Me

Hagan BlountHi there, I’m Hagan Blount. That link goes to my personal website.

I used to have this prophetic, new age, follow-your-dreams thing in this section. It was me trying to sound like a writer instead of speaking from within, so I’m fixing that. This is me, straight from the gut.

Really, I’m just a guy with a discerning palate and a penchant for adventure (whose mom told him he could write and people would read it). I’ve been dreaming up and writing about adventures since age four. After a buddhist retreat in 2009, I finally came to the understanding that my calling is to keep telling my story to the world and pray to God (or whoever Buddhists pray to) that I make enough money to keep telling it.

I saw the movie “Up” recently and it really resonated with me. If you haven’t seen it, the motivating value of the story is fulfillment of the desire for adventure, demonstrated by a dream book that we see recorded up to their ultimate dream; a trip to South America. The protagonist is jolted from the rigors of his daily life by his wife’s passing, gets up the nerve to go on the adventure, and opens the book again at the end of the story. Flipping past the page of their dream, he sees that everyday life with her husband was all the adventure that she needed.

To me, the thought of dying without living my dreams opened a pit at the bottom of my stomach that stayed for a good five minutes. I paused the movie and let myself dwell on what it would be like not to achieve my life’s purpose. It was the first time a movie made me cry since I broke up with a college girlfriend and watched “What Dreams May Come.” It was a helpful awakening.

As far as my culinary proclivities go, I have had a keen interest in food writing since I began relying on the Zagat guide over the course of an internship 1999. I picked up the NYC issue and explored the gastronomic niceties of the ante Ground Zero Gotham.

Moving to Brooklyn, I was completely out of cash. I didn’t know anyone, and I was too proud to ask my parents for money. I had four boxes of macaroni and cheese to last for the long Fourth of July weekend. On Monday, I boiled my last box of macaroni and cheese, drained it, threw the butter and powdered cheese in and grabbed the milk from the fridge. As the milk poured into the macaroni in clumps, as starved as I was, I ate it. It was at that point that I vowed never to let myself eat so poorly again in my life.

Since then, I’ve spent some of the most exciting nights of my life in the best restaurants in the world. I’ve had duck in Beijing, chocolate in Switzerland, Irish Breakfast in Dublin, homemade tortillas and roast chicken spanning the entirety of Central America, and the best pizza on Earth from Chicago to New York City, just to name a handful of my bucket list meals.

Combining my fearlessness (some would say carelessness) and love for adventure, travel, and food, I am a wandering foodie.

Hagan Blount, Culinary Adventurer

Twitter: H18
Facebook: Hagan
E-Mail: IAm ( at ) HaganBlount (dot) com

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

Mara November 8, 2010 at 8:35 pm

Hey there,

I ran into Kathleen Summers (Glenn’s fiancee, a fact you probably already know) at our 10-year high school reunion. After talking about a bakery blog I just started, she told me I should check out your blog. Very cool man. I’m kind of jealous!

Any tips for a beginner blogger like myself?

Reply

Hagan November 9, 2010 at 8:26 am

Take me out for a tasting to do a cross post! ;-)

Seriously, though – I think the best way to get your site more popular is to make sure everyone knows about it. If you take other bloggers out and interact with them, then you’ll get trackbacks to your site, their readers will check you out and start to love you. Your fellow bloggers are your friends, not your competition.

Also, get a domain name! If you don’t get one now, you’ll want one later, and then it will be too late to change.

But for reals, I’ll come out with you to a bakery anytime!

Reply

Paul Tuorto November 23, 2010 at 10:00 am

Hi Hagan,

My dad sent me your blog after explaining he’s recently sent you a shipment of Vesta. Stoked you like it. I’m really digging your food blog and thought I’d share mine with you as well: http://www.paultuorto.com/giustogusto. Hope you enjoy it and let us know when you need more Vesta! Cheers,

Paul Tuorto

Reply

Hagan November 25, 2010 at 5:00 pm

Nice site! Cool layout!

Reply

Matt Trifiro December 16, 2011 at 3:28 pm

I love this bio. I am glad I never saw the “new age” version ;-) Rock on, Hagan.

Reply

Rachna January 6, 2012 at 10:00 am

Hi,

This is a really good website to share with foodies. I would like to share it with the readers of my travel blog. Please send me an email so that we can discuss about it.

Thanks,
Rachna

Reply

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