It was an early June day in 1969 and I was walking into my grandparent's house with my Mom and Pop. The smell of garlic, herbs, and freshly baked bread filled the air, just what you would expect with a Grandfather who emigrated from Italy when he was nine and an Italian Grandmother. Grandma was standing at the kitchen table, a slightly plump woman just under 5 feet tall with a beautiful head of silver hair. She looked at me and said with an Italian accent "My you're getting big!" Noticing the flour on the table I replied "Yea, I'll be six next month... can I help cook?" I knew she was making pasta and I would get to turn the handle on the pasta machine, she replied "as long as you don't turn the handle too fast" (the pasta machine was new to her since she rolled and cut her pasta by hand most of her life). She gave me some lupines to eat while she finished kneading the pasta.

Grandma Appuglise made the best food, all from scratch. When I say from scratch, I mean very little was purchased from the corner market. She made her own ricotta using fresh milk from a farm, curdling it with wine that had turned to vinegar. She grew her own herbs and dried them for use in the winter. She had jar with her yeast "mother sponge" sitting on the counter in her small kitchen, and she baked bread almost every day. I was fortunate that my Mom was the oldest daughter in the family because Mom helped raise the younger children and my Grandmother began teaching her how to cook at a young age. My Mom followed many of the same traditions she learned from her mother.

As I grew up, Mom taught me how to cook much like her mother taught her. Pop worked in the food industry most of his life, starting out working in a meat packing house and eventually becoming a restaurant supply sales representative. Thanks to Pop, we always had interesting food to eat, such as pig's ears, calf brains, and quite a lot of tripe. I learned at a young age that any food is worth tasting, and I have continued that tradition through my adult life.

Being the youngest of five boys, I received a great deal of attention from Mom. I was pretty much an only child from the time I was 10 since my closest brother is eight years my senior. Mom had a passion for cooking, and I remember sitting down with her to watch TV shows like "The Frugal Gourmet", Julia Child, "The Galloping Gourmet", and "Yan Can Cook". Mom may have been Italian, but she took advantage of every opportunity to learn how to cook other foods. With friends and neighbors from Mexico, Japan, Europe, and the Middle East, she learned how to cook various foods and use spices considered unusual at the time, such as cardamom and saffron. By the time I was in high school, Mom was teaching cooking classes where my Dad worked, and I was helping her prepare the food.

Mom was an innovator when it came to food. I remember in the early 1970's, she wanted to make ravioli and fresh pasta and then freeze it and sell it to the neighborhood grocery store. We lived in a small town, and at that time our neighborhood grocery store owner didn't think frozen ravioli would sell. I guess we all know by now that it was a fantastic idea.

I eventually went to college to study business. Taking after my mom in many ways, I had a culinary passion and was forward thinking. The year was 1982, the marketing class assignment was to create a new or improved product and a marketing strategy to sell the new product. I decided that grocery stores should sell whole coffee beans and flavored coffee. I still have the paper on which I received a grade of "C" because my professor thought the idea would never work. As we now know, my idea was about 10 years too early.

I was fortunate because my college education was paid for by an athletic scholarship in gymnastics. Even more fortunate, our gymnastics team traveled all over the country and the world, and I was able to experience a wide varitey of food. One of my favorite places to travel was Mexico City and the coastal regions of Mexico. We would go each year around Thanksgiving, and I would eat just about anything, which is where my curiosity for new and interesting foods was transformed to the next level. The answer to the question that is running around your mind right now is "No, I never did get sick from eating street food from the markets in Mexico".

What I have written to this point is what I would consider the beginning of my culinary adventure. My innovative ideas and desire to share my knowledge have served me well. I have been successful in many business roles over the past 20 years, and for the past 10 years a self employed technology consultant and software developer. I have come to realize that my life has been about pleasing others and it is now time to do something for myself.

My top three passions are learning, cooking, and sharing my knowledge. I will continue to learn about food and cooking by seeking out the experience of others whether in a restaurant environment, catering environment, or in an education setting. I will continue to experience food through my own cooking and through the cooking of others. I will share my knowledge either through writing about food, conversation with clients, or through hands-on training as an instructor. All of this will bring back a part of my life that has been missing since Mom and Pop passed away.

Reviewing what I have written here, it appears that I will not only be fulfilling my needs, but I will continue my tradition of pleasing others. I would like to thank you for reading what I have written. If you are like me and you love food, please let me share my experiences by cooking for you.

and the adventure continues...