
A Creative Mind in the Kitchen
Erin Puariea Clark Dishes It Up
Spicy, multifaceted, colorful, and the perfect amount of saltiness—those words not only describe EPIC Creative’s own Erin Puariea Clark, but also the food she conjures up in her kitchen every day.
For Erin, our VP of client services and account management, cooking has always been a part of her life. Erin’s earliest memories are of hanging out in the kitchen with her family.
Be sure to check out Erin’s amazing recipes!
“It started as a really cool way to spend time with my mom and grandmother. I loved being part of the hen party and all the conversations that went down there … let alone what was being created.”

The Ultimate Restaurant Resource
If you spend any time with Erin, you quickly realize that she’s a rich resource when it comes to all things food. She’s always eager to share a great restaurant recommendation or a good place to get a drink. Part of that comes from her time working with the Milwaukee Bucks. (Yes, those World Champion Milwaukee Bucks!) She’s quick to point out, “it was a while ago, back when George Karl was the head coach.” Among other things, Erin helped rookies and new players get acclimated to the city and settle in, so she knows all the places worth checking out.

A Sweet Social Presence
Then there’s her Instagram feed … it’s enough to make Ina Garten drool! Erin started it nearly a decade ago when she worked for Taste of Home and was testing recipes. Are you sensing a theme here? Erin has had some really cool jobs. (Including her current role at EPIC!)
“I was the Managing Director and General Manager for Taste of Home: Live. It was a two-hour interactive cooking demonstration that traveled the country, executing over 300 events each year. We did everything from recipe testing and development to editorial content, scripting the show, producing video, and more. It was a blast!”
In short, her Instagram feed is a foodie’s paradise. Each week her hundreds of followers feast their eyes on the food Erin has created, and sometimes we even find out who requested it and get the recipe. Go give her a follow, you’ll thank us.

The Methods Behind The Magic
So we had to know, what are Erin’s favorite ingredients? “OMG, I don’t have any one favorite, but I do probably have some tendencies. Salt and butter: those are things that can’t be replaced and should never be missed. Thyme makes things warm and homey. Any kind of acid (lemon or lime juice, or a vinegar) cuts richness and brightens everything up,” says Erin.
And like any good born-and-raised Wisconsinite, Erin loves her cheeses. “I think I probably have about 15 different types of cheese in my refrigerator right now. Is that wrong?”
No, Erin, it’s perfect. And we wouldn’t expect anything less.

Bringing The Kitchen To The Office
At EPIC, Erin oversees a team of account managers whose job it is to know just about “everything” about the clients we serve. Erin says there are a lot of lessons she’s learned in the kitchen that apply to agency life. “You have to be able to decipher a recipe (or a brand), determine what is important, and know how to make it shine in the midst of things outside your control. So you can’t be afraid to take risks or make mistakes—learn from them and move on. Own who you are, have a point of view, and express yourself.”
And Erin is all about expressing herself in the kitchen. She says her favorite types of cuisine are rich and complex, “I love anything that has multi-layered notes to it, so Mexican, Cajun, Asian, Italian.”
Like any good cook, Erin has some go-to, never-fail recipes that she makes without even thinking, including her mom’s herb bread that’s now become “her” herb bread—requested at nearly every potluck or gathering she attends. Then there’s her Chicken Cordon Bleu with a white wine mushroom sauce. (It’s way easier than it sounds.)
There’s nothing she won’t try to make. But don’t ask Erin to clean up. “The only thing I really don’t dig is the clean-up; it’s a drag. We don’t have a lot of counter space or a very large kitchen, so I have to clean as I go.”

Erin And Her Sugar
On most nights Erin cooks for herself and her husband but admits that, after growing up as the youngest of four, it’s hard to cook for two. And she says her husband “M” has a wicked sweet tooth. While Erin likes sweets, it’s “M” that often suggests she makes something sweet. “He has a friend at work, and sometimes I think the two of them dream up things for me to make. And he (the friend) gets half.” Erin and her husband get the other half.
That’s one of the best parts of Erin’s personality, at both work and home: she’s a giver. She’s always jumping in to help, and sharing her talents and skills. Whether it’s doing whatever it takes to help clients reach their goals or sharing a decadent dessert, you can count on Erin to deliver!
And, best of all, she knows how to keep her cool. Case in point: a particularly disastrous Thanksgiving dinner. “A pyrex dish exploded in the oven. Everything in the oven—including the turkey—had to be tossed. There was glass everywhere. The house was filled with smoke. It was tragic,” says Erin.
But true to form, Erin says all she remembers is the immediate chaos and laughter afterward. And when asked what they ate that year, Erin laughed and said they had appetizers and a lot more wine than usual.

Mixing It Up
Speaking of alcohol: like all good Wisconsinites, Erin has a few signature cocktails. She shared her Homemade Limoncello recipe, which is an exercise in patience, especially if you love that icy cold liqueur. And in certain circles, her Cherry Limeade Margaritas are the stuff of legends.
When it comes to legends, her chili is right up there. “I have a recipe called Knucks Chili because, when I first came up with it and asked ‘M’ to taste it, he took one bite and said ‘Give me knucks!’ (with a fist bump). And now I can’t make any other chili for him! I’ve won chili cook-offs with my white chicken chili and other variations on a classic red, but for ‘M’ I can only make Knucks Chili.”
So how does she know if a meal she’s made is a winner? Erin says, “That’s easy, in my family if no one approves they go silent. But if they like it, the first thing they ask is when can we have this again.”
And like everyone else, Erin also falls in ruts or gets tired of making the same things over and over again. “When we’re tired of everything, that’s usually when I start experimenting. That’s how I started making things like ramen, hot and sour soup, mayonnaise, and butter. Last weekend I made no-churn ice cream in a mason jar and played with different flavor combinations,” says Erin.

Finding Inspiration
Cookbooks also serve as inspiration. But for Erin, trying to choose her favorite is a little like asking a mom who her favorite child is. “Ina Garten, Marion Grasby, and Ree Drummond have never let me down,” Erin confides.
At one point she had over 750 cookbooks in her collection. Erin admits, “I read them like novels and visit them like a coffee table book. It’s impossible to pick just one. It would be like Sophie’s Choice for me.”
But she has no problem picking the one famous chef she’d love to have dinner with, “No question, Julia Child. She was badass. A pioneer, genuine, and real.”
And after spending a good couple of hours talking about food with Erin, it’s easy to see how well the two would get along; they share plenty of the same attributes. Both make cooking fun and attainable, and both can laugh at themselves when things invariably go wrong.
“If you can’t fix it, feature it,” Erin says nonchalantly. It’s a motto that’s served her well in the kitchen and in her marketing career. “No one else but you knows what it was supposed to be, so just go with it. You’ll be surprised how often you end up creating really beautiful things.”
And that’s really the magic of cooking, taking ordinary ingredients and putting them together to create dishes that become extraordinary. This leads us to Erin’s final bit of advice for novice cooks: “Don’t be afraid. It’s all about trial and error. Taste as you go. As long as you know what you like and don’t like, you’ll get there. For some, cooking is a chore and food is just fuel but, in my family, it’s an expression of love, art, and creativity.”