About me
I grew up in many different regions of the US. I was born in Maryland, though, and grew up on Chesapeake crabs and oysters, Lots of family fun at newspaper covered picnic benches with wooden mallets and piles of Steamed Blue Channel Crabs smothered in Old Bay and Beer. As a teenager I lived in St Louis, MO and found out that the dessert I knew of as a "Sunday" was in fact a "Sun-Duh" and that 'Sun-day's were for Church. Frozen custard was called a 'concrete', and that ravioli could come 'fried'. In my late teens we moved to Hawaii. I fell in love with all types of Asian cuisine while in college here. I had many friends from all over, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Polynesian. I also spent a half-year in Japan and couldn't get enough of the markets, the cuisine. After Hawaii came South Beach Miami, Caribbean food, Cuban. A lot of European influence as well as it was just starting to take off as an international city. Fell in love with a lot of French restaurants, and french/carribean fusion places. The new term "Flor-ibean" was just starting to get mention. I worked as a wine rep and began my fascination with food and wine pairing. Moved to Oregon where the food and wine industry is amazing and really taking off. Lots of attention to local produce, farming, fish and wine. I graduated with Honors from Le Cordon Blue here and became a personal chef to many of Portland’s famed residents. Hosted many wine and food gatherings!