Pierce Abernathy has enthralled audiences with his thoughtfully plated plant-forward creations. Working out of his airy Brooklyn kitchen – which he says was the selling point of the apartment – Abernathy invites viewers to watch him chop, saute and bake his way to a restaurant-quality meal, and in real life, hosts pop-ups for others to enjoy his food.
While Pierce was a picky eater growing up, he started to enjoy cooking as he got older and it gradually became a creative outlet for him, particularly when it came to ideating imaginative and unexpected ways to use vegetables in meals.
Pre-pandemic, the cook recalls, there was a schism between food content creation and food media. He was working a job in the latter sector and felt “looked down upon.” Living in New York, however, drew him into the restaurant scene and Abernathy got hooked. He started reaching out to different chefs and began working in professional kitchens after work and on the weekends.
Ahead of a pop-up, the cook heads to the kitchen to prepare for an evening of à la carte dishes.
What keeps Abernathy cooking day after day? “At the end of the day or at the end of a meal, whether you made a great meal or a meal you weren’t happy with, if you’re passionate you’re still going to be thinking about how you can improve that thing but it’s nice that you can let it go and start fresh the next day,” he says.
Watch the full Hypebeast Diaries with Pierce Abernathy above.