You may know that Nate is hilarious (mostly) and a loving dad (pretty much always), a Redskins fanatic (sigh) and generally cool guy (I know he’s reading this). What you may not know that he is also a food savant.

He’s the guy who can stick his nose in a glass of Tempranillo and tell you exactly which berries are in there. He stocks more kinds of salt in the pantry than most cooks have herbs, and he would sooner slice out his own tongue than use margarine. Get him going, and he can wax on for hours about sriracha and salt cod and the merits of Rare Breed ham – just be warned that he may not stop.

His greatest fear in life is, perhaps, that his children will turn out like their mother and not eat pork chops.

Nate is, without a doubt, a foodie.

When I first started Mom-101, I described Nate as a fledgling comedy writer/waiter turned stay-at-home-dad. Three years later, he’s now the fledgling comedy writer/waiter turned stay-at-home dad turned retired stay-at-home-dad turned disgruntled waiter turned nascent food blogger.

And now, culinary school student.

He started last week–the professional pursuit of his one true joy in life, with the hope that down the road someone will hire him to write hilariously and passionately about it all. I mean, come on. Name one food writer who can drop Mr. Show references at the same time he rambles on about chorizo.

It’s a massively gaping void in the food writing world, if you ask me.

I couldn’t be more proud. I couldn’t be more terrified that we will be poor for the rest of our lives. I am also a little sketchy on when we’ll exactly have sex considering I’m working days and he’s gone most nights for the next nine months.

So how’s 6:45 AM Sunday for you? Can we pencil it in before pancakes and after the dream about Charo wearing a giant emu costume in my high school bio class?

But mostly, I’m proud. Because if there’s one thing that the universe (and Gourmet Magazine? Ahem…) can never have too much of, it’s smart funny guys who know how to treat a stick of butter.