative force that can just as easily be destructive. Whether positive or negative, our utterances act as a "breath" that influences the environment around us. Consider the famous (and often replicated) experiments where plants were subjected to different types of speech. Those "spoken to" with kindness and encouragement thrived, showing robust growth and vibrant leaves, while those subjected to verbal abuse and negativity withered or stunted. If a simple plant—lacking a conscious mind—responds so physically to the "spirit" of our words, imagine the profound impact our speech has on the human architecture of mind and body.
You’re Loved Extravagantly, Beyond All Reason
“And how could I deny that these hands and this body belong to me, unless perhaps I were to assimilate myself to those insane persons whose minds are so troubled and clouded by the black vapours of bile that they constantly assert that they are kings when they are very poor; that they are wearing gold and purple, when they are quite naked; or who imagine that they are pitchers or who have a body of glass. But these are madmen, and I would not be lass extravagant if I were to follow their example”
Supermarket Tourism: There's a World of Eating Healthy: Tourist Home Cooking
If you were in a Chinese Supermarket , and an older lady started putting stuff in your cart, would you buy it? I would! I like to go to grocery stores of different ethnicities, and ask the grocer or the other shoppers questions about what he or she likes, but also to locate the health food of that culture. Every culture has its nutritional powerhouses. I like to talk to restauranteurs about how they make the food I especially like to eat. Then I go home and cook and invent and eat… I'm not exactly a chef, being a chef requires very specialised skills, and years of experience… I'm a tourist home cook with a passion for healthy, accessibly-sustainable eating. So if I'm not a chef why would you eat with me? Why would you cook with me? Passion. You see, I've been eating and asking questions about food since I was a kid.
Reauthentication: Swap Culture: Dated Stuff: Timeless People
Let me tell you a secret: your stuff will outlive you. Enjoy it while you have it and don't worry too much about what it says about you. There's a good chance that what you bought in your lifetime won't be loved by your children as much as it was loved by you. But still the stuff will exist so let's hope it will be loved by someone else's children. So if you're going to buy something new, buy quality so someone will love it. Otherwise buy it used.
The Healthy Aesthetic: Get Outta Your Head: There's Something Subjective about Science and There's Something Objective about Art
Critics often argue that everything is "context." They point out that even medicine has historical biases (like using male subjects as the default) or that mathematics has a history. While true, history doesn't negate utility.
Take our number system. We use Arabic numerals globally today—not because of a cultural crusade, but because they work the best. Have you ever tried to do long division with Roman numerals?
IRL: The Handcuffs of Time: Freedom from the Digital
By keeping my clock "broken," I’ve turned an instrument of measurement into an instrument of memory. It no longer measures how much time I have left; it measures how much beauty I’ve found.
May you see yourself in another’s eyes today, and may you always keep a timeless clock.
This Little Piggy Went Wee Wee Wee All the Way Home and Scottish Thistle
I'm not saying I'm morally superior to anyone: I've made mistakes. I've gotten angry and also I've been censored. I'm saying that humans need each other, we're social animals. Let people be: don't hold people down because of what they say. Words inform our perceptions, and they can be constructive or destructive. The brain is plastic so try to be positive and project positivity because it's good for your health.