Greetings and welcome to Cookin' With Squirrl!

I am Squirrl. My real name, Adam McClintock, but I really do go by Squirrl in my everyday life. I have lived in Northern Virginia since 1991.

I am a father to my two sons Cameron and Austin.

I am a Marine Corps Veteran having served between 2002 and 2006 as an 0351 with 3/6 Weapons Company. I did 3 tours overseas in Djibouti Africa, Guantanamo Bay Cuba, and Afghanistan.

I have previously worked front of the house in chain restaurants waiting tables and bartending between 2000 and 2002. I owned and operated a BBQ business called “The Squirrl Pit” for 3 years between 2011 and 2014. In recent years I have shifted into more “cheffy” types of cooking. This started with a gift of a “Chefs Bootcamp” course at Cookology. This really sparked an interest in me for more involved food preparation. I began learning more techniques and trying some fancier plating on my own and thoroughly enjoyed the process. In 2018, I took some courses on Masterclass.com which I believe have really upped my game. First, a Gordon Ramsay course, then Thomas Keller, followed by Wolfgang Puck, pastries with Dominique Ansel, BBQ with Aaron Franklin, and Mexican Cooking with Gabriela Cámara. I continue to learn new techniques and experiment with new to me ingredients as often as possible. On the YouTube front, I am an avid follower of Andrew Rea from Binging with Babish, Chef John from Food Wishes, J. Kenji López-Alt, Alex French Guy Cooking, Robert Arrington from Deer Meat For Dinner, and all the peeps from Sorted Food. And one final special note I am local to and friends with Red from Red’s BBQ and Pizzeria. Or rather, I was but he off and moved to Ireland.

Now on to what I plan to share with you here. This will require a bit of back story. Since exiting active duty in the Marine Corps in 2006 my day job has consisted of some form of IT-related work, mostly operational support roles. While this is a good career it is no longer fulfilling to me and I have been looking for something to fill the void. In May of 2019 I was sitting in a hospital room with my ex-wife after her knee replacement surgery, pondering the direction of my life and what I could do that had some meaning. While I mulled this over I came to the realization that 2 things make me truly happy, cooking for people and helping people. This very same night I watched Andrew Rea’s first episode of “Being with Babish” for the first time.

The first episode was all about giving back to one of his long-time subscribers who was in need of a helping hand. This episode literally brought me to tears and inspired me to create the concept for this channel. And that concept is this. I want to combine my love for cooking and helping people. I will find someone who has a cause they wish to champion. Example causes could be a sick loved one or friend, maybe a Kickstarter for a project that will benefit other humans or animals, someone down on their luck, maybe a project like beautifying a neighborhood. Really anything that you can imagine as long as the cause is one to help someone who could use it. I will do a food interview with them. Find out their likes, dislikes, and things they have always wanted to try or are scared to try. I will take the information gathered in the food interview and develop a menu. I will then prepare the meal and serve it to them. During this meal, I will interview them about their cause and let them tell their story. After completing the meal I will ask them how my viewers can help and specifically how I can help. Maybe that’s money but it could just as easily be time, materials, items, knowledge, whatever they need. In the end, my entire goal is to feed someone a great meal, bring light to a good cause, and hopefully make the world a little bit better place.

Thank you for your time and I hope you will join me in making the world just a little better.