and supportive group. When it tanked later that year I was devastated. Thanks, Mimi, you're my hero.
I was born in '56 and raised in Torrance, CA. I come from a big family--7 siblings. My mom loved to cook and entertain and though she stuck to pretty basic fare, she was quite good at it. I loved to eat and I learned to make my mom's repertoire.
I studied art in college and in the eighties I lived bohemian-style in my studio--a San Pedro, CA storefront--for a few years. I had a kitchen without a sink, but that didn't stop me from having dinner parties. I washed the dishes in buckets. Eventually I got tired of living in a drafty loft and moved to a normal house with a garden in Long Beach.
I tried to learn to cook more adventurously but I was always frustrated because the recipes I chose were over my head.
In 1989, I was watching a rerun of "Dinner with Julia" in which Julia Child went to the fish market, bought whole fish, fileted them, simmered the bones for stock and put together a beautiful bouilabaisse. I had only watched her before to laugh at her mistakes and to imitate her voice but with this one show something clicked. I went out and bought "The Way to Cook" and used it as a cooking course, and my other books started to make more sense. Around the same time I met my life partner Jacques, who is from France, and with our trips to France and more books by Julia, Richard Olney and Patricia Wells, I've become pretty adept at French food.
As an artist I've had a long series of day jobs and mini-careers. I worked as a waiter for many years, then switched to gardening, starting a flower garden business which I had for ten years, with Jacques eventually joining in. We got too old for gardening and in 1999 we opened a shop in Orange County importing Provencal fabrics and linens from France. We'll be opening a second shop soon in Los Angeles. In between I've started a part time catering business, and I still manage to paint when time permits.
The people I've found on this board have helped me round out my uneven cooking knowledge, and the support here has really built my confidence as a cook.
I was born in '56 and raised in Torrance, CA. I come from a big family--7 siblings. My mom loved to cook and entertain and though she stuck to pretty basic fare, she was quite good at it. I loved to eat and I learned to make my mom's repertoire.
I studied art in college and in the eighties I lived bohemian-style in my studio--a San Pedro, CA storefront--for a few years. I had a kitchen without a sink, but that didn't stop me from having dinner parties. I washed the dishes in buckets. Eventually I got tired of living in a drafty loft and moved to a normal house with a garden in Long Beach.
I tried to learn to cook more adventurously but I was always frustrated because the recipes I chose were over my head.
In 1989, I was watching a rerun of "Dinner with Julia" in which Julia Child went to the fish market, bought whole fish, fileted them, simmered the bones for stock and put together a beautiful bouilabaisse. I had only watched her before to laugh at her mistakes and to imitate her voice but with this one show something clicked. I went out and bought "The Way to Cook" and used it as a cooking course, and my other books started to make more sense. Around the same time I met my life partner Jacques, who is from France, and with our trips to France and more books by Julia, Richard Olney and Patricia Wells, I've become pretty adept at French food.
As an artist I've had a long series of day jobs and mini-careers. I worked as a waiter for many years, then switched to gardening, starting a flower garden business which I had for ten years, with Jacques eventually joining in. We got too old for gardening and in 1999 we opened a shop in Orange County importing Provencal fabrics and linens from France. We'll be opening a second shop soon in Los Angeles. In between I've started a part time catering business, and I still manage to paint when time permits.
The people I've found on this board have helped me round out my uneven cooking knowledge, and the support here has really built my confidence as a cook.