Living Independently - Cooking /W Bre | Tips & Tricks For Cooking Blind | Episode #13
Episode 13
Living Independently - Cooking /W Bre | Tips & Tricks For Cooking Blind
In this episode, we highlight one major challenge to living independently for the visually impaired, cooking. Bre has a particular interest in cooking and walks us through some of the challenges that she has overcome as a visually impaired person in the kitchen.
Regarding working in the kitchen, Bre prefers baking over other methods. Here's a short excerpt from this episode:
"...one of my favorite tools that I have are the large print measuring cups. These measuring cups are high contrast and have something on the handle part that's tactile, with a little bit of braille on it."
This episode is packed with all kinds of special tips and tricks for visually impaired people that are getting ready to start learning more about living independently!
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0:00:09.0 Nicole Giudici: Welcome back to our Through Our Eyes podcast, sponsored by the Pediatric Retinal Research Foundation. I am Nicole Giudici and tonight we have with us another one of our podcast members, Bre, who has a special interest in cooking and is going to walk us through some of the challenges that she has overcome as a visually impaired person with cooking. Bre?
0:00:29.9 Bre: Yeah.
[laughter]
0:00:31.9 Dr. Droste: What is your favorite dish to cook, Bre?
0:00:35.6 Bre: As far as cooking goes, yeah, I'm... Any sort of food I guess, I'm willing to try it. There are definitely certain things that... I'm definitely a better baker than I am a cook, but I think that's just personal preference. Maybe it's just 'cause I have a sweet tooth. I'm not sure. [laughter]
0:00:56.0 DD: But why do you... Is baking conceptually easier for you to do than, for example, putting together a salad or making spaghetti or?
0:01:07.4 Bre: I don't think it's easier. I feel like with cooking, it's less precise I guess. Like you're able to eyeball if you have to put in spices and stuff like that. Whereas when you're baking, it's more like you have to put in half a teaspoon of this or a tablespoon of that. I have a lot of tools that have helped me be able to especially do it on my own. One of my favorite tools that I have are... They're large print measuring cups. So I have large print measuring cups and they're high contrast and they're also on the handle part is tactile and there's a little bit of braille on it. So that has definitely helped me tremendously as far as being more independent, especially since I won't have to rely on my phone to look through the drawer and then be like, "Oh, is this a tablespoon or a teaspoon? Let me grab my phone and take a picture of it and double-check."
0:02:05.0 Bre: So that has definitely helped me a lot. I'm trying to think. As far as like chopping things, I have... Luckily I have a little bit of sight left, so I have a cutting board that has black on one side and white on the other. So if I have to cut things like an onion that's white on white, that wouldn't work very well. So it would just be white on black kind of thing. So that's definitely helped out a lot. And a lot of it is just trial and error. Starting out, I wasn't good at all. I took Home Economics in high school for 12 weeks maybe and that's really where I really started to learn how to cook I guess. And that's where I found that I really enjoy cooking and baking and everything.
0:02:56.6 DD: And I think that's really, really good. Dr. Droste isn't very good at cooking.
0:03:02.2 Bre: I know.
0:03:02.6 DD: My wife will be the first one to tell you that. I love to deep fry turkeys and put them in big pots with peanut oil and cook them.
0:03:16.1 Bre: I hear that's pretty dangerous. Can't you like blow up?
0:03:20.2 DD: It really isn't, it really isn't dangerous, and... But that is about that and along with grilling are about my only things that I can do, but I kind of have a passion for those things. I mean, I just always try to make it better. How about your passion? You kind of gave us an idea how it started, but is there something that you're just really passionate about cooking or preparing as opposed to some other things? In other words, if the King of England and his... Were coming to your place, what would you cook for them?
0:03:53.4 Bre: Oh boy, that's a... Wow. I mean, probably something somewhat that I can't really mess up a whole lot as far as like meats and everything. Definitely I have a harder time cooking meats. I can't grill because I feel like grilling is a lot more visual. But I do have a talking meat thermometer, which is super nice. I mean, my fiance uses it when he is cooking chicken and stuff. So it's not just for the blind people. [laughter] So probably just like chicken and potatoes 'cause those are easy. Like I said, I'm definitely more of a baker. I like making cheesecakes, brownies, cookies. One of my favorite things to do is do like tie-dye cupcakes with the different colored frosting in a piping bag. But that, yeah, I think a lot of that has to do with just me liking sweets a lot better than meat. [laughter] So I think that definitely is a bigger reason why I like to bake more than cook.
0:05:00.8 DD: Now when it comes to baking and cooking, you have to get your materials, right?
0:05:06.3 Bre: Mm-hmm.
0:05:07.5 DD: Do you do the shopping yourself or do you do it with a family member? Or do you have a friend that takes you to the store? How do you do that and how do you execute your list of ingredients?
0:05:21.7 Bre: Well, luckily, one good thing out of COVID I guess that we got was definitely the Instacart shopping. You go, you order what you need online and then you can either go and pick it up in store or you can have them drop it off to your house. [laughter] Yeah. But I mean, shopping is like a whole nother thing to tackle. Shopping is probably one of the hardest things I have to do, especially even with I'm with other people 'cause I like to be very independent. So I'll look for something and whoever I'm with whether it's my friend or my grandmother or my mom, and so they'd be like, "What are you looking for?" I'd be like, "I will find it. Give me two seconds." Meanwhile, I'm 2 inches away from the thing I'm trying to find. So I have to rely on other people for the most part. I mean, luckily, we have just a regular Walmart. We don't have a supercenter or anything like that, so it's not like it's a massive store. I know things change a lot, but for the most part, they stay pretty consistent as far as what aisle is which. As far as where it is in the aisle, that's a whole nother thing.
[laughter]
0:06:38.2 Bre: But for the most part, yeah, I go with other people. I'll make a list on my phone and the notes they have, it's really nice, so you can make like checklists and check things off as you go. So I'll make the list and be like, "Okay, this is what we need. I guess you have to help me find what I need."
[laughter]
0:06:58.7 DD: Okay. So now let's say you successfully have got all the materials that you want to just make your favorite pastry, for example. How do you go from the concept and the recipe to organizing your pots and your pans, working with the stove in a safe fashion? Do you set things all up in a meticulous way or do you just kind of reach down and grab things and go one at a time? How do you do that?
0:07:36.1 Bre: So hypothetically, like in an ideal world, I would set everything up and have everything out all at once. I do that for the most part. There's obviously little things I'd be like, "Oh, gotta go find that, 'cause I forgot to put it out." But for the most part, I try to have everything laid out in front of me as far as dry ingredients are here, wet ingredients are here and then I have measuring cups and stuff like that in one spot. And then mixing bowls and a KitchenAid and stuff like that. So everything has its place for the most part. Obviously there's... Every once in a while, you kind of be like, "Oh, I need that." But for the most part, yeah, everything has a spot. I pull the recipe if I'm following a recipe up on my phone, and hopefully it's accessible and it works with voiceover. If not, I take a screenshot and Zoom it in really big so I can try to read it off of the phone.
[laughter]
0:08:40.0 DD: All right. So you answered the next question. How do you keep on track? How do you remember if it's one and three quarters cup of fresh olive oil or something else as opposed to three quarters of a cup? So you just explained it, you keep your phone nearby, correct?
0:09:01.2 Bre: Yeah. I mean, and usually there's someone in the house whether it'd be my sisters or one of my family members and be like, if I need them, I'll resort to... If I don't have any other choice, I'll resort to them coming over to help me. But like I said, for the most part, I try to be independent, especially because I do enjoy baking so much and especially because it's something I can do by myself. So I try to do it by myself for the most part.
[laughter]
0:09:28.9 DD: All right. So let's go then one step further. Now, let's just say you just get a phone call from the chief aide-de-camp of Prince, actually now King Charles, and then they say, "King Charles will come and visit you in one-half hour."
0:09:46.2 Bre: Oh boy.
0:09:48.6 DD: And what would you do?
0:09:49.5 Bre: Oh boy. Freak out probably a little bit 'cause my house is probably a disaster. What can I bake in a half hour? Cookies probably, simple something.
0:10:01.4 DD: Okay. Yeah. What kind of cookies? Brownies, chocolate chips?
0:10:05.4 Bre: Actually I'd probably make Oreo balls 'cause those are pretty simple and those don't take super long to make. And I always have cream cheese and Oreos in my house. Who doesn't?
[laughter]
0:10:15.7 DD: Okay. And then what else would you do? What would you serve them on?
0:10:20.5 Bre: Oreo balls?
0:10:23.2 DD: Yeah.
0:10:24.4 Bre: On like a plate.
[laughter]
0:10:26.3 DD: Well, can you make the plate appetizing? Remember presentation is important. What would you do to make it good?
0:10:32.3 Bre: Oh boy, so I'd... You gotta make the Oreo balls and then you gotta let them... And stick them in the freezer. So hopefully they would freeze really well and stay together. [laughter] And then I'd get really fancy and put them on a nice plate that I have, a nice dinner plate. And then I'd melt some chocolate that I have leftover and drizzle it over the top. I don't know. Probably find some mint leaves or something. Make it look like I know what I'm doing.
0:11:00.2 DD: Well, it sounds to me like you've done a really good job.
[laughter]
0:11:03.5 DD: And then when he rings the door and he comes in, I think he'll be really excited.
[laughter]
0:11:08.6 Bre: For my Oreo balls. Yes.
[laughter]
0:11:10.6 DD: Great going. Alright. Now how about some advice on learning how to cook if you have low vision?
0:11:19.1 Bre: Definitely a lot of trial and error. Reach out to your local commission for the blind. They have a lot of tools that you wouldn't have never thought that they have. They gave me this stone. It's kind of like... I thought it was a stone at first and I had no idea what it was, but apparently it's something you put in like a pot of water when you boil it and when the water starts to boil, it's like a little glass. I don't know. It looks like a little glass stone. And when the water starts to boil, it'll rattle. And I was like, that is awesome. For the most part, I can hear if something... Like if water's boiling, I'm pretty good at hearing it. But for someone who's just starting out, like that is incredible.
0:12:11.5 Bre: And like a water level measurer thing, I don't know what it's called, but you put it on... If you have to use a measuring cup, you put it on the side of it and it'll beep when it gets to... You set it. So you want like a half a cup, so you put it on the side of the thing and it'll beep when it hits half a cup, which I find it incredibly useful especially because you gotta... Like in high school chemistry class, you gotta squat down and make sure you're looking at the right line and everything. So just like little things like that are so useful. And then just like little things like the cutting board and just little random things that I would've never ever thought about they have. And it's been incredible, like life changing.
[laughter]
0:13:04.1 DD: Well, that's... I'm glad you shared that story with us because I would not have known that. Do you take special precautions when you use knives to cut things, whether they'd be pastries or whether they'd be brownies, or whether they'd be meats?
0:13:24.0 Bre: Absolutely.
0:13:25.2 DD: How do you handle your knives?
0:13:26.5 Bre: I make people nervous because... Obviously, you're gonna make people nervous. Be like, a blind person with a knife, I feel like that would make a lot of people nervous. But a lot of it is just you go slow at first to make sure... I usually... If I'm cutting like a cucumber or something, I'll make sure my fingertips are at the edge, and then I'll slowly find the edge of where the cucumber is with the knife. And then I'll move my fingers that are on top a little bit back, and then go down the line. That way it's super slow, but I haven't lost any fingers yet.
0:14:03.8 DD: It's safe, it's safe. Yeah.
0:14:06.5 Bre: Yes.
0:14:06.6 DD: So that's...
0:14:06.9 Bre: And I'm sure... Amazon or something, I'm sure they have special fancy knife tools or something like that. But for me, it works. It just takes a little bit.
0:14:20.5 DD: Okay. So let's go one step further. Now you have prepared your meal, you've got a dessert and you are ready to serve. How do you set your table? How do you order things without them falling off the table or being out of order?
0:14:45.7 Bre: In my house, we kind of just eat out of the... We don't really serve, but I have served before kind of where you bring it to the table just slow. I have a lot of issues when I'm walking. I've noticed especially if I'm holding a cup of water or some other drink, that I have a lot of issues with keeping it level. I don't know if this is just a me thing or if this is like a blind thing. I'm not sure, but I have a lot of trouble keeping the water in the glass. Like I'll hold it kind of tilted a little bit. But like I said, just slow and you make... You spill a little bit, the dog will lick it up or something.
0:15:24.2 DD: Do you have a method in your mind? Like for example, the cup goes always to the upper right corner, the glass goes the upper right corner and the silverware to the left. Do you have that algorithm down?
0:15:38.2 Bre: So not for me particularly just because I do have vision left. If it's like a glass, cup or something like that, usually it's always on my left in the top just so I don't knock it over or anything like that. Yeah, that's really about it. I know I have some issues with cutting things, but that's just... Yeah, like cutting steaks and stuff, that's just again, trial and error. You just kind of...
0:16:06.3 DD: That's a challenge for a sighted person.
0:16:08.5 Bre: Yeah. [laughter]
0:16:09.3 DD: I remember once I've cut a steak and have it go right off the plate onto my lap.
0:16:16.5 Bre: Obviously I have people that if I was to ask, be like, "Oh, can you cut this for me?" And sometimes it's just easier to be like, "Can you cut this for me?" So that way I'm not over here for a half hour trying to eat those.
[chuckle]
0:16:28.1 DD: Now let's just go back to where you got your passion to do this at Home Economics. Let's put it in perspective. How much vision did you have at that time?
0:16:38.8 Bre: At that point, I probably was 20, 60-ish. So usable vision, not great vision, but usable.
0:16:48.7 DD: And did you develop some of your skills and let's say the habits of cooking during that time?
0:16:55.6 Bre: Definitely. Especially the knife, like cutting things, obviously I wasn't able to do it like "normal people" do it. And I use my hands a lot, especially if I am cooking and I need spices. Usually if I have to salt and pepper things, instead of dumping it directly into the pot, I would dump it in my hand so that way I could feel.
0:17:22.0 DD: You could feel it.
0:17:22.7 Bre: Yeah.
0:17:22.9 DD: You could feel it.
0:17:24.7 Bre: And that has... That is something I've always done just 'cause I don't know if I trust myself to. I'd end up with the whole pepper shaker in that.
0:17:33.7 DD: That's a very good... That's a very, very good tip. Now my wife is a real cooking aficionado and she's Italian, so it's kind of in the genes. So she watches a lot of TV, a lot of the cooking shows. And about a year ago, there was a show there where there was a visually impaired contestant...
0:18:07.9 Bre: Oh, that's awesome.
0:18:09.2 DD: Competing with the non-visually impaired contestants. And she won.
0:18:18.5 Bre: That's awesome.
0:18:19.5 DD: She won. And I remember I watched it. I'm sorry I don't remember her name, but she told her story and her story was a lot like yours. She started cooking when she did have sight. She developed habits and she kept those habits when the sight left. And when you watched her on the show, you could see that she... When she started it, she had everything organized where other people had it all over the place and she meticulously put the product she was putting together. Then she used, I use the term instruments, but she used silverware to cut it and things. And it was amazing just to watch how she did that.
0:19:11.2 Bre: Yeah. It just goes to show you that you can... Don't let anything hold you back. You can do anything you want.
0:19:18.2 DD: And that's exactly right. Don't let anything hold you back. And maybe one last question I have is, do you get anything out of the cooking shows? Are they helpful for you like they were for her?
0:19:34.3 Bre: Yeah, I say I get inspiration from them, especially mostly it's social media. You have the two-minute TikToks that you watch and you're like, "Oh, that looks really good." The biggest issue I have with using things like Facebook and stuff like that is half the times they don't say what the ingredient is. So they just show the picture of it really quick. But it's like, what is that? Is that salt? Is that sugar? [chuckle] What is it?
0:20:04.9 DD: Yeah.
0:20:05.5 Bre: So that's probably the most annoying thing about it but...
0:20:10.3 DD: I remember one time I grabbed a shaker and I thought it was salt and it was fully sugar.
0:20:16.3 Bre: Oh no. [chuckle]
0:20:17.1 DD: And I turned it over and all this stuff came on. Oh my god. I didn't even realize it when I was shaking it, but then when I ate it, it just exploded.
[laughter]
0:20:29.7 DD: So anyhow, I would really like to thank you for taking the time to share your passion with us and how you've been able to succeed in such a high fashion with your visual impairment. And I hope you're an inspiration for others. And would it be alright if others contacted you via the website?
0:20:51.5 Bre: Absolutely.
0:20:52.7 DD: Alright. So okay. I don't see Nicole. I think she had an emergency. So on behalf of the PA Retinal Research Foundation and Through Our Eyes podcast, thank you for spending time with us tonight, Bre, and we'll see you soon.
0:21:08.9 Bre: Awesome.
0:21:11.3 DD: The podcast is called Through Our Eyes. Make sure to like and follow our Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok and let us know whether you have any questions or have a topic you would like us to cover. We have tremendous things planned and we hope you tune in again for our next podcast. This is Dr. Droste saying night to all of you. On behalf of our staff, the PRRF, thank you.