The Beginning
Blog 1
Welcome to my blog! I’ve been wanting to do a food blog for a long time and as a matter of fact, I became a chef because of my desire to be a food writer.
Let’s go back to 2011 when the recession was still doing it’s thing; I was still out of work after losing my cushy PR job in 2009; I was a single mom, living off of unemployment because my severance had run out and so had my patience. I wasn’t able to find another comparable job because companies were hiring new grads who didn’t have the experience or salary requirements I did. I had to start figuring out new career options. Although I could barely boil an egg, I loved to eat and check out new restaurants so I started writing Yelp reviews. As a popular Yelper, I decided I didn’t have to give up writing but I could focus on food and become a food writer. I mean, if snarky, judgmental Yelpers liked my reviews, maybe the world would. So I enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu Chicago’s Culinary Certificate program to learn more about the industry. Never did I imagine that I would fall deeply, inextricably in love with cooking. This experience changed my life and I haven’t looked back!
Growing up, I wasnt the kid who stood by my gramdmother’s side helping her cook and sapping up all the cooking knowledge she bestowed on me . I was the kid who hungrily lurked outside the kitchen wondering when it was time to eat. And when it was time, boy did I eat. And eat. And ate some more. Family members often wondered how I was able to shove so much food inside my skinny little body and never gain weight, but I did. And I did it often,
My mom wasn’t the best cook in the world
but my dad did pretty good. Since they both worked and my dad wasn’t a jerk, they shared equal household responsibilities. I often toggled between what I call “slave food” and military meals. My mom grew up on a farm in an extremely rural part of Alabama and her main culinary takeaways from that experience were the leftover pig parts, (pickled and otherwise) and a variety of mystery stews. When I would visit my grandparents in Alabama for the summer, meals were totally different. Fresh sausage and bacon, creamy grits with butter, salt and black pepper (NO SUGAR) and fluffy, homemade biscuits. Let’s not talk about the tasty dinners she and my aunties prepared with food they grew on their farm—Fried chicken and porkchops, greens, okra, fried catfish, cornbread from scratch and so much more! So even though cooking wasn’t my mother’s thing, she did hsveytwo dishes that no one can touch, even to this day…her cornbread dressing and her chicken and dumplings!!! But I’ll address those in the fall!
Now on to Dad…born in Natchez, MS and raised in Chicago, he got his culinary chops from his mother. When it was my dad’s turn to cook, we enjoyed a lot of classic meat and potatoes dishes and on special occasions we were treated to his amazing gumbo! My other grandmother, or “Mama” as we called her, could cook her ass off AND she taught all her kids how to cook. Weekends and holidays at “Mama’s” house included the same delicious vittles I had down South, plus the most amazing cakes. I found out recently that Mama was good friends with the author of “How My Mother Cooked My Way Through Harvard with These Creole Recipes”, (a rare, out-of-print cookbook now worth $300) and she got a lot of recipes from it. My auntie Adrian now has the book and she told me she got the recipe for her amazing red velvet cake from that very book.
But the best part of it all, was being able to spend time with my family and creating the happiest memories I think about every day.
So here I am, a chef, and I love it! What’s more I love trying new foods, restaurants and sharing my passion for cooking with others through special meals and education. And that’s what you’ll find here. I look forward to this amazing journey and I hope you’ll share it with me!
Chef Kara
