On July 19, 国产吃瓜黑料 will launch sales of the , a new product granting holders access to an array of NFT drops from creators who focus on the outdoors, adventure, and healthy living. Outerverse NFTs will include beautiful, original artworks, but also be linked to offline utilities and experiences. Think: Invites, special gear, exclusive content, and more. Because, while the Outerverse is built on cutting-edge technology, its mission is to use that high-tech platform to encourage users to get outside and spend time engaging with their real-world passions. The Bedrock Badge, offering advance access to purchase a Passport ahead of the general public, . Sales close at midnight on July 15.
Among the initial group of athletes, artists, innovators, and creatives developing drops for Outerverse Passport holders is Biju Thomas, a chef, cookbook author, and avid cyclist. Biju has been involved with the 国产吃瓜黑料 network since the release of his first cookbook, published by an imprint now owned by 国产吃瓜黑料, and he鈥檚 penned stories and recipes for 国产吃瓜黑料 magazine along the way. If you鈥檝e attended any of our races or events, you might have spotted him serving hundreds of meals to hungry cyclists, runners, and fans.
We thought it would be a great time to learn more about 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 resident chef and hear from him what makes the Outerverse such an exciting prospect for creators like him.
Finding a Passion for Food
I come from a really large family where food was such a big, important part of our everyday lives. We love talking about food, and we love cooking food. I鈥檓 from south India, where it’s very coastal and jungle-like, and there are really rich farmlands. We were surrounded by every type of fruit and vegetable. We have the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea meeting up and providing incredible seafood. And it鈥檚 an area with all these diverse influences dating back to ancient spice trading routes. Greeks and Romans came through and left bits of their food culture, and later the Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and Belgians.
From very early on, you could find me in the kitchen helping my mom and grandmom cook, or I would be on the farm, taking care of cattle or harvesting vegetables. Back then, if you wanted to have coffee in the morning, you had to go to the well, get water, come back, start a fire and make hot water for coffee. If we wanted to eat chicken, one of us had to go catch a chicken, kill it, and clean it. That appreciation of the ingredients, simple techniques, and particularly live-fire cooking really still informs how I cook today.
I also draw inspiration from the role food played in bringing people together. In Indian culture鈥攎ost older cultures from anywhere in the world, really鈥攚e have a history of eating together or eating in big groups, whether it’s a family or the community. I grew up in a family where you didn鈥檛 stress about it if 10 extra people just showed up for dinner. There were always guests showing up, sometimes people just visiting the family, sometimes people who were in need of a little help and a meal, and they were all welcome to join and share the same food. That’s a really special gift and it鈥檚 actually helped me a lot working in restaurants and catering big events because I always know how to make things stretch.
The other thing about India is everyone rides bicycles. By the time I moved to the U.S., I had already been riding my bike everywhere for years. I was 10, fresh off the boat from India, and I was challenging the older kids in my new neighborhood with their BMX bikes to race me on the little bike I used for my paper route.
Soon after, I realized that if cycling was going to be a serious part of my life, I was going to need to cook for myself. It was the early 1980s in Colorado; you couldn鈥檛 easily buy pre-made energy bars. I started making my own drink mixes and things like that, experimenting with ingredients I could buy at the local Asian supermarket. The connection between the food we eat and how we feel, physically, mentally, and emotionally became a source of fascination for me.
The Meaning of Performance
In 1995 I saw a clip of the Tour de France, and in the background, you can see a chef getting off the Team Motorola bus. He鈥檚 wearing shorts and an apron and carrying this tray of food. I thought 鈥淥h man, that guy looks awesome. I want to do that.鈥
Back then, it wasn鈥檛 that common for athletes to work with chefs. Maybe one or two superstar NBA or NFL players would have someone who prepped their food, but most of the team just ate whatever they served at the training facility cafeteria. But I got it stuck in my head and I started convincing teams and athletes to let me cook for them. By 2009, I was working with Lance Armstrong. There was a lot of attention on Lance and that became a game-changer for me. I was the subject of a big magazine article, and that led to my first cookbook.
When I think of 鈥減erformance鈥 and how the right food can enhance performance, yes, that can be for an elite athlete鈥攂ut it鈥檚 really for everyone. Maybe you鈥檙e Kristin Armstrong, an Olympic gold medal-winning cyclist I鈥檝e worked with, or a player on the Denver Broncos, or maybe you鈥檙e a bus driver. Whatever you鈥檙e doing, nutrition and what you eat can make a difference. Minor changes can have huge impacts on how you feel, how you sleep, and the overall outcome of your whole day.
There鈥檚 a man I met a number of years ago through a charity, and when we met he was about 150 pounds overweight. He got one of my cookbooks and started cooking for himself for the first time. And it made a huge difference in his life. He had this notion that cooking was too complicated for him, but he was able to look at the simple, approachable recipes in the book and start making his own food. He鈥檚 in his 60s now and when I saw him just recently he told me, 鈥淒ude, I’ve managed to keep all this weight off for the last 12 years because you helped me start cooking.鈥
What I do isn鈥檛 super science-y, sports-medicine-type food. It鈥檚 just simple meals that provide what people need to do what they want to do. But that kind of thing is really cool and rewarding.
Entering the Outerverse
As a teen in Colorado, 国产吃瓜黑料 magazine was something I remember poring over. I would read about this whole world of outdoor adventures, many of them not that far from where I lived. My parents had six kids and I don鈥檛 remember us ever going on a vacation, but because we could read the stories and see the photographs in 国产吃瓜黑料 we could get a glimpse of what that would be like. Back in the 鈥80s and 鈥90s, there wasn鈥檛 this infinite library of online content or streaming TV or anything like that. If we wanted inspiration about the world beyond our immediate surroundings, we had magazines like 国产吃瓜黑料, National Geographic, and Esquire鈥攁nd when we weren鈥檛 reading, we were out playing in the woods.
For kids growing up now, it鈥檚 so easy to have everything at your fingertips and just stay inside, staring at screens. And I worry about what that鈥檚 doing to us as we鈥檙e more and more isolated from real-world experiences and adventures. And that鈥檚 part of why I鈥檓 so excited to be involved with the Outerverse, because what we鈥檙e building is a sort of bridge between the modern, tech-heavy life and something a little more simple, beautiful, and connected to nature. It鈥檚 something that uses the tools and technology of today to encourage people to get out there and have real-world experiences, informed by the legacy of 国产吃瓜黑料.
As a chef and food content creator, my own contributions to the Outerverse are going to include things like NFTs that provide access to special dinners and events. Opportunities to get together in amazing, unexpected settings, gather around a fire, and share special meals with people we might not normally meet or connect with.
The Outerverse and Web3 in general are really about empowering creators, and I think there are a lot of ways that intersects with food. In the food and hospitality business, of course, there’s not always a whole lot of money to be made. When I started working in restaurants, I was also working construction and doing other gigs on the side. Sometimes I would work at a restaurant for free just so I could keep learning. Now, with NFTs, there are new ways for fans to financially support the chefs and creators they love. And there are new ways for people to assert ownership of their own recipes and creations and monetize that creation, all of which may make this a more sustainable way for people like me to follow our passions and still make a living.