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Le CookChef
I am a cook, more than a chef, though my dishes have at times been called gourmet. I cook primarily for the purpose of eating well, e.g., healthily, which requires nutritional variety. Fresh foods are more nutritious, and a plate of varied colors and textures will look more attractive and appealing, whetting the appetite, encouraging the flow of salivac juices to aide digestion, and thus, will contribute to nutrition; basic to the first two pages of any good cookbook, and something my mother conveyed to me by the time I was about twelve.

My dad taught me to light a fire, useful for cooking over charcoal, and to shut the grill for efficient, succulent roasting of meats, potatoes and corn-on-the-cob.. He also taught me a thing or two about meatloaf and hamburgers. My maternal grandfather taught me how to cook an egg in bacon grease, and to add a scoop of ice cream to pie dishes. My paternal great aunt and grandmother taught me to make buttermilk pancakes and egg salad, to salt tomatoes and add sugar to grapefruit. My mother and maternal grandmother didn't teach me much about cooking per se, other than that I needed to learn to do it better than they did it if I was to eat well. Thus, my motivation, to eat better in adulthood than I did in childhood. Money was not the issue.

I really learned to cook beginning at age 22 from my roommate, an Anglo-Italian from the best side of Philadelphia. He had learned to cook steak, pasta and sauce, and to make salads from his mother and paternal grandmother. Then I cooked and learned on my own, baking bread, roasting fish, chicken and pork chops, until a number of women showed me more than a few pointers, c. 1982 - 1992. Eating in good restaurants provided inspiration, too. I took several classes in macro-biotic cooking in the early 1990's.

I am posting up these images primarily as visuals, and if may try to describe them briefly as time goes by. Bon appétit visuel!