Since I was little I have been in love with food. A scrawny girl, I wasn’t a big eater, but I always cleared my plate when I ate at Grandma Maxine’s. She’s an excellent southern cook and I loved sitting on the kitchen barstool with her whistling and bustling about, feeding me giant spoonfuls of navy beans from the pot. At a young age I began helping in the kitchen, exhibiting no great talent. My mom tells me as a toddler I once struggled with the lever on the toaster, exclaiming “Momma, I can’t flush it!” Mixing meatloaf I would squeal at the cold squish of raw hamburger and eggs. Independent cooking began when I was six or seven. I remember my first cookbook, Alpha-Bakery, which had a recipe for every letter of the alphabet. I made ‘B is for Banana Bread’ and burned it. As I recall, it was a pretty big deal and I got in trouble. I thought my mom was angry with my failed attempt at banana bread, but in retrospect she was probably ticked off that I left the oven unattended with combustible materials inside. I also forgot about some boiling eggs and went outside to play. I returned only to be ambushed by the shelled eggs firing at me out of the scorched pot. It was a bad beginning as a cook. I still have a burn from an atomic pea that landed on the back of my hand as I dropped a bubbling hot chicken pot pie from the oven. I was seven years old and it hurt like hell, but I think I survived without any mental scarring. I might still have a tendency to burn bread, but the important thing is that I never stopped trying.
Holidays and family dinners were important events throughout the years. My sister and I spent a lot of time in the kitchen learning recipes from my mom, aunts and grandmother while the guys watched the game. We got better, practicing desserts after school and on weekends with our friends. One by one, Jennifer and I took charge of the family staples: bread, salads, whipped cream, dressings, mashed potatoes, casseroles, cakes, and pies. We never got into the gravy and meat because we became vegetarians in 1993, but by the time we were in college we had picked up so much slack in the kitchen that the other ladies began watching more football. In a lot of areas I think I’ve surpassed the previous generation: I’m picky about quality ingredients, I know more about nutrition and healthy cooking, and I have recipes from many more cultures in my repertoire. That said, I truly appreciate everything my family has taught me. Their joy at mealtime is boundless, and I can only now give my whole-hearted thanks for all the countless hours they slaved in the kitchen while we goofed off in years past.
These days my style of cooking revolves around the market. I don’t rely on recipes so much as the visual inspiration I get from looking in the meat case and browsing through the produce. I love shopping for groceries in the Pacific Northwest and California, especially at the Ballard and Templeton Farmers’ Markets. Going into my garden to pick fresh salad greens and herbs tops everything. It rewards both my palate and my primal food-gathering urge. After moving to Chicago and then Hawaii, however, I realized how much I had taken for granted growing up in California. In Hawaii especially, the produce was always old or overpriced. The people were larger than I had ever seen before. I began to see what a problem our agricultural practices and food habits were. The realization that I might be able to make a difference in the industry through responsible and innovative cuisine practices helped spur me to enroll in Kapiolani Community College’s culinary arts program. Not only did I ‘find my calling’ there, I also had the great fortune of volunteering for the head chefs of Google who confirmed my suspicions that there was indeed a viable career path in sustainable cuisine. Hoping to learn more from the Google chefs and jumping at the opportunity to get married in Big Sur, I transferred to the culinary school at Cuesta Community College in my hometown of Paso Robles.
I have my associates degree now and worked as a personal chef while I finished school. My formal training also includes a stint at 808, a Japanese restaurant in Honolulu; but before that I mostly took front of house or managerial jobs. I’ve worked for Lu Lu’s Waikiki, Umeke Market in Kahala, RL Restaurant in Chicago, Santa Barbara Premiere Catering, Justin Winery in Paso Robles, and an A & W restaurant owned by my aunt and uncle. These jobs span the last 19 years of my life, which is also peppered with stints as a medical assistant and administrator for various doctors. Recently, to satisfy my urge to be outdoors after two years in an office - and under the clouds of Seattle – I’ve taken an interest in gardening. At Kaspars Special Events and Catering in Seattle, I learned some valuable lessons as an event coordinator; but eventually my need to work directly with food got the better of me. I hoisted my fanny out of the chair and into the sun.
2009 is a year of growth and exploration. At the end of May I had already been to Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, New York, and practically the entire span of my home state. I had also moved, attended three weddings, four concerts and a music festival. Gardening at my grandparent’s house in California has deepened my food knowledge and provided me with plenty of new kitchen experiments, while I work on my dream of opening a restaurant. I’m also becoming certified in permaculture design (which really deserves five paragraphs of its own). While traveling the states for two months this summer, my husband and I are documenting our family history and, of course, exploring lots of great restaurants along the way. I decided to start this blog to sharpen my writing skills - in sad disrepair since I graduated from UCSB in 2001; but especially to keep myself immersed in the culture of food. Not that I need a food blog to do that. Twenty three years later, as I look down at my arms, among all the other steam burns and careless grazings of the oven, that little imprint from the pea is still there – a prominent reminder that in my heart of hearts I am a cook.
My 7th Birthday
Enjoying your blog