I have been making my way to the kitchen for most of my nearly 40 years on this planet. My paternal grandmother encouraged my growing love for cooking by sharing her own. She grew up in Chicago but learned most of what she knew from her own insatiable curiosity and a very gracious mother-in-law. Driven by five hungry children and her Louisiana husband. My sister and I spent countless summers with my grandparents: swimming, doing chores, and learning how to cook. Most mornings after breakfast, we conferred with Grandma at the table … to discuss dinner. Though our requests often got vetoed or morphed into just making hamburger helper (which we loved), we also rolled homemade pasta, learned how to use a wok, and set the table every night while my grandparents made cocktails. Sometimes we barbecued on an old Weber grill balanced in a broken patio chair after its legs had rusted off (we don’t throw things away in this family, it still worked). We consulted a 1976 edition of the Better Homes and Gardens cooking encyclopedia – an 18-volume set covering everything from escargots to pancakes. Granny collected food magazines, periodicals, and tutorial books until the day she died. Used cookbooks made good birthday presents, too. At 14, I struggled through a 1956 Betty Crocker cookbook in my parents’ ill-equipped kitchen in New Orleans. They both worked full-time jobs and one of them even hated cooking! I happily made dinner for our family as a teenager, even learning how to make French bread so I could teach my classmates in 10th grade speech class. I hoarded copies of Food & Wine magazine that came in the mail (no one else was reading them).

I have always wanted to share my cooking adventures with the world, and now it has become my mission to make adventurous cooking, learning about food, and sharing those experiences with others an exciting, accessible, and life-long endeavor - the way my grandmother did for me. I moved home to help take care of her after a stroke in late 2020 - and ironically found myself maintaining her household and cooking for her daily. She left us on June 29, 2023, but her legacy lives on through her children and grandchildren and our love for music, and family, and food. I hope to share that magic with you all here!

Through demonstration and story-telling – including recipes, principles, techniques, social and historic context, and maybe a little comedy – I hope this site and my writing will empower you to go on your own cooking adventures. My vision is to help forge a more informed, curious, and adventurous eating public – opting to cook at home more than eat out, to learn about where food comes from, and to share their own knowledge and the food they’ve cooked with their friends, family, and loved ones.