The signs were all there, but they were not heeded at once. It took years of following another path, another passion, before my real love was revealed..love of cooking and food, that is.
The backyard was my "restaurant", mud, and anything I could find to mix in, was my medium and giant rhubarb leaves were my cooking and serving instruments. Fortunately, I was discerning enough NOT to eat any of the creations, as rhubarb leaves are poisonous...
The first time my parents left me alone in the house, did I try to smoke, or hunt for smutty reading material, NO!
I tried to create a CAKE. Foraging for the ingredients I'd seen my mother use when baking, I put them in a bowl, mixing and stirring with abandon. My parents returned just as the creation went into the oven.
The adventure here, was that I had used a match to light the gas oven...parents were aghast, but the cake was not bad..a bit dense, but it had a lovely flavor of vanilla and almond..just what I wanted!
When I was a college student, my "other passion" took me to study in Italy. All of the American students in my class were amazed at the beauty of Italian clothing and leather artifacts and saved their pennies to purchase what they could. I saved also, and bought a cookbook by Ada Boni, the Julia Child of Italy at that time.
Despite all these signals, it was years before I took a hiatus from studying and teaching and started a catering company with a dear friend. We were The Happy Cookers and thus the adventures began....professional and otherwise...
Stay tuned for yummy recipes and the catering stories behind them.
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