About Me

I come from a family full of artists and scientists, and my career has been woven with both elements. I started cooking and collecting recipes when I was 16 years old. My culinary influence came from my talented grandmother, Florence (known to all as Mom-mom) to whom I was very close, and was our family’s greatest culinary legend.  I’m passionate about traveling. I’m living my best life when I’m exploring. It fascinates me to see and experience how other cultures live, eat, and prioritize their own life demands. I think about the history that they have come from, how that impacts their world view, their arts, crafts, and cooking styles. Traveling is my own exploration of all of this. I always gain a broader perspective from my travels, and I am ever so grateful for it. I incorporate what I have learned into my own world view and into my lifestyle. I also have a great interest in history, and the origins of cuisine, so I enjoy learning about gastronomic history. It’s interesting to me how one can prepare a chicken in so many different ways, from India to France to Japan, and that the spices used are so different from each other, based on what is accessible and traditions that have grown in the culture through-out history and over time.  The global pandemic has had an impact on all of us. It brought home the idea that we are all connected. Accessibility to food in our modern life has never before been a thought for most of us. But as our grocers’ supply chains were interrupted and restaurants were shutting down, suddenly we all had to think about the impact it would have on our families. It dawned on me that my favorite ethnic restaurants might not survive, or were just unsafe to re-open, and I needed to take it upon myself to learn how to cook food that I had never tried to cook before. I was determined to become self-reliant and expand my cooking repertoire.  I carefully curated dishes from around the globe, which are my personal favorites from each region, and which I knew my family would enjoy. I hope you do as well.