South student embraces a passion for cooking

Delaney Jackson, Features Editor

Many students at South have special talents, but not many know what theirs is in high school. Sophomore Dane Workman found his talent early.

Workman started recording himself cooking around three weeks ago. Workman explains how he got into cooking.

“Chef Sloppy Dane is different than just Sloppy Dane. I come to school every day, and I’m just Sloppy Dane. Everyone knows me as Sloppy Dane at school. But when I go home at night, I put on my sunglasses and I become Chef Sloppy Dane. I hit up the kitchen and I make good food for all my loving fans, and I give them pro chef tips on how to add more soul and more flavor into their own food,” Workman said.

At first, he just did it on his Snapchat as something to be funny. People started telling him it was really funny, and he figured out that his food was actually pretty good, so he started doing it every night.

“The first dish I made was noodles. I was just cooking some noodles and I was like ‘I should be a chef’, so I threw on some sunglasses and started recording myself cooking.Those are my signature noodles now. People thought it was funny, so I decided I would do it every day,” Workman said.

Now, he cooks something every night and puts it on his Snapchat story. Workman makes many different things. He says he likes to make Italian and soul-food the best. He explains what soul-food is to him.

“My number one tip of advice to everyone cooking is to put a lot of soul into their food, and to never go light on the spice. All the spices you have, you have to put it in the dish. Flavor is everything, I don’t care about texture or if it’s healthy, although unhealthy is better because it usually has better flavor. It’s always about the spice. Get the most spice you can get into your dish,” Workman said.

Other advice he has for aspiring chefs is that everything is a skillet.

“Everything in the kitchen is a skillet, everything. That’s the number one thing you need to know to be a chef, everything is a skillet.  And only use the freshest of ingriedents when you’re cooking. Get the freshest ingredients you have, put it in the skillet, put all the spices you have into the skillet as well, and that’s what makes a good dish,” Workman said.

Workman thinks that he might do holiday specials, but he isn’t quite sure yet.

“I should make turkeys on Christmas, or I could do something for Valentine’s Day maybe, I don’t know yet,” Workman said.

Workman has been cooking for a while, but he only started recording it during Christmas break. Many people may be wondering why it is “Chef Sloppy Dane”, and where the sloppy came from. Workman explains where he got the inspiration for “Sloppy.”

“It all started this summer when I was at a restaurant, and I saw on the menu there was a Sloppy Joe. And I thought to myself ‘Who is this Joe guy? How come he gets all the fame? If I make a Sloppy Joe, why can’t I call it a Sloppy Dane?’, and that’s where the name comes from,” Workman said.

Workman works very hard on his food, and practices his cooking everyday. While his favorite dishes are Italian and soul-food, he cooks many other things as well.

If you would like to see Chef Sloppy Dane cooking in action, you can add him on Snapchat    @danecw146 for daily cooking videos and entertainment.