For this week’s Deep Dive Series, we are interviewing an inspiring Clapper creator: Only Pans.

@OnlyPans is a clever food and recipes account on Clapper that features delicious dishes in all their videos.  Only Pans is run by the amazing and mysterious, J. He’s an amazing cook whose number one goal is to provide easy-to-make recipes for anyone to learn how to cook. You don’t have to have experience or be a professional to cook an Only Pans’ recipe, only passion and a few ingredients will do. 

Keep reading this Deep Dive Series to find out more about this creator’s amazing story. Make sure to tune in every Thursday at 5pm CT on our @Clappertalks account, to listen to the bonus questions that will only be available on our live radio show: Clapper Talks.

Deep Dive into this amazing creator’s story!

Tell us a little bit about yourself. What does a day look like in your life? 

I used to work for many restaurant chains. Now, I work in a warehouse on the second shift because I don’t like mornings. I got to work and when I come home I will plan menus out, things I want to try and make. I take a shower and eat. Tipically I record what I eat, then on the weekend, I record content and edit it.

The dishes you cook look delicious. Have you always been interested in cooking? How long have you been doing it?

I actually started cooking with my grandmother when I was 13. If you know what SOS is, that was the first dish I learned how to make. SOS is butter baked dish with gravy. It also has some sort of meat in it and it can be served on a buiscuit or a toast. 

We have to ask… Where did the name Only Pans come from? 

Actually, I have a group I manage for a comedian and I made a lot of friends in the group. They are the ones who suggested to put my food online. It started out on Instagram. It was Indiana foodie. I don’t consider myself a chef anymore because I am not in a kitchen. We sat down and were coming up with names that sounded good, so I let the 1200 people in the group choose the name for it. 

What has been your favorite dish to make?

My favorite dish I ever made was one that I recently put out: The papardelle bolognes. For me, its all about the KISS. This acronym is used by the food industry to say “Keep it simple, stupid”. So a problem people have is that they try to over do the bolognes sauce and my recipe is actually quite simple.

Something we love about your content is that you incorporate a lot of humor into your videos and your merch. Can you tell us about the fun merch you’ve created for Only Pans?

I was originally into art when I was younger. My stepfather kept saying that I was never going to make anything for myself with art and I was pushed away from it. So my art became food. Now, I see the food, I take my personality and I shoved in the merch, and then I add food.

We loved your website and the fact that all your recipes are there step by step and easy to make. We notice you have a laser engraving service, can you tell us more about that?

I do custom engraving. It started with knifes. I purchased 24 knifes from a supplier, that were engraved with my logo and I was going to sell them. That was my first merchandise venture. With the cost of the knifes, I realized it was too much. Returned them all and invested it on a laser good for making craft on leather, cutting boards,etc. I made some wallnuts that have been emptied out and I engraved on them “these nuts”!

So, When did you join Clapper? How did your journey as a creator begin?

I created an account on Instagram on October, 2019. Then, I went to Facebook and Youtube that I never used. Then, I came to Clapper from a reccomendation from another creator, and I’ve just been building everyday since then. 

What do you enjoy most about Clapper? In what ways do you feel like Clapper needs improvement? 

A couple things I enjoyed is that there are no real children here. There are childish people, but no kids. Not having to worry about what I wouldnt say or do in front of my children is nice. Another thing I like is that there are real people handling problems on the app. A lot of the sites get to big and just make automated responses. I’ve had content removed in other apps – and I make food! -, only for the name of my account.

Somehting that could use improvement, I will say the store needs a few updates. Not having sizes or colors is definitely something I would reccomend. 

What advice would you give new users that want to be successful on Clapper?

I would probably say that its all about the schedule. I will record a specific amount of times every week and post constantly. Keep the schedule no matter what. To grow, I would say consistency. I’ve had times where I have to stop because of deaths on my family, and I quit on posting. But I had backup videos and I still had some sort of schedule. To be consistent you have to put the effort in. 

For our latest deep-dive on @AnnieAbe, read here.