Introduction to Chef Dee

written by

Jazmin Brown

posted on

October 30, 2018

I am Chef Dee Quinnett and let me introduce you to my oldest grandchild Lucas.  He was working like a trooper in the restaurant kitchen!


After working as a Paramedic in Southwestern North Dakota it was time for a change!  I did the scariest thing I have ever done.  I went to Chef School!  I attended The International School of Culinary at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh.  I graduated in 2013 with a Bachelor Degree in Culinary Management with a minor in Culinary Arts.  I did my internship at Medora and fulfilled my Senior Project by spending a month in Armenia.  I spent 2 years working in a Scandinavian restaurant in Karlstad Minnesota.  I am currently teaching Culinary and Restaurant management for North West Area Schools located in South Dakota. I work in a mobile classroom that moves every semester to serve another school in the eight school system.  My classroom is set up like a restaurant kitchen and could be licensed to serve food to the public.


I am honored to be coming up with recipes for Nourished by Nature!

More from the blog

Pasture Raised Pork Lard vs. Crisco

Pasture Raised Pork Lard vs. Crisco

I have to admit, I was one of those kids who was raised on margarine.  I was raised on the belief that using animal intestines for sausage casings was disgusting and I needed to make sure the frijoles at the Mexican restaurants were lard free because lard will make me fat and shouldn’t be eaten.  As a kid, you don’t really question these things, you just accept them as your parents instruct you to and carry on. Well, things started to change for me when I came to Brown’s Ranch and heard a different story for the first time.  It is actually honoring the animal to use every part of it, including the intestines and all. Why wouldn’t you want to use as much of the animal as possible if the rest of it is being used already?  Also, I learned that how the animal was raised also plays a huge part in the nutritional value of the meat. Grassfed beef is completely different from grain fed in so many more ways than I could ever imagine.  The same goes for pork raised on pasture and everything else we grow on our farm. Here’s the link to a blog that Paul wrote about the pigs on pasture a few years ago that you might find entertaining. If you want to read about our fatty acid profile testing as well, you can follow this link. As we head into the holiday baking season, I wanted to share a quick comparison of our pastured pork lard to Crisco, the most commonly used vegetable shortening in baking. If you think about it, soybean oil and palm oil are naturally liquid at room temperature. That's why they're called oils. So why is Crisco a solid at room temp? Well it's because of the hydrogenation that's done which creates trans fats that are completely unnatural and something that our bodies don't know what to do with; causing inflammation. *More about TBHQ: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved TBHQ as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS). However, some research suggests that long-term exposure to high doses of TBHQ can have negative health effects, including:  Cytotoxic effects Genotoxic effects Carcinogenic effects Mutagenic effects **Source for this: https://www.nourishedwithnatur... Will you stand with us to create a Crisco free holiday season this year? Order your Pastured Pork Lard instead! Completely rendered and ready to use. Just keep it in the fridge for convenient usage.  Sidenote: Refried beans made with lard are THE BEST. Traditional Mexican cuisine typically still uses pork lard because of its high smoke point, superior texture and flavor, and overall superior versatility to any other cooking oil.  

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