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I've been cooking since I was at least 8 years old, that's when my mom first let me use the electric mixer by myself. The first thing I made was chocolate chip cookies. Since I was young, I would try to replicate a good meal or a good pastry, and then change it to fit what I liked. At first this meant adding chocolate to all recipes.

After a stint as an 8th grade English teacher in Dallas, TX (at A.W. Spence TAG Academy), I followed my love of food. I went to Paris and trained as a chef, both savory and pastry, at Le Cordon Bleu. After school, I did an internship at a patisserie in Paris, then returned to California. I worked in the pastry kitchen at Julia's Kitchen in Napa and as a culinary instructor for COPIA also in Napa.

I'm a culinary instructor for Cook's Boulevard (www.cooksboulevard.com) and for Parties That Cook (www.Parties That Cook.com), both in San Francisco. I've been a personal chef and and personal culinary instructor. (I guess once you're a teacher, you're always a teacher--no mater what the field)

I love to travel, no that's a HUGE understatement. I LIVE to travel. I am taking some time out of the kitchen to travel through Europe to do a lot of tasting, replicating of dishes, and learning about the food of the places I visit. Most of my travels will be in Italy and France, but there will be some side trips to some other places in Europe, too, and blogging as I go at www.foodlovers.odyssey.typepad.com.