🥔 Food People, Parent Picks: Justin's Favorite Things
Justin Burke on pantry staples that quietly become dinner, the cooking skill Schitt's Creek taught us, and why store-bought puff pastry is more than fine by him.
Food People, Parent Picks: we ask our favorite chefs, food writers, and industry insiders who we interview in our Order Up! Series to share the products, books, and bites they can’t live without.
🥔 One Potato is a reader-supported newsletter — Subscribe to receive our Order Up! interviews and our Food People, Parent Picks series weekly.
Earlier this week, we kicked off Pride Month with our Order Up! conversation with Justin Burke — pastry chef, queer food writer, and proud One Potato dad. We talked about the ten-year fight to publish Potluck Desserts: Joyful Recipes to Share with Pride [Bookshop, Amazon], the queer potlucks that carried him into chosen family, and the loaf-pan dessert his almost-eight-year-old son Jasper invented that ended up saving the book. Families come in all shapes, sizes, and colors — and if you haven’t read that interview yet, this is your sign to go read it now. [Click here!]
Today, we’re getting practical. Justin’s running down his three pantry staples, the kitchen tool he’s still trying to convince everyone they need, and the trendy ingredient he politely wishes we’d all stop buying. Plus the cookbooks, snacks, and store-bought shortcuts earning their keep in his big, gay, happy kitchen.
Three pantry or fridge staples you always keep on hand?
Whole-fat Greek yogurt, cornmeal, and buttermilk. Always. Living in the South means there’s always buttermilk in the fridge. With those three things, I can almost always pull something together — pancakes, biscuits, a cornmeal griddle situation.
The weeknight dinner currently on repeat?
Saucy rice. I love saucy rice. I think it has to have a real name, but in our house it’s the same idea every time: shaved pork or beef, Korean barbecue spices and sauce, rice, scallions, sesame. It’s never exactly the same thing twice, but it’s the same kind of thing — and it’s my comfort food.
A dessert every parent should have in their back pocket?
A layered pudding dessert. Some people call them “delights,” some call them “yum yums,” some call them “lushes.” I have three in the cookbook: Malt Chocolate Delight, Pistachio Delight, and Blackberry Yum Yum.
The bones are simple: pudding (boxed or scratch — I’m not judging), graham cracker crust, fresh whipped cream or Cool Whip, layered in a casserole dish or individual cups. Kids can help. It teaches patience because the whole thing has to chill. They get to lick the spoon. Done and done.
A store-bought shortcut you’re not embarrassed about?
Puff pastry. I had to make it in restaurants. I am not making it at home. Store-bought is more than good enough.
The kitchen tool earning its counter space?
A juicer. I just got one this Christmas, and it’s pulling its weight in more ways than I expected. Obviously you can make juice and drink it.
But you can also cook with it — I make carrots braised in their own juices, which is just carrots on carrots and it’s wonderful. For desserts, a juicer does a lot. I think we need more juicer education in general.
A cookbook (besides yours) you turn to?
Two. Eric Kim’s Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home [Bookshop, Amazon] for inspiration — he’s a real storyteller. That book taught me what it looks like to tell a story through food.
And Casey Elsass’s What Can I Bring?: Recipes to Help You Live Your Guest Life [Bookshop, Amazon] for midweek, in-a-pinch cooking. Casey co-wrote about twenty cookbooks before his own came out in 2025, the same year as mine. His recipes are real. Real food, real approach, and you’ll learn from them.
Jasper’s after-school snack that prevents a meltdown?
Moon Pies. He’s such a little Southerner. He’ll come home and ask, “Where’s my Moon Pie?” If it’s not a Moon Pie, it’s potato chips. He’s easy.
A comfort dessert for when Louis or Jasper has had a hard day?
Yellow cake with chocolate frosting. That’s the one. Every time.
A trendy baking ingredient nervous bakers do not need?
Dubai chocolate. I’ll get hate mail for this. I don’t hate it. But it has become the new pumpkin spice — and not everything needs to be it.
A pistachio cake with chocolate frosting is a pistachio cake with chocolate frosting. We don’t have to pay $25 a chunk to feel like it’s special.
The one thing a first-time nervous baker should stock before they even pick out a recipe?
Butter. Good butter. Both salted and unsalted. You don’t need more than that to start.
A make-ahead, freezer-friendly dessert worth keeping on hand?
Cookie dough, portioned and frozen, so you can bake off as many or as few as you want.
Cookie bars: bake, slice, freeze.
Icebox cakes: freeze whole, then let them come to temp. All of it travels from freezer to table with very little fuss.