Food, family, and finding home one bite at a time.
This is
HUNGRY
KENZ
I’m Mckenzie - but you can call me Kenz. Raised in Southwest Oklahoma, now home in Ogden, Utah. Food has always been a main character in my story.
My Story
I come from a pedigree of foodies who were foodies before the term existed. They fed their families well and with little, a testament that good food can happen anywhere people are coming together and sharing.
My paternal grandmother graduated from Oklahoma College for Women in the 1950s with a degree in home economics. I grew up and still hear from people about her cooking - and that they always walked into the house to fresh coffee and cake, even when it was an unplanned visit. Grandma stayed ready. She taught my dad to make a meal - with whatever you had. She fed a single income family of four and made it seem lavish. She put the “economy” in home economics - something I am grateful to have inherited.
My maternal great grandmother immigrated to South Texas - and I mean about as far south as you can go and still call it Texas - from Germany with her sisters in the early 1900s. This means my Papa has a nose like a bloodhound for good Mexican food, because he grew up in South Texas in the mid 20th century when “Tex Mex” was still used as an insult to the combo plates and enchiladas queens of San Antonio. Lucky for me, that olfactory talent seems to be hereditary. My mom and I plan visits around food - where is the first meal and what are we cooking for the last supper?
This all led to me loving food - shopping for it, planning it, ordering it, eating it, serving it, and remembering it.
Why “Hungry Kenz”?
We are all hungry - for community, for belonging, for stories, and yes, for great food. This is me being hungry for all those things and you get to follow along.
Kenz? Well - that’s a little new. I never really went by nicknames growing up, it was always Mckenzie. But then one day it happened, someone called me Kenz and I can’t even remember who it was but I thought whoah I like that. It felt like me - this me that I have spent a decade growing into, and growing out of the versions that weren’t me anymore. So that’s me - Kenz.
What you’ll find here
I want Hungry Kenz to be my well worn recipe box with a passport tucked inside. You’ll read restaurant reviews from Ogden and beyond; farmers markets finds and how I use them; essays about home, roots, and what it means to belong; travel stories told through the food I find along the way; and honestly who knows what else.
I’m not here to churn out content for the ‘rithm. This isn’t something I’m looking to turn into my main hustle or even a side hustle - it’s a passion project. No ads, no pay walls. Just real words from a real person.
This blog is for anyone who loves food. You don’t have to work in food to love it. It’s for those hungry for flavors, stories, and a sense of place. It’s here to show you that you don’t have to drive an hour for the good stuff - it’s down the block.
Let’s see what we find - and eat - together.
- Kenz