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Chef Mommy and cheffie girl. I am of Italian descent. I've been cooking since I
was about five years old, stirring sauces perched on a three-legged milking
stool in front of the stove. I feel as if I were born there. My earliest food
memories are of giant pots of simmering sauces and snails with garlic and
herbs and my grandmother, at the kitchen table in her farmhouse in Queens,
with a very tall pyramid of flour into which she would break eggs. Her nimble
fingers would work their way down the flour creating masses of dough that
she would roll out and cut into pasta shapes for our Sunday dinner. My mother
would spend hours everyday making our dinners that, today, would probably
qualify as three-star meals. Time flew by and we all moved on. I found myself
constantly searching for new food mentors. Eventually, after a career as an
artist and art teacher and with my husband and children prodding me on, I
realized a life-long dream at The French Culinary Institute in Manhattan where
I found many talented chefs who continued that mentoring. It was an exciting
adventure to be around the best and those who spoke my 'language'. I
continue to seek out inspiration at The Culinary Institute of America in their
Prochef classes and watching chefs demonstrate recipes at the culinary theatre
of The French Culinary Institute. I am finding more ways to channel my
creative talents through cooking and baking and chocolate making.