Some questions, or answers, about me

A lot of people have asked me over the years how I learned to cook. That’s an easy one. I learned how to cook from my mom. She had a very specific list of things that she wanted all of us kids to know how to do before we left the house for college. The basics of cooking, laundry, how to drive a stick shift, etc. Just basic things that every adult should know (and based on what I saw in college, most kids didn’t). So before I moved out, she taught me to cook, and I still learn something new from her at least once or twice a year during holidays, and will call her up to ask questions about cooking something or discuss my ideas on a recipe. Since that time I have put a lot of effort into learning more on my own, whether from books, the Internet, or other friends, but I wouldn’t be able to do that nearly as well without being able to build on what my mom taught me first. So thanks Mom! Mom’s teaching their kids how to cook is something of a lost art in our country, and I’m definitely lucky to have a mother who still thinks it is important.

Another question I often get is whether I went to culinary school or worked in a restaurant/bakery/whatever. The answer to both of these is no, unless you count a couple of months working the register at a fast food restaurant back in high school. I’ve thought about culinary school more than once, but I’ve been working in the Information Technology field since I was in high school, and I’m not sure I could afford to make a career change now. More importantly though, I’m not sure I’d want to. I worry that if I went to culinary school or started working in a restaurant, I’d change food from a hobby, or even passion, into just a job. Cooking, and sharing the results with friends and family, is rewarding for me. If it devolved into just a job, or worse, a job I hated, I think that’d be a big loss in my life.

So that all being said, some of you are probably wondering what exactly qualifies me to write a food blog in the first place. I think that’s a reasonable question, and the answer that keeps coming to me is that I’m not. Rather, I’m not someone you should look up to as some kind of food expert, who has all the knowledge you’d ever need in a kitchen. I’ll leave that to Alton. What I do have, and offer to my readers, is a real love of food. Where it comes from, how to cook it, and how to make it your own. Along with the love of food, I have a passion for sharing my food, and what I learn about it along the way, with everyone out there. So am I a food expert? Not at all. I’m just someone who loves food and wants to share that love with everyone else. I hope that’s enough of a resume to convince you to keep exploring food with me here.