The Art of Cooking: or how I became "the single chef"

First of all, my roots in cooking are all over the place. I mainly started as a means to stop eatting the crap on campus. College is an odd time. You are perhaps just as poor as you are when you get your first post grad job, but you don't mind it. You live in tiny quarters, are dirty, drunk and liberated. It's perhaps the only time in your life a cup of Ramen will be tastey and others will not look down on you for eating it. But then you realize Ramen is shit and you want a fuckin steak.

My style of cooking is also all guess work. I get an idea of what I want to make, look up recipes online or in cookbooks and unless it's a baking recipe kinda just throw it all together without really measuring. Sometimes I do measure but after that first making, I add more of this and less of that and create what I want. I make recipes my own, which I hope all of you do as well.

I also have complex issues with tastes. I grew up in the "south' on the coast, went to college in the "north"/south by the nation's capital, and then moved to heart of Texas and date a boy who lives on the coastline of Cali. I traveled all over europe as a teen and into college years. And I love meat and potatoes. I can't blame my mother for my lack until college of understanding cultures and looking back, I feel horrible for turning away from the french dishes we had in Paris. Who I blame is my father.

My mother loves trying new things. She is one of those crazy mom's who asks about your sex life and comes to visit during swim meets to see olympians and comments on their butt cleavage (her term not mine). My father is meat and potatoes, so much so that when I made Guiness Stew he said it was good but didn't care for it. Everyone loves Guiness Stew! He also isn't a casarole person and doesn't like veggies (which I am finding that more men don't care for the same veggies women do. I feel this is due to women feeling the need to be fit so we try veggies in an effort to trim our waistlines while the men still order the Double Whopper). He'd rather have fast food over grilled chicken. So my mom made what she made and I suffered without actually knowing.

I am learning to overcome those issues and trying new things. Like Fish. I grew up on the ocean, but i can't stand seafood. Well, I am ok with it now. The boy took me out on a fancy little date back in Dec when I was out visiting to The Top of the Market. We had wine, we looked at the bay, and I ate fish. Mahi Mahi, and I loved it. I had it then over Christmas while out with friends from high school, who were amazed. Hell, I even had sushi this past weekend. Ok, it was Texan Surf and Turf which was Tempura shrimp and mango wraped in the seaweed and sushi rice and then topped with slivers of Kobe beef, but the point of the matter is that I ate it and I liked it. I actually now really want to try a Philly Roll as I love cream cheese almost as much as I love butter, so I am trying to get the roomie and friends to go to the downtown sushi place I was at last weekend for sushi happy hour. (and no it is not the sushi place that Ryan Phillippe was spotted cheating on Reese)

This is typically how my affairs with food start. I love food first and formost and feel everyone should understand that. I am also a scale freak who had to give it up for Lent in order to maintain my sanity. I workout so I can eat that butter. I'd rather get the steak and creme brule and then have a good workout the next day over getting a side salad any day. I love and honor food and want to taste it all.

Food isn't just nurishment for your body, but also your mind. Food brings back memories of gatherings and of our culture. In "ethnic" foods, you can taste the soul and experience the fruits of the land that those of that culture come from. The spices, the richness, the ease of the skillet, to the all day pot sitting on the heat and ofcourse the chefs behind them all. Those men and women who take it upon themselves to not just feed their families and friends, but to defy the tastebuds and define a dish.

Make your kitchen and your home your native country, and create the meals that define you as you are. Enjoy the butter and the spices. Savor the mess-ups and kitchen fires. Learn and grow while in your apron. And then upgrade and add a bit of yourself to each recipe...

At the end of the day I am 23 turning 24. I was born in the south and love grits on christmas morning. I was educated in the "north" and love the class of fine dining. I moved to the deep south and appreciate how a well smoked, and bbqed piece of meat will melt in your mouth. I love in the west and fill myself up on the sunshine and water and all the goods that are natural. And that is my cooking culture.