I was born and raised in Pontiac, Michigan. The food obsession probably started with my dad, a WWII veteran who served in the South Pacific. The war travel opened his eyes to food of the world, which he passed on to me in my youth. My mom was a simple, but excellent Southern cook and the nightly dinner table was carried on without exception.

Sundays were a special day, usually starting with a large southern brunch and ending with a special supper that night. That special dinner could be 1960’s style lasagna, chicken and slickers, maybe pork chops that in 1960’s style were cooked to death, but still tasty. Lawry’s seasoned salt was the flavor of my childhood.

My folks had many ethnic friends, who visited often and often brought ethnic food with them. I remember being proud when I was a kid that I could say ‘Stuffed Cabbage” in 5 languages.

My folks died young when I was 15, and my only remaining relative, my sister, moved to New Mexico 2 years later. For 2 years I ate at The Rams Horn diner, fish and chips. Two things happened, I got sick of fish and chips, and I ran out of money.

So, I started cooking. The first thing I made was fried rice. Then battered and fried mushrooms. My friends started commenting on how they liked my early experiments and I was hooked for life.

“Wok with Yan” by Martin Yan was my first cookbook and started my collection. When the restaurant burnt down, I lost over 700 cookbooks from all over the world. I’ve always gone in waves of certain cuisines. When I emerge myself into a cuisine, I fill the pantry with everything I would need as if I was a home cook of that ethnicity.

In 1994 my wife Morgan and I were married and relocated to a small farm in Owosso, MI.

Over the years I’ve explored Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Balkan, Carribean, American Regional, Eastern European, Greek, Irish, Peruvian, and African (one of my faves) cuisines, with too many others to mention. New Mexican cooking was one that stuck longer than some others, and New Mexican Red Chile powder is an ingredient prevalent throughout my recipes. My favorite chef currently is Yotam Ottolenghi.

In 2012, I was 56 years old there was a local Pizzeria that I thought was struggling. I called the owner of the building and told him “When they go down, let me know, I may be interested in your building.” He asked, “What makes you think they will go down?” I said, “I had their pizza.”

Two weeks later he called and told me they were out of business. Morgan and I bought the building. It took about 6 months to build out the kitchen. We settled on a New Orleans theme, because I love New Orleans food, and I could stick much of my world cuisine under its umbrella. I was told a New Orleans style restaurant would never make it in a Mid-Michigan small town. We became one of the busiest destination restaurants in the state, booked weeks in advance for most of our run.

I served as Executive Chef, creating all the recipes, training the line cooks and getting ready to open. We opened June 1st, 2013, and were an instant success. It was a great run, we were named “Best Restaurant in Detroit and Southeast Michigan 7 times, by Open Table, Michigan’s Best Fried Chicken, by MLive, Best Fried Chicken in America, by Eat This Not That, were featured in Hour Detroit Magazine and many, many other awards!

In 2017 we expanded into an adjacent building and opened Lily’s Pearls Lounge, named Best Bar in Detroit and Southern Michigan by Open Table, and had top musicians from all over the world bless our stage.

Around midnight December 22, 2021, we received the call that the restaurant was on fire. All was lost and we made the decision to not rebuild. Every day since, my daily exploration of food continues and can be witnessed by visiting YouTube.com/scatchcookwithjohn .