For Aidan McFarlane, cooking is an act of love.
From pies to lamb chops, the 21-year-old Wilkes-Barre resident wants his cooking to do more than satisfy appetites. He wants it to nourish souls and foster community.
“When you cook for other people, I feel like it brings them together,” he said. “It creates conversations, and it puts smiles on people's faces, and that's what it's all about, in my eyes. If someone's having a bad day, you could always make them a dish, and then they could smile after. And that's what I believe in.”
Lights twinkle in his family’s South Wilkes-Barre home. Louis, a rescue dog, snuggles in pajamas. Wrapped gifts sit under the Christmas tree. Aidan sets the ingredients for sweet potato pie on his late grandmother’s cutting board. Rosalie Fendrock died two years ago.
“I love baking because it brings back those memories for me,” Aidan said as he peeled roasted sweet potatoes and placed them in the blender. “Sometimes when I cook some of the things that she's made for us in the past ... it's like she's still sitting at the table.”
Early interest in cooking
Aidan showed an interest in food and cooking as a young child. Instead of watching typical children's shows, he watched the Food Network.
“I always say that my superheroes weren't the people on TV like in those cartoon shows, It was always the chefs on TV,” he said.
His mother, Diane, encouraged the young chef. At the age of 11, he appeared on Food Network’s “Chopped Junior.” Judges cut him during the second round, calling the cooking of his skirt steak “inconsistent.” He lost the show but found a passion for cooking in front of a camera.
Aidan graduated this month with his bachelor’s degree from Point Park University in Pittsburgh, where he also played soccer. He majored in business management, minored in hospitality and starts a master of business administration program next month.
Back home on break, he often takes over responsibilities in the kitchen. His mom; his dad, Courtney; and his older sister, Lydia, a reporter with WVIA News, benefit from Aidan’s ambition. He plans to make seafood Alfredo on Christmas Eve and prime rib or lamb chops on Christmas Day. He also makes desserts for Orthodox Christmas, which the family celebrates.
“I feel like when I cook, you kind of feel how much I love and how much love goes into that food as well,” he said.
He hopes to one day have his own cooking show and to also own a restaurant — one with his last name.
“People would say, ‘Oh, let's go to McFarlane’s, and they already know what food is served there, and they know that they're going to be respected and well treated at that restaurant.’”
Sweet potato pie memories
Before Thanksgiving and Christmas, Aidan is often in the kitchen, baking pies for family and friends. One of his favorites to bake, and to eat, is sweet potato pie.
In second grade at Wilkes-Barre Academy, teacher Jean Semcheski read a story about sweet potato pie and brought enough of the dessert for the class to try.
“Once she gave me that slice of pie, I kind of bit into my future,” Aidan said.
He’s made the recipe ever since.
The pie starts with two large sweet potatoes, which Aidan roasts, peels and mashes. He puts those in a blender with butter, sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla extract, eggs and cinnamon. He blends the ingredients until the butter is combined and the “stringy” texture of the sweet potato is broken up and incorporated.
He pours the mixture into two prepared pie crusts. Aidan usually buys store-bought crusts, with limited oven space at home, but hopes to one day have enough space to perfect a pie dough recipe.
As the pies bake for one hour, the smell of cinnamon and vanilla fills the kitchen. Aidan slices a cooled pie, which has a taste and consistency similar to pumpkin.
One bite takes him back to second grade.
“When I bake this pie, it's like I'm teleported back into my seat eating that pie for the first time,” he said. “I feel like that's another thing that food could do for people. It could bring back good memories, and that's what it does for me.”
Sweet potato pie
2 large sweet potatoes, roasted, peeled and mashed
1 stick salted butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
1 12 oz. can evaporated milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 eggs
2 tsp. cinnamon
Two pie crusts, either homemade or store-bought
Add filling ingredients to a blender, and blend until ingredients are incorporated. Pour the filling into two pie crusts. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.
