I’m Chris, videographer, photographer, recipe developer and creator of Don’t Go Bacon My Heart. Otherwise known as ‘The Guy Behind The Bacon’. Hi 🙂
Don’t Go Bacon My Heart is a blog totally dedicated to comfort food.
It breaks my heart (excuse the pun) when I hear people say that cooking is boring or stressful, because I truly believe it doesn’t have to be. I’m a firm believer that food can be fun and bring endless amounts of joy and comfort. As such, I made it my mission to spread the love by creating hearty, comforting, flavour-loaded and approachable recipes that you’ll make time and time again.
A little about me…
I grew up in Weston-Super-Mare, a town in the South-West of England. I left for university at 18 to study psychology at Cardiff Uni, but if I’m honest, I had little intention of being a psychologist from the get-go. I was just absolutely dying to go to experience university life!
During uni, I spent a couple of Summers abroad working in the USA at Summer camps for kids with mental and physical special needs. It was incredibly demanding work, but it offered me a huge amount of life experience and left me with some of my most cherished memories.
From there, and after graduating from uni with a degree I still didn’t want to use, I prolonged reality a little longer and travelled Australia for a couple of years where I worked at Melbourne Zoo! Fast forward to now, I live in Edinburgh and work full-time on Don’t Go Bacon My Heart (see, I knew I never needed that degree! )
So how did you end up here?
I don’t want to start with the cliche ‘I’ve always loved food’, but it really is true.
I was brought up on comfort food such as Cottage Pie and Lasagne and also loved cooking as a child. I had my very own kids cookbook which I’d use to make homemade pizzas and Victoria sponge cake. I studied D&T Food at school and spent many evenings after school creating various different pasta sauce combinations for dinner!
Strangely enough, I never saw food as a career. The idea of working in a kitchen made me sweat just thinking about it, and since I had no formal training my options were somewhat limited.
In 2015 it all changed for me. I had just graduated from university and was saving money to go to Australia. It’s funny, I guess you can pin everything down to a photo I uploaded to Instagram. It was just a photo of my incredibly average dinner that evening. I have it buried away on my private account still, but since you’re here, I’ll show you the photo in question
With 16 likes, at that moment I felt like a Michelin star chef destined to be a world-famous food blogger! But in all seriousness, that’s all it took. A little nudge from some friends gave me a tiny bit of confidence and I took it and ran with it. I kept posting my dinners and little by little, more and more people started to take notice.
From there, I made a separate Instagram dedicated to food. Mainly just to stop annoying my friends and family with my food photos. But also because I became obsessed with trying to create the most delicious and creative dinners I could. After that, I decided to create a blog so I could start writing up the recipes alongside the dinners I was posting.
Every minute of every day I spent thinking about my next recipe. Even as I travelled Australia I kept the blog going, uploading recipes where and when I could. Be it in a campervan in the outback or in an Airbnb kitchen, you’d find me working on the blog.
When I got back from Australia (with a degree I didn’t want to use and a prolonged crisis of not knowing what I was doing with my future) I knew if I was going to make something of the blog it had to be now. As such, I moved back in with my Dad, set up a very make-shift studio in his garage and spent hours upon hours desperately trying to turn the blog into a business. And, well, here we are!
In reality though I’m still uploading my dinners, still creating various different pasta sauce combinations and still beyond obsessed with all things food
What are you serving up on the blog?
I like to call the food I make ‘happy food’. You know, the food you really wanna eat. From Creamy Garlic Mushroom Chicken and Cottage Pie Baked Potatoes to Tomato Butter Pasta and Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad, you name it, I’ll cook it. Hey, that’s a fun game!
You’ll find recipes that are often carby, always comforting but never trendy recipes that fall flat. I was brought up on hearty comfort food recipes that hit the spot every single time, and that’s exactly the kind of food I share!
With all recipes, I provide a quick step-by-step video and step-by-step photos. I also include detailed notes to help you get the best result possible. I test each recipe numerous times and never upload anything I haven’t personally tried, tested and loved myself!
Check out my recipes by Category and by Ingredient. There’s also a search bar at the right hand side of every page if you’re after something specific.
Comfy Cookbook
On 26th October 2023 I also had the absolute joy of releasing my debut cookbook ‘Comfy’. This book is a love letter to comfort food and contains a collection of my very best dinners for any occasion, any day of the week.
You can check out my info and order a copy right here: Comfy Cookbook.
Press
Okay, time for some trumpet blowing
Alongside winning in the culinary category at the UK Blog Awards in 2019, I’ve also been featured in the Vuelio Top 10 Food Blogs in both 2021 and 2022. I’ve had the opportunity to work with brands such as Iceland & Sainsbury’s and have also increased my profile state-side with features on Buzzfeed, Parade Magazine, RightThisMinute and Good Morning America.
Towards the end of 2019, I ended up stepping out from behind the blog and actually found myself on a TV show.
I’ve always said I’d never in a million years go on TV, but when the offer going on Netflix’s brand new show Crazy Delicious to serve food to Heston Blumenthal on a completely edible set was put in front of me, I couldn’t resist!
How can I get in touch?
You can find me on social media – Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter. Got a burning question? Checkout out my Contact page and drop me a message. Also, be sure to check out my FAQ Page!
Right, that’s all from me for now! I hope you stick around to find your new favourite meal and thanks so much for stopping by and making it this far!
See you again soon 🙂
Chris xx
(Love a sandwich? Check out my sandwich blog – Something About Sandwiches.)
Hi. I am from the U.S. But I have been watching a lot of British people talk about cooking lately. Interesting the cottage pie and shepherds pie thing. Here we call it Shepherds Pie. Never had it with lamb. always ground beef. except one time with roast beef. Used to buy it off from the Schwan’s company from Minnesota. Their’s was pretty good. They don’t do food delivery anymore. They had a large selection of food and desserts you could order. and they would come to your house in these yellow trucks. Kind of miss it. Well things change. Never made one myself yet. But I may buy your book and try making a shepherds pie myself.
I think we get confused with the difference between shepherd’s pie and cottage pie over here a lot too, so I shouldn’t worry! The recipe for both are here on the blog, so I hope you get to try them 🙂 C.
The best sweet ‘n sour sauce I’ve ever tasted Chris. Ofcourse being a DT teacher I had to add a variation I used stem ginger and added chopped courgettes and small button mushrooms. I also oven cooked the chicken thighs after spraying them with oil. Delicious.
Ahh I’m so pleased it went down well! Love the additions. I’ve actually never tried stem ginger – that’s going on the ‘to try’ list! C.
Hi Chris,
I would just like to say that I always either go to your website or your book when I am looking for recipes and so far they have all been amazing. I am a big fan of your recipes as all that I have tried are so flavoursome and that is why I keep going back to them on a very regular basis. I just wanted to share this with you as I am now obviously on your website looking for another dish for Saturday night. Keep up the good work and I look forward to your next book.
Kind Regards
Martin Miller
Thanks so much for the lovely comment, Martin! So pleased to hear the recipes are going down well 🙂 C.
I have been trying to find sausages that don’t repeat on me all day and I made your recipe and success! Yummy and easy. Only thing I did wrong was use packaged breadcrumbs. Made them a little dry so will use less next time as can’t be bothered making any.
Glad they went down well, Lynda! 🙂 C.
Hey Chris. I’ve struggled for years to make interesting dinners for my family of 5. The problem is they’ve all got different things they like and don’t like and I’ve come to dread each evening meal making decision!! That was until I found your brilliant site. I can truly say this is life changing as I’m now actually looking forward to cooking each day for the family – every recipe I’ve tried so far has been a real crowd pleaser. Even the sausage smash burgers I made a real mess of last week went down a storm Thanks so much Chris and please keep your delicious recipes coming. ♥️
This is so heartwarming to read, Alan. Really pleased the recipes are going down with you and the family. Truly. Thanks so much for dropping by and happy cooking! 🙂 C.
I always knew you were going to make it from our strawberry and custard tarts we made in D&T food! I loved your food then, and I love it even more now!
Love you always x
Thank you Clocks! I remember them well x
love the cranberry cheese log. However, could I substitute bleu cheese for the mature sharp cheese as that is very expensive or would it mess up the firmness?
Hi Deborah! If you’re confident you’ll like it flavourwise you could give it a go. I imagine the texture will be fine if you rest it in the fridge. C.
Very well done! I’m proud of you!
Thanks Grandad! 🙂 C.
Your recipes sound great. Orzo with feta and herbs and olive oil for lunch
Thanks so much, Penny! Enjoy! 🙂 C.
thank you Chris, very cool