Having a good time: Josh (left) and Mike Greenfield have their own program on MTV, Brothers Green: Eats! shown every Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

Brooklyn-based culinary star brothers Josh and Mike Greenfield talk about their show and cooking for the ordinary cook.

While most people have fond memories of their mother’s cooking, what Josh and Mike Greenfield remember most from their childhood is over-cooked, chewy steak. They said to eat it was torture, and their mother cooked purely to feed them rather than expressing any actual passion for cooking.

“For whatever reason we didn’t like the food. One day she said, ‘You don’t like my food, OK, you cook the food yourself.’ Instead of fighting that, we said ‘Yeah, OK’. It turned into a culinary love,” Josh says.

The two learned to take that lack of quality food and make something of it, training themselves in the culinary arts through hours of watching Food Network programs.

While the duo now have their own show on MTV, Brothers Green: Eats! Mike still remembers the first meal that he cooked — a bacon and egg sandwich, which is where he says he caught the cooking bug.

“I remember tasting [it] and just saying, ‘You know what, I love it!’ I really enjoyed eating this to the point that every night I wanted the one thing I could cook,” the younger Greenfield remembers.

Yet cooking as a career choice came later. In 2007, Josh had moved to Brooklyn with his band after graduating college. While cooking to feed himself and his friends, word got out about his skills and he became involved in catering. His brother, Mike, joined him around three years later, ditching a future career in architecture to join his brother in their culinary passion.

When a friend with a degree from the New York University’s Tisch Film School moved in with them, the brothers started to film their cooking, setting up a YouTube channel called Brothers Green Eats. The YouTube channel established their wildly creative and unique cooking style, which often uses unorthodox methods and combinations that take inspiration from all over the place.

For them it’s always been a matter of going out and seeing what’s around them, taking ideas that can enrich their creative process.

“What can you do with that? How can you be inspired? Maybe there’s some recipe you saw that you take inspiration from, a restaurant where you ate. Whatever it is, cook in the moment. Don’t get caught up in the destination, focus on the journey. See where it takes you,” Josh said.

Get creative: The duo brothers cook various dishes inspired by their trips.

This in-the-moment cooking process can be clearly seen on their fun-filled MTV cooking show, which also mixes in a splash of comedy and music. On the show, the brothers travel around the world, often cooking with celebrities such as Ed Sheeran or David Hasselhoff, only to return to their flat to cook dishes inspired by their trips.

The show takes a different approach to cooking that focuses on common people who do not necessarily have the fancy kitchens shown in more mainstream cooking shows.

Mike said they started getting into cooking seriously around the time they were in college. Back then, they were watching food shows that weren’t exactly relevant for someone who was in college, who didn’t have a nice kitchen or the money to buy really expensive ingredients.

“And I think we both were just sitting there thinking, why wasn’t there a show for us? For people who don’t have fancy kitchens? And that’s where I think it came from, trying to create something that wasn’t there,” Mike said.

That basic philosophy of trying to make cooking accessible for everyone is never more present than in the way the two utilize “food hacks”. These “hacks”, which have become synonymous with the culture of millenials, are unique, faster and easier ways for busy people to prepare food, such as utilizing a clothing iron to create haggis quesadillas.

But, these hacks have become so popular that the two now tend to stay away from the trend.

“I’ve found that a lot of times people will create hacks for a video or post about hacks. The hacks that we did were just creative ways we figured out how to use something to our advantage. Because when you’re put in a situation where you don’t have much, you have to get creative,” Josh clarifies, adding that a lot of the time these hacks came out of their sparse cooking environments, giving the example of his use of books to turn a Foreman grill into a flat-top grill in college.

With their show entering its second season, the brothers have made big changes. Whereas in the first season the show was mostly based in their Brooklyn flat, now about 80 percent of the show features their adventures in different locales. This means the brothers do not only get to cook, but they also have the opportunity to experience different cultures and traditions.

“A lot of it is people coming on this journey with us and experiencing things for the first time with us. We might be in a jujitsu class, which doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with cooking, but we’re in Brazil and we’re experiencing the culture and we’re trying things out for the first time,” said Mike.

As for what’s next, Josh says that Asia might be on the menu. “I know MTV wants to take us out to Asia, and I think it would be awesome to get out there, and we just love the food culture throughout all of Asia and we’ve been cooking it for a long time,” he said.

Mike also shared his brother’s enthusiasm about their second season.

“We’re excited to see where the second season eventually takes us just because I feel we really landed on something special with the adventure type set up. It’s really exciting and you can do so much with it. There’s so many places to explore, like Indonesia, of course,” he said.

But at the end of the day the brothers just want to inspire people to get into the kitchen and believe that whatever helps them accomplish that will be great.

— Photos courtesy of MTV

Popular

Indonesia rolls out one-day remote work in push for energy efficiency

At the mercy of the market

Indonesia calls Israel death penalty law 'grave violation' of human rights