What is my culinary background, you ask? Well, after growing up in Ann Arbor with only a whiff of a culinary spark — thanks to the extensive cookbook selection at the downtown library and a teenage stint at Zingerman’s — I moved to Colorado after college with the man I would end up marrying. Colorado, with its roasted green chilies and burritos I still dream about, was just the beginning. Over the next twenty years we lived all over the country until, ultimately, landing right back where we started.

The job that opened up my culinary world was working at a cooking school in Saint Paul, Minnesota. With the skills I acquired there, I helped open up cooking schools in Asheville, NC and the Hudson Valley, NY. I also did lots and lots of catering, taught cooking classes to college students, worked with the East Nashville farmers market, and started a cooking club in my neighborhood before the pandemic changed up my life.

More than anything though, my culinary journey has shown me how much I love cooking for other people. And the older I get, the more I want to lean into the things I love. There is nothing that feeds my soul quite like cooking what I crave, and sharing it with others. It is my way of bringing a small spark of joy and connection to a world that could use a little more of both.