Though food was not his first choice, it became the first love for Chef Adrian Morris, popularly known as Hawt Chef on Instagram, and even more popular for his Jamaican recipes on his YouTube channel, Morris Time Cooking.

He started the channel in 2017, and garnered popularity and followers for his ‘KFC recipes’ and tutorials, as many have responded to the lessons with glowing feedback to the chef.

However, Morris told OBSERVER ONLINE that his first love was art, which he discarded when a teacher told him that he was not talented enough in the skill.

This setback opened up the opportunity for something greater for the chef as he went on to study the culinary arts, learning about and falling in love with food. He shared that his journey began with some experimentation and, as he got older, he would be the chef for ‘bush cooking’ with friends while living in Manchester.

“I would go bush cooking with my friends during summer and I would be the lead person to cook for everybody so that’s where it started,” Morris said.

Additionally, being raised by a single mother who did domestic work (Morris’ father died when Morris was only 13) forced him to learn how to cook at an early age.

“Living with my mom, she was always working [outside of the home] so being the middle child of three I used to do the cooking for both of my siblings so that’s where my love further developed,” Morris added.

In high school, Morris said, the main draw for pursuing and studying food was the girls as they made up the majority of the students in the Food and Nutrition class. He shared however that he soon realised that he enjoyed the practical assignments and he was very good at them. So he began to seriously pursue cooking in the ninth grade before going on to Knox Community College for further studies.

Morris began documenting his cooking after he got his first cell phone in high school, the first step in being the YouTube success he is today.

“So I started documenting from high school, always shared it on my Facebook page for the main fact that you don’t know if your phone can get lost, that way I could look back through the years to come,” Morris said.

“My friends would always see my posts and ask how I made it. Over time I would get more and more requests of people asking me how I made my food so in 2017 I started the YouTube page, though I had the idea of YouTube from 2014 but I didn’t have the know how to set it up.”

He shared that his wife was a fanatic of YouTube and she assisted with the set up. Since then, Morris has experienced success using the platform, boasting over 429,000 subscribers and even more viewers on his videos.

“I feel good about how it (YouTube) has blown up but it did not really come as a surprise because (cooking) is something that I have been doing since around 10. Even at my jobs where I worked customers would always come back and say that they realise on a specific day the food looks different and tastes different, so they are always sending compliments back to me, the chef,” Morris said.

He added that it was always a pleasure getting the positive feedback from Jamaicans, but the impact of his channel did not dawn on him until his Canadian wife’s cooking diversified to include more Jamaican cuisine.

Morris also added that it was his wife who inspired his popular KFC series after she asked him to prepare popcorn chicken.

“One day my wife said she felt for some popcorn chicken and asked me to make it, so I told her that I would try it one of these days and she told me to record it when I do. When I made the video people really liked it and I think I mentioned that KFC was my first job right out of high school. From that story people started making requests and I told them that I don’t have KFC secret recipe but based on my years working there and what I taste, I know what to put in it. So I did that in the videos and when they tried it at home, the feedback was tremendous,” Morris disclosed.

For his channel, Morris shared that he depends on the seasons to influence his content but otherwise, he goes by how he is feeling in the moment.

“Sometimes I go by seasons so if it is winter time I go with comfort foods; warm foods like soups and porridges, otherwise most of what you see on the page is stuff that my wife or I felt for in the moment.

“Cooking for me is therapeutic so I don’t record everything I cook, because sometimes I just want to relax without the camera. So I cook a lot of things that don’t get shown on YouTube,” the chef shared.

He went on to share with OBSERVER ONLINE that his journey does not stop at YouTube. He is currently working on a book of recipes, and as a perfectionist, it is his sole focus at the moment along with enjoying the time with his son.

He also shared that from his experience working in restaurants, where he has seen how some food establishments “disrespect” food, he would like to one day open a restaurant, and a bed and breakfast where people can enjoy his creations.

But for now, Morris shared that he is in no rush and is taking his journey one step at a time.