We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ciarra DeBritto. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ciarra below.

Ciarra, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

Cooking & food was a part of my life since I was a kid – my mom was always cooking, experimenting, and even having some of her own recipes published to major food outlets. Although I was young & rebellious and not immediately appreciative of those fundamentals at first, I learned to appreciate the bits I learned as I got older and began cooking my own meals.

When I was in college, it was nothing short of a rough time. But, one of the few things that brought me happiness at the time was watching reuploads on YouTube of Kitchen Nightmares, Hell’s Kitchen, and the like. I spent hours watching episodes of these shows, learning about the contestants and their dishes, how to prepare them, and how I could try to remake them at home.

I later graduated with an A.S. in Film Production & Technology and worked in the film industry as a freelancer in camera for about 5 or 6 years, but I always had a hole in my heart – I wanted to work more closely with food.

In 2020, when lockdown came into place, is when Crude Culinary came to fruition. My friends and I got together to make recipe videos and more, combining our love for the visual & culinary arts.

To take it a step further, I walked away from the film industry recently to pursue a position as a cook at No. 246 in Atlanta – an award winning Italian restaurant. In just 6 months, I have learned an incredible amount of technique and more finessed understanding of flavors and profiles, and I learn more every time I walk into a shift.

With these newly learned skills, I can tunnel them into our Crude Culinary project, adding to an endless cycle of tasty inspiration.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Food is a love language.

No matter your background, opinions, or otherwise, we can all sit down at a round table and appreciate some good food. This is a motive that drives us at Crude Culinary.

We aim to show viewers that no matter their experience (or lack thereof), you can take simple ingredients and make a damn good meal at home because you deserve it.

Beyond food, we showcase both classic & trending cocktails and break them down to easy step-by-step videos so you can make craft drinks at home as well.

So many dishes & drinks are brought to us at a restaurant with the curtain of deceit that they are impossible to make them yourself at home – but ultimately, that is not true.

We are no bullsh*t. We’re here to be real with you. We’re Crude Culinary.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part about being a creative, especially one integrated with food, is being able to share delicious experiences with friends & loved ones.

Whenever we shoot our videos, we are almost always left with an absurd amount of leftovers. From there, we text and reach out to our circle, and drop off goodies to whoever would like them.

Because really, how can you NOT make someone’s day with free food?

Even online, when people comment saying that they’re so excited to make our recipe, or that they’ve made it and it was delicious, puts us on cloud-9. Although we are in different regions, we were able to help share a delicious experience with someone else in the world.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson we all had to unlearn, especially when diving in head-first into Crude Culinary, is to stop giving a **** about what other people think about you. And, to be fair, this is a lesson we are still trying to unlearn every day!

The culinary world is a competitive one – someone always has a method or recipe on how to do something better, how to season something better, how to plate something better – and, most times, those avenues of criticism are appreciated as we all need to grow and learn.

However, there is a fine line between appreciating criticism, and allowing others to dictate how you cook, how you create your content, or how you combine ingredients for a cocktail.

Part of being a creative is, well, creating. It’s trial and error, its trying new things. Sometimes, at the end of the day, there’s no wrong answers. And that’s a message we try to hold onto.

Contact Info:

• Website: youtube.com/crudeculinary
• Instagram: @crudeculinary
• Facebook: facebook.com/crudeculinary
• Twitter: @crudeculinary
• Youtube: youtube.com/crudeculinary

Image Credits
Featured in the photos: Ciarra deBritto, Megan Kuiper, Naijah Ashbaugh