Wednesday, July 11, 2007

An Introduction

For those of you who read the "About Me" page, this post will be a little redundant, but the point is to tell you a little about me.

I'm a mid-twenties New York lawyer with no desire to practice law. I'm a foodie, amateur chef, faux gourmet, avid reader, and connoisseur of all things culinary. I'll try any food at least once -- what's life without the fun?

I'm a classically trained chef from an exclusive school -- MIMK, otherwise known as "My Italian Mother's Kitchen". The rest of my culinary "expertise" has come from eating, reading, cooking and watching TV.

While I've read blogs for a number of years, and actually had a blog during law school, for some reason I didn't think about the fact that there would be a plethora of food blogs out there. Over the last few months I found a number of food blogs that I really like, which are represented on my side bar.

As I said, I'm an avid reader, and have started reading food books more and more. I'll have links to the various food books on my bookshelf on the side as well.

I love to entertain and create gourmet meals for others, including my girlfriend. As a note, my girlfriend has some professional food experience -- she use to do catering -- and we're considering going into the catering business together.

To provide some more information, here's a blog MEME from A La Cuisine:

What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own?

Well, the first memory of cooking on my own was making meatloaf from my Mickey Mouse cookbook. Yes, I was not techinally alone. My mom was hovering behind me, looming as a safety manager, ensuring that our home (and intestinal lining) was intact after I prepared and served my "feast".

Who had the most influence on your cooking?

Well, there's a three-way tie here. First, my mom. She's the one who forced me into the kitchen and started to teach me the basics. Second, my grandfather. Growing up, we always had Sunday dinners at my grandparents'. My grandfather did just about all the cooking, and frankly he was the male culinary role-model I think I needed as a kid. Third, I would say is me. Yes it's ego-centric. But it's true. My cooking has been influenced mainly by (1) my desire to cook; (2) the creative part of my brain; and (3) my palate. My sense of taste and texture has influenced what I do in a kitchen more than anything else. After all, if it isn't appealling to me, why would I make it?

Mageiricophobia - do you suffer from any cooking phobia, a dish that makes your palms sweat?

No. There's no specific dish that makes my palms sweat. The only thing that gets my heart beating, gets me sweating? That moment when I put a dish in front of somebody, right before they bite into it. Those few seconds before you can see what someone thinks of your dish are always the hardest.

What would be your most valued or used kitchen gadgets and/or what was the biggest letdown?

Most valuable utensil: My kitchen knives. Yes, this is kind of a cheap answer, but it's true. While my knives aren't the best, my chef's knife is 8 inches of decent weight, decently balanced metal that is used constantly and goes with me everywhere I'm going to cook (the caveat is my mom's house, since she has the same knife set I do). Other than kitchen knives? My squeeze bottles. I got these at Bed, Bath and Beyond for like $2 each. They are perfect for storing, transporting and dispensing sauces I make onto the foods I make. They're great -- very useful and used quite often.

As far as a letdown? I can't really think of one -- all my gadgets have been pretty good.


Any questions? Feel free to ask and I'll let you know.

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