Family kitchens · Travel memories · Something good to cook
Cooking with Rich: Travel-Inspired Recipes
Recipes worth bringing home.
Cooking with Rich is where the meals I remember become ideas for my own kitchen. Some begin with family traditions. Others start with a restaurant, a market or an ingredient that catches my attention after a trip.
I’m not a professional chef. I’ve never claimed to be one. I genuinely enjoy cooking, and I like the idea that a memorable meal can stay with you long after the reservation is over. These travel-inspired recipes are my interpretations of those experiences, made for people who want to try something different at home.
You’ll find the story behind the dish as well as the ingredients and directions. If you’re ready to cook, use the links below to go straight to a recipe. If you’re curious about where it began, there’s a little of that journey here too.
It started in my grandparents’ kitchen
Some of my earliest memories are of standing in the kitchen with my grandparents, learning family recipes and seeing how food brought everyone together. Before I was planning trips around dinner reservations, food already had that connection to people and place.
As I got older, that turned into experimenting on my own. A meal doesn’t have to be elaborate to give me an idea. It might be a combination of ingredients, the way something is cooked or the feeling of sitting down to food that someone has put care into.
Travel gives me more of those starting points. I come home thinking about what I ate and what I would enjoy making. Sometimes the connection is obvious. Sometimes it’s less about recreating a particular plate and more about bringing a little of the trip back into an ordinary evening.
Two places to start cooking
The recipes below show two different sides of that approach: one inspired by a specific restaurant experience, the other by the ingredients and feeling I brought home from Spain. Choose the one that sounds like something you would enjoy eating.
Filet Mignon Toast
My visit to Evvai in São Paulo inspired this combination of filet mignon, mushroom duxelles and black garlic aioli on sourdough. The recipe explains the individual components and how to bring them together.
This is my home interpretation, not Evvai’s recipe or a claim to reproduce the restaurant’s dish exactly.
Ginger Lemon Branzino & Shrimp
About two weeks after returning from Spain, I stopped at my local market without much of a plan. Branzino, jumbo shrimp, shiitake mushrooms, Napa cabbage, ginger and lemons became the beginning of dinner.
The recipe brings those ingredients together with a bright ginger-lemon sauce. It was inspired by the trip, rather than copied from a Spanish restaurant menu.
My approach to travel-inspired recipes
I want the connection to the original experience to be clear, without pretending every home-cooked dish needs restaurant equipment or restaurant presentation. The point is to take an idea that stayed with me and find a way to enjoy it again.
That can mean working with the ingredients available locally, adjusting a sauce or finding a practical substitute. It can also mean letting a good ingredient do most of the work. In the branzino recipe, the seafood, citrus and ginger are the focus. In the toast recipe, texture and the balance between the beef, mushrooms and aioli are part of what makes the dish interesting.
I explain those choices in each recipe story. Read through the ingredients and directions before you begin so you know which components need attention first. The stories give the dish context; the recipe gives you somewhere to start.
A personal interpretation, honestly described. These are recipes from my own kitchen, informed by family memories and travel. When a restaurant inspires a dish, I say so. Inspiration is different from having the chef’s original recipe, and I want that distinction to stay clear.
The meal is only part of the story
A restaurant can introduce me to a flavor I haven’t considered. A market can make me change what I was planning to cook. A familiar family dish can remind me why I enjoyed being in the kitchen in the first place. There is room for all of those influences here.
For the experiences that happen before I get home, explore my destination guides and latest food and travel stories. They give the recipes a wider context: the places, meals and discoveries that keep me curious.
And if you make something from this collection, I’d enjoy hearing how it went. You can find me on Instagram at @Richard.Jarocki. A dish you enjoyed, a variation you tried or an ingredient I should explore could be the start of another good conversation about food.
From my kitchen
Latest travel-inspired recipes
Browse the recipe stories below for ingredients, directions and the experiences behind each dish.
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Filet Mignon Toast Recipe with Mushroom Duxelles and Black Garlic Aioli (Evvai-Inspired)
My Filet Mignon Toast Recipe There are meals you enjoy, and then there are meals that follow you home. When I dined at Evvai in São Paulo, one dish stayed in my mind long after the evening ended: an exceptionally balanced filet mignon toast. It was refined without feeling needlessly complicated, allowing the quality of…
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Ginger Lemon Branzino & Shrimp
A recipe inspired by travel, fresh ingredients, and bringing a little of Spain home. By Richard Jarocki Ginger Lemon Branzino & Shrimp I’m not a chef. I’ve never claimed to be one. I just genuinely enjoy cooking. Some of my earliest memories are standing in the kitchen with my grandparents, learning family recipes and seeing…
Beyond the recipe
From local markets to my kitchen
Markets are often one of my first stops when visiting a new destination. They offer an introduction to the ingredients, aromas and everyday food traditions that define a place. Looking at what people buy and cook can tell a different story from the one I find on a restaurant menu.
I look for the products local residents use, the spices vendors recommend and the seasonal ingredients appearing throughout the stalls. Fresh seafood, unfamiliar fruit, regional cheeses, handmade bread and locally grown herbs can all become the beginning of an idea.
Those experiences influence what I prepare when I return home. I may not have the same ingredients available, so I look for practical substitutes while keeping the flavor and character that caught my attention. The connection to the place matters, but so does making something I can enjoy in my own kitchen.
Cooking with Rich
A closer look at what’s cooking
These photographs show more of my home cooking, from pizza and grilled steaks to seafood, vegetables and slow-smoked pork. They are a look at the food itself, rather than a promise that every photograph has a published recipe.
Recipes built through personal experience
Food changes as it moves between families, regions and generations. My recipes reflect what I tasted, what I learned and how I interpreted those experiences at home. There is room for your own preferences too.
I develop dishes by tasting and adjusting along the way. Acidity can balance richness, fresh herbs can brighten a sauce and a change in texture can make a plate more interesting. Those small choices are part of what I enjoy about cooking.
Use the recipes as a starting point. Read the instructions, consider the ingredients you have and make thoughtful adjustments to the seasoning or finish. The idea is to find something you enjoy making and eating, while keeping a little of the original inspiration.
A little patience, a different result
The photographs below follow the cooking through another stage: spice-rubbed chickens on the smoker and pork shoulder as its exterior develops a darker bark. Seeing the food before, during and after cooking is part of the story.
Food that connects people and places
The best meals create connections. They remind me of the people I traveled with, the conversations around a table and the places I hope to visit again. Cooking is another way to keep those experiences close when I’m home.
Through Cooking with Rich, I want to share more than instructions. I want to share what sparked an idea and what made me want to cook it. Sometimes that starts with a restaurant worth traveling for. Sometimes it starts with something good at the market.
For the meals and places behind the recipes, explore my food and drink stories, destination guides and latest blog posts.
Let’s keep talking about food
Tried one of the recipes? Found an ingredient I should explore, or have a dish you think I’d enjoy? Send me a message on Instagram. I’d like to hear what you made and what you thought.
If you’re a fellow creator or a brand with a relevant food or travel idea, you can also explore the partnership page. A good collaboration starts with something that genuinely fits the way I cook, eat and travel.
The Instagram button opens @Richard.Jarocki. Tap Message on my profile to send me a DM.
Good food. A story behind it. Something worth sharing.