Where I'm coming from

Almost as long as I can remember food and eating have been important to me. When I was five years old my parents had an Italian restaurant. I would play dolls downstairs in the kitchen with my sister while savoring the aromas of a simmering red sauce. When I grew up a little bit I would sit with my great-grandmother before she died. I'm embarrassed to admit I don't remember much about my Baba, but I do remember being allowed to make her simple meal of steamed carrots, celery and potatoes with some melted butter. I remember the first time I made scrambled eggs as a kid. My sister and I wanted to surprise our mom with breakfast. It didn't matter that it had tiny fragments of paper thin egg shell for a little extra crunch. We had cooked!
With a narrow part of my DNA coming from my Sicilian grandfather, I was destined to be passionate about something. Food seems so natural. I grew up around passionate Italians. I'm not talking Sopranos-esque Italian American. I'm talking american italian where family gatherings are loud and full of energy. We ate, we joked, we laughed. There were always family vacations where 20 of us would go into a restaurant and ask for a table all together. Before dinner was over the servers were guessing which kids belong to which parent for fun. Through it all ran a common love of eating good food and the bond it created.
So I've tried to refine this passion for food I have. I've nurtured it by creating my own recipes and experimenting in the kitchen. I walk the aisles of gourmet markets like most girls shop department stores. We touch everything, imagine how we can fit it into our repertoire and then justify the cost after the credit card comes out.
What really lights my fire, though, is a perfect meal out. I absorb menus for the titillating effect reading plate descriptions causes in me. I savor the delivery from the server and then sit back to critique what art has been laid before me. Then- and only then- I eat.
All of this to share with you my great passion for eating amazing food. I want to know where my food is coming from and what's been done to it. I want to share with you the epiphanies I experience at the hands of passionate chefs and cooks.