A passion for cooking...

I have long been a fan of Iron Chef and before that other cooking shows like Ming Tsai's East Meets West, The Galloping Gourmet and so on. Something about cooking that I really love and for many years I actually dreamed of going to Culinary Institute of America. In fact when I was working for Harrah's Casino as a craps and poker dealer I became good friends with the executive chef who was a CIA grad. We talked about my becoming an apprentice to him, spending a couple of years in the kitchen training and then going to the CIA, perhaps on the companies dime. Unfortunately the position was one that did not pay well enough and I had a family that I could not support on that small pay. The hours involved would have precluded me finding a second job so I had to reluctantly pass on the chance.

My family later owned a Bed & Breakfast. My father, an outstanding cook, installed a complete industrial kitchen and you could always find me at their house drooling over the stove and giving them a hand with the day to day operations of the Bed & Breakfast as well as the restaurant side of the house where we served an open lunch and a by reservation only dinner. It was a ton of fun but when my parents retired, they sold the house. I loved that kitchen but it was working in that kitchen that showed me it is not the equipment, it is the cook.

I still love to cook and wish I could do it more often. I like to think of myself as someone who cooks in the tradition of "Iron Chef" although without the competition. I pick a main ingredient and build around that. While I do not include it in all the dishes I do try to make sure that each dish has something tying it to the rest of them. I believe that you should be able to move from one dish to the next without thinking you're eating the same thing all over again.

Most of all I find comfort not only in cooking but in the food itself. Making something that can please you, relax you, is awesome. There is not much better in the world then eating food that is not good, but spectacular. The subtle%