Welcome to Gourmet Spoonie

Cooking shouldn’t have to feel like wrestling a fire-breathing dragon or running a 1,000 mile marathon. But when you are chronically ill or disabled, even boiling pasta can feel like climbing Mount Everest. Between pain, fatigue, and brain fog even the thought of cooking might already rob you of your last spoons.

How do I know? Because I am you.

But guess what? Disabled people eat! And we deserve to eat well and enjoy our food. We also deserve to be able to prepare our own delicious food if we want to—or if we don’t have our own in-house chef around to do our cooking for us. So we need easy recipes for low-energy cooking.

That’s why I created Gourmet Spoonie

Here, you’ll find easy, tasty recipes that won’t suck all the energy out of you. Spoonie-friendly recipes that respect your body’s boundaries. You’ll find chronic illness cooking tips and clever workarounds that make the kitchen feel welcoming again.

Forget those Instagram-pretty five-Michelin-star dinners. We don’t need them to complicate our lives. Instead, we’ll focus on easy meals that respect our limitations and keep you from burning out. 

Gourmet Spoonie’s mission is simple: to help you eat well—even on your worst days. You won’t find a single recipe here that I haven’t first tried and tested myself. And I know what it’s like to battle chronic pain, fatigue, and a dodgy digestive system.

You don’t have to go it alone

Pull up a chair and sit with me for a while. Try out a recipe. Read a story. You’re in good company.

Spoonie Chef Daan

Daan Katz is a chronically ill foodie with over 50 years of cooking experience. With firsthand knowledge of chronic illness, (not-always) fond memories of being an overwhelmed parent and caregiver, while dealing with multiple allergies, Daan shares tips and recipes that respect your boundaries.

Want to know more about Spoonie Chef Daan and why he created Gourmet Spoonie?