The New Family

Weve met peppe zullo less then a day ago and I can't put into words how friendly he's been.

But before we met the man we had to make the journey, wich wasent easy as it should have been. We got a lift from the school from our dorms to the bus stop, and with the hour we had left before the bus showed up we had a brew and remembered our short history toghther with some other students. When the bus showed up we said out final goodbyes and best wishes to each other and went our seperate ways.

When we reached the train station we encountered our first conflict, the ticket station was closed. So with the help of some extremely friendly and non-english speaking older italian gentlemen, 3 of them to be exact, we were finally able to figure out how to order our tickets through a machine. So for a 9hr train from Asti-Foggia we decided to get a sleeper car so we could make the trip as painless as possible, little did we know they would *almost* cost us each 180E. We re-looked our options and found a 4 car with beds for 70E each wich we were much happier with. We headed to the train platform and nervously awaited or train that would take us on our next adventure to italy.

When the train arrived we decided it would be best if we jumped in the first car and just walked down untill we found our seats, little did we know that those seats would be the LAST car in the train. So after jumping through 12 cars and squeezing by about 30 people we found our room and proceeded to fall asleep in our, smaller than twin sized, beds. (it was better than sitting in a chair for 9 hrs, neither of us disagreed that fact.) When we landed the language barrier really kicked in when we were trying to find our bus to osara, difficult and frustrating were not the words but we were lucky enough to meet a bus driver who spoke minimal english and he told us what bus we needed. He was also kind enough to tell us we needed to buy tickets ahead of time, something we wernt used to. So after almost missing our only bus out here at 6 a.m. we finally set sail on a 1hr and a half trip to our new home.

Peppes Award Winning Wine Cellar. All his wine dateing back to 2001

Once we landed we were dropped of in front of what seemed to be the local bake shoppe, we talked to them and they were kind enough to understand Peppe Zullo and call him to come pick us up. When he showed up the first words out of his mouth to myself and Anthony was, and I quote: "Welcome to the Family." Talk about being welcomed in fast. We then jammed our luggage into his car for a 2 min ride to the top of his complex, listening with careful ears to every word that this man spoke and it was instantly obvious that he was the real deal. He spoke of how he wants the freshest food possible, easy to understand when he has a 2,000 square meter farm...with a working stove top and oven set-up in the center. He was giving us the tour of the complex and showed where his grape wines comes from, all the fresh herbs, his wine cellar, and cheese ageing cellar are.

We were then shown to our dorms and allowed to catch up on some much needed rest. When we woke up we started cooking. We prepared lunch for us and his son, a roasted rabbit with potatoes. Now his philosophy on food is a well understood one, you should never over dress a food so much that it loses its natural flavour. Meaning there is really no need to put a bunch of herbs in the rabbit dish so all we used was olive oil (made in house), salt, and vino. While that was cooking we sauted up the rabbit liver with some fresh squeezed juice (Orange and lemons also in house. [see the pattern here?!?]) and brandy.. Ate that with some crusty bread and spilt the bottle of vino between us. We then were albe to finally taste some of the zullo wine he makes, two bottles of it to be exact, and its a simple wine, no intense flavors or aromas but a simple classic wine wich paired quite well with the rabbit and potatoes.

Me and Peppe

With all that in our system we sat around and talked, not like boss to employees, or co-worker to co-worker, we sat and talked like family. Like we had been sent to america when we were only children and this was the first meal we shared in 15 years. We talked about our past, where we had worked and what previous knowledge we had, we talked about our familes back home and our personal lives, and of course we talked about the food. All in all it was an extremely exciting first day and I can not wait to explore more of the Peppe Zullo world.




Untill next time. Pace&Amore

-R

And so begins a new chapter.

On thursday we took our final exam for our breve course in I.C.I.F. We pulled recipies out of a hat the day before, the recipies include everything weve gone over so far so if had missed a recipie it could really backfire. I pulled Semifreddo al Torrone Con salsa Al Cacao, a dessert dish. We started cooking at 9 and had to have 3 portions ready by the time the 3 judges were ready to taste your food. Everyone had a different time and the courses were all in order so being the dessert I was close to dead last to present. I finally did around 12:30 and all went quite well. I got a 24 out of 30 for a grade, 4th highest in class. The rest of the day went smoothly and we received our dipolmas at eh end of it all.

I also found out where ill be heading for the next 3 months on thursday. I decided to go to Foggia, Puglia to a...well im not sure what to call it. Its a farm with a wine vineyard, a reasturaunt, a hotel, and a school. Its huge and I cant wait to go. (Peppezullo.com) Im also going with a fellow student (Anthony John Rinaldi) so we'll be sure to keep in touch.

As always Be Happy. Ill update sooner than later.

...Always venture the path less traveled

Finally some peace, quiet, and internet to type up another tale...

So this weekend thankfully happend after a few tries. Myself and a few other students were orginally supposed to go to Venice on friday night and come back but the trains and hotel just dident happen to work, our next plan was a 3 day stint in cinque terre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinque_Terre) but that too wasent successful...well atleast the first day.

Rapallo from our hotel room

 We did go Cinque Terre but we left saterday morning so we figured leave early, stop in Rapallo to set up the hotel, head to Cinque Terre, See two towns, head back, sleep, finish on sunday, and go home exahausted. Well we made it to Rapallo and fell in love, we couldent leave such a beautiful town and use it only as a rest stop so we insted spent saterday walking through the town. We stopped to get dinner on the coast line and it brought a whole new meaning to fresh sea food. I had a spaghetti dish with clams, mussels, shrimp, and sepia, it was fantastic. We then went and continued walking around only to stop once again at a local bar. We enjoyed a few drinks and then headed back for our big day tomorow.

Monerosso Al Mare

We caught the train early and left directly for Monterosso Al Mare the first town on our journy. It was a soft dizzle of rain at this point but it became a constant down pour later in the trip. When we arrived we were instantly hit with the view of the cliff faced coast line and it was unbelivable, from there it was a small hike to the main part of town from the train station. This city was the most populated of all the towns we were to visit that day but most of everything was closed because of it being sunday. After walking around the town we headed up towards a church at the highest hill in the town to see the view. When we reached it we found a cemetery behind it wich went even higher. While walking around I found some staircases that headed higher so after a bit of hiking and searching I was able to see the whole coast from one of, if not thee, highest point in monterosso.

Vernazza

From there, still raining, we headed to Vernazza the second town out of the 5. This town was more of a fishing port and sailing town then anything eles. We walked around and to our suprise it was quite small compared to the last but it still had its own perks that made it completely different. When we decided we had finally seen as much of Vernazza as we could we checked the train schdule to see we still had 45 mins to burn before the next train to Corniglia so exploering we went. The group decided to see the back side of the town and as we were headed that way a small staircase, no wider than the average mans shoulder, caught my eye. Now in said situation I probably should have talked to the group to see if they wanted to go or to see if the stair case was private or not but insted I went. It was close to a mile hike up stairs, slick roads, dirt paths and other potential hazards in the pouring rain but the view was absoluetly worth it. I was able to see the entire town below me; The lighthouse, the church, the dock, all of it seemed so small and it was at this point I was determined to see as much of the next towns as I could.

Corniglia

When I finally made it down the path, completely soaked from the rain, we boarded the train and headed to Corniglia. When we arrived the rain had died off , and we were informed that the entire town was on top of a hill roughly a mile and a half walk to the top, we could walk or we could wait around for a bus to take us to the top for a small fee. So we decided that seeing as we are all poor college students and time was of the essence that we would hauld you know what to the top. Along the way we met some locals and a dog that followed us all the way, some little things that made the hike alot more bareable. Once we reached the top we found out that this whole town was extremely tightly put toghther, all the ally ways and paths were just as tight as the path in the last town. As we were walking around my mind was still on one thing, getting to the highest possible point in the town to see as much as I could see. So after 4 dead ends, 3 Low veiw points, and I dont know how many locked gates I finally found a spot behind the local church in wich you could see the train station, the whole coast, and mountain side. At this point the hunt was becoming fun for me and the fatigue dident really bother me. We then headed back through the maze of buildings to the center of town only to see that we missed the bus and had to race back to the train station to make the next train...barely

 

Riomaggiore at night

While on the train we realized we had to make a decison as to wich town we were to see due to the fact we wouldent be able to see both and still make the train home, so it was Manarola or Riomaggiore. We decided asfter brainstorming and discussing the idea that we would see Riomaggiore. When we arrived the rain had picked up again so we decided we would go, look around, and go out because we were all soaked and cold. We found out that the last train back home was an hour away so we departed on our own adventure to see what we could. This town was somewhat of a mix between the first towns population and the port and fishing of the first. So this was it, the last town to see from a birds eye view, we headed up the main street wich would lead to the top of the town but for me, not high enough. While we were walking I saw some of the roughest looking stairs ive seen thus far, easily 6-8 inches in height between steps, but they went straight up to the top. I headed up with a fellow student in wich seemed like a hike forever, only to see the top of this town and to see what the entire Cinque Terre looked like under the lights. When we finally reached the summit of stairs we walked down the road to the furthest most point of the town so that we could see all of the life under us. The view at night was absoluely fantastic to see and worth every one of those hellish steps. After a few photos we headed back to the train (Wich we barely made) and took a long train back to our home.

Now let me say that I was freezing, wet, sore, fatigued, and all around completely beat but was beyond estatic to say that I had seen all of Cinque Terre in ways most people havent.

So always remember when given the oppertunity...

-R

One more week...

Still can't grasp the fact i'll be in italy untill february...



Fresh mozzarella with salsa verde

 So this week was a quiet week altogether but still eventful no the less, on monday we had a new chef (whose name I can't remember right now) and we went over lot of fresh herb techniques and recipies. We learned a salsa verde recipie along with steak tar tar, salted cod with orange segments, and poached shrimp with fresh mozz and fruit salsa. All cold served recipies garnished and made complete by the use of fresh herbs insted of sauces or glazes. That night some of the other students in our dorm went to a truffle hunt and were able to bring home white truffles, some the size of your hand, and that was a sight to see.

One of the dishes we made a potato and salted cod souffle

On tuesday we had chef mario once again and were slowly learning more about this 70 something year old man who we all refer to as pop-eye. He's written 7 books, teaches a college class with 1,600 students, and if anything goes the least bit wrong he sticks to he trademark statement of "Don't worry, Be happy." On that day he went over 2 basic plates of stuffed endives with a marinated leek salad and stuffed marinated onions. (I really should be writing the italian names but I can't fine my cook book at this exact moment.) That afternoon we were finally able to cook our own food, simple dishes but the feeling of using a kinfe again was fantastic, I can't wait untill extership so I can really get back to what  It used to be in the states.



Leek puree soup and squid.



On wensday we had chef mario again this time with the same results about the day, Don't worry just be happy. We went over a few different dishes including fried artichokes and fresh mozz, a potato and panchetta mixtured baked with fresh mozz and herbs, A vegetable lasgana consiting of eggplant and different peppers with a cheese and cream sauce, and a leek soup puree with poached squid. Its interesting to see someone with chef marios stature and speed at his age to think of all the ideas and recipies going through his head, now thats someone id like to grab a cup of coffe with.

White Wine

Today we were given a complete rundown in the proper way to serve, smell, drink, taste, and store wines. We spent more time learning about wines than I thought possible but I was pumped full of knowledge I dident know before and was suprised about all the little things we learned. How to grade wine based on color, flavor weither it was dry or not, the fruits used and how to distinguish them from each other when smeeling a wine, and every little thing you should look for when pairing a wine with your food. What we went over in 5 hours seemed like a life time of information for wines but the man giving the demo had been doing this for over 10 years and claimed we had barley touched the surface...I can belive it.

This weekend we are trying to figure out some train schedules and see if we can see more of this beautiful country while were here, Theres not alot of time...cherish what your given.

-R

Mare Pizza? Looks real good to me

Timberlands are great shoes in wet and rocky climates, not when you walk 6 miles...

So this weekend me and a few other of my classmates decided to finally get out of this small town and see what eles the boot had to offer, we dident go to far but a little was enough for us. We took a bus down to the center of Asti, Italy for a day trip to see what we were missing, and we were some what impressed. Now if you go to a town such as Asti where you can buy pretty much anything you would need, but you have no real need for anything you end up walking around...alot. We started by hitting the open air market where there is enhough fresh food, clothing, electronics, and anything eles your heart could ever possibly need, outside. The easiest way to describe it is that its like a costco warehouse with out a roof on it. When then decided to hit up all the roads, main drags, and side street we could just to say we had left no stone unturned. While walking around we found out that all the churches in Asti are un-believable, almost completely covered in hand paintings of all sorts of biblical things. It really is something you have to see once, and the churches we saw wernt really even that big, atleast compared to the once around rome and other major cities.  We continued walking around window shopping like every other tourist would and started to realize how small our small town really was, and this city too wasent at all that big, so it really made us all curious about our future here and what eles would supries us in our future tavels. After enough church hoping and aimless walking we grabbed a slice of pizza and a bira and headed back home.

Note: Mare pizza is a "Sea" pizza meaning its going to have all sorts of random sea-food on it...stick with margarita.

-R

p.s.  Sorry about the photo blogger wont let me turn it.

...Do as the Romans do

So ive been a little out of loop with this blog but when better to wrtite then when waiting for laundry?

Its the end of the first week or class and its kinda weird to think that weve been here for a week and we still have 3 months of italy to go. Most of us are happy here, not exactly what we expected but life never is, you gotta learn to roll with the punches. We learned from the other roomates alot about the school, more than we ever could have guessed. Theres two sets of classes, a master and a breve class. The master class is somewhere around 6-8 months while the breve is 3 weeks. Each master and breve class has diffrenet

nations in them. Theres the korean, japenese, brazilian, canadan, american, and english speaking mixed. Theres only korean, american, brazilian and english speaking enrolled currently, The american being the only breve course. We also learned, to the disapointment of most of us, the class is 90% watching and only 10% hands on. Its a big change for everyone in our course coming from a school where everyday we were cooking something. Its a change but you gotta get the most out of it and its not like the teachers dont know what there doing, they are easily some of the smarest and sharpest people involved in culinary ive met. Almost every instructor has a translator because they speak only italian but we have had one chef that spoke okay english. Classes go from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with a break for lunch and a few smoke

breaks because everyone and there mother smokes in italy.

On monday we went over what we needed to be an offical italian student, paperwork/passport and all that jazz. A few of my fellow students got there first real taste of  italian women when our beautiful director was going over all our paperwork. Now im not going to say any names but its easily shown that a few of them went head over heels for her, instantly. On tuesday we had our first in kitchen day; We spent it with chef mario, the only english speaking chef, going over all sorts of bread from the classic italian and cristini to a foccacia and cibatta.Wensday we got to go on a field trip to a family own cheese factory and a wine fermentation a nd distribution center. The cheese was completely produced off of milk from animals found at the farm (cows, goats, and sheep) We got to see the animals and the machines used to produce the cheese but due to health restrictions we wernt allowed into the factory. At the end of the tour we had the oppertunity to taste 4 different cheeses, a cow and sheep mix semi soft cheese with thyme, a cow/goat/sheep semi soft with toasted hazelnut, a aged hard sharp cow cheese, and an aged cow blue cheese. The first three cheeses we were told to enjoy but to wait before we ate the blue because it was to be paired with a wine wich was only produced in the town we were in. The wine we were given was a 1999 raisin wine that paired perfectly with the cheese wich was a really mild bluie cheese compared to what ive tasted in the states. After that we went to a wine distribution center, they dont grow there own grapes but the take grapes from other farmers, squeeze them and then age them in the facility. We got to walk around the complex and see the grape crushers that can squeeze 10 tons of grapes at one time. We were then led to the area where the put they barreled the wine and aged  it. after we got to see all the barrles and re-fill centers we were given a demo in proper tasting and smelling of 4 diffrenet wines. We learned how to distinguish different smells, how to read a body, and what fruits give diffrent colors. The entire experience was extremely interesting and a delicious day, not to mention getting a little bent. Thursday we made pizzas in the morning with chef P. and with chef piere in the afternoon we went over multiple pastries. Friday we were with chef Danielle (Dan-yell-e) all day, we got to make gelato and a few other cream and milk based pastries. One of the best parts of the college is that every chef either currently owns or has previously owned a reasturaunt.

Thats pretty much my entire week in a blog post, hopefully this weekend I can get to asti to see somethiung more than this tiny town.

As they say when in rome...

-R

I guess this wont be as simple as I thought...

So I know im letting some people down with the blog posts or lack there of, im trying honestly I am but the internet is a bit tricker than expected.

I promise ill have a good one up by the end off this week...promised.

Apologies to everyone again.

-R


p.s. I am still cooking, not just walking around Italy :]

Make new friends and do new things.

So truffles are probly the best thing since sliced bread.

When I say truffle im not talking about a ball of chocolate that you can get from the candy shoppe for a dollar im talking about a mushroom that looks like a clump of dirt, smells like nothing eles, and cost a un-believable amount of cash. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle_(fungus)
Every year Alba, Italy has a truffle fest and everyweekend a new town has a fixed menu with all sorts of truffle dishes, I was luckey enough to be apart of it.

For lunch we went to a local reasturaunt with all of the other student and had "tagalatelle e truffio" wich was fresh tagatelle in a butter sauce with fresh white truffle shaved on top. I would describe the dish here too but it was literally to good for words. We then left headed back to college to rest before our dinner reservation at 8.

When we went to the bar for the dinner we were greated by our barkeep from the previous night and lead down stairs where the chef sat us. We were the only people in the entire place that night, guess it pays off to make new friends. We were given the truffio menu and instantly attracted to the risotto e truffio, we were warned it would take at leat 18 mins. wich just ment it was made from scratch. We ordered a bottle of sparkling white wine (were getting pretty good at ordering wines now) wich went quite well with the dish. When the bread and amuse was finished our dish came out as a basic looking risotto so we instantly asumed the truffio was in the risotto itself. The waiter then came out with three white truffles the sized of your fist and shaved them fresh onto the plate...once again indescribably good.

We finished the night by going upstairs and once again spending quality time with our favourite barkeep. Off too sleep now, first day of school in 9 hours.

-R

p.s. successfully ordered gelato in italian for a group of us, the language is not that hard to pick up :]

So the spell check checks my american words in italian? Guess this isnt going to help.

Before I start let me state that the internet here is not the greatest so ill post whenever I can get connection.

Now, let me try to put into words my first day here. Im right now sitting on our balcony at the college eating probly the best apple ive had in a while, listing to the church bells ring from the top of the town and just relaxing.

Our flight here was fairly non-incidental except for one student having their brother slip something into their bag wich could have easily landed him in an italian prison, notice that I say italain not american because it somehow got through customs at JFK airport. But everyone is fine so there is no need to dwell on the past when there has been so much more "enjoyable" memories...even though that was one of the funnist.

When we landed we were instantly greated by the bus driver for the I.C.I.F. After the hour bus ride to the dorms it was an instant culture shock to see students here not throwing a football around but kicking a soccor ball, something rarley done in the states. All of the students were instantly friendly in helping us move in and showing us around the campus. Im dorming with three other students here on the third floor and I really dont have a problem with it, the only draw back is were still not sure of the clothes washing situation, we think its all hand wash but we'll find out soon enough...or at least we'll have to.

                     This is our view from the dorm-room.

Once we found out where we would be living we had to go and find out where the college is and how to get there so 4 of us took off for the town, easily one of our best moves because theres no better way to find out about your surroundings then to experience them yourself. We found the school with ease, it's an old castle turnd into a school, we also found the local markets, butcher shoppes, church, and of course...the bar.

While we were walking around we tried to take a short-cut back down to the school wich actually turned into cutting through a really nice older italain mans yard. He was kind enough to welcome us, then procede to tell us that this area was "Privato" (private) and then show us out, a bit scary but hospitality once again wins. We ended up figuring all the correct routes around the town and proceded to get back safely.

Our School.

So after walking around and heading back we decided to start chatting up the locals and found out that their interesting folk, and pretty damn helpful. They told us that if we dident get food today we'd be hungry sunday because the towns completely shut down after the siesta (1:30-4:30) The siesta is daily, the entire country stops and takes a break/power nap and then starts back up until there closing hours but on sundays they just go home, two of my rommates are doing last minuite runs for water as I type this. Back to the story, we headed back out to the town to get meats, bread, cheese, and fruits. Something eles that caught us off guard, you have to order meat in grams...So after trying to breach the language barrier for 10 mins one of our more fluent classmates happend to walk in and helped us out. We were ready to rumble for sunday brunch.

Get to the dorm, Check

Meet the other students, Check 

Find the college, Check

Explore the town, Check

Get food, Check

Time to celebrate.

We all met up back at the college and organized that we would go to the bar in the town for a glass of vino and remanice over the entire college program and try and let it sink in that we were really in Italy. So we made it to the bar and realized that there was a reasturaunt under the bar so we tried to get dinner insted but were told it was resevation only and sat at a 6 top in the bar as orginally planned. We then ordered some reds and sparkling whites and made a toast to "We've made it this far, we can't slack off now. Start strong end strong." We were then givn a few order of amuse from the bar keep, a great tactic to keep your customers buying more because we all got a round of belgen bira. The consisted of pasta salad, a cheese mouse on a crustini, cheese and foccia, peanuts, and crisps (Poatato chips) it was all good fun and we all had a great time. We finished the night by buying a bottle of lemonchelio, now before you think oh god there getting drunk in public, its a small bottle and there was 6 of us so one round finished the bottle. The barkeep then gave us a half bottle of a "Christmas Liquor" it was a cinimon infused liquor and it was, christmas in a bottle. After that we then got the tab and gacve our barkeep a well deserved tip he then thanked us greatly, and gave us a table for 6 tonight at the reasturaunt.

So without a doubt a great first day with only more to come.

-R

A good bye for now, not forever.

"Time flies when your having fun."
That was a true testament to this last week, although I hope it doesn't apply for over seas travel.

This past week I've been doing alot of last minute shopping for italia and saying my final good-byes to as many people as I could.
(If your reading this and I missed our good bye I'm sorry, Goodbye, I'll miss you. I'll be back in February.)
                                    But all the driving around has given me alot of time to think about everything that's going on around me through school and travel, friends and family and I really just can't wait to go and start a new chapter of my life.

First off let me say that I've never been away from my home for longer than a week so this 4 month trip overseas, to some may seem small, but to this guy, its a big deal. I never thought packing clothes for that long was going to be easy but surprisingly it wasn't too too difficult. (Ill probably get to Italy and then realize i missed a bunch of things but I'll worry about that when the time comes.)

But over the past week with the thousands of questions asked about the trip and such one question sparked me more than any "What made you want to start cooking?"  And I really couldn't put an answer to it exactly. Now I'm talking back when I was a kid, back when the legacy first started (I have a feeling I'm gonna regret that line.) I couldn't even think what made me want to cook, I just always have.

Back when I was knee high to a grasshopper and the earliest memories I have are burning my hand on a cast iron pan, I've always been interested in cooking. I would always cook with my grandparents when ever I could and that was always fun for me but when I got older and I needed to know more about what I was doing I enlisted in the closest help possible, Family.

Cousins of mine, Jane and Shelia, owned their own catering business (Heavenly Edibles) and that was really the first "Job" you could consider me having in the culinary field, nothing serious just enough to get my nose into it and see if I liked how it all smelled, well sure enough I liked it and ended up choosing my High School because of it.

 I went to Cheney Tech in 2005 for culinary arts and I really didn't have a doubt in my mind at that point that this would be something I wanted to do for a while. My absolutely fabulous instructors AL Hovasse, Roxanne Ballachino, and Theresa DeSantos were three major influences on my culinary career and I still keep in touch with them to this day. Without the guidance, knowledge, love, understanding and the "constructive" criticism they gave me I can easily say I wouldn't be who I am today, and for that I thank you guys.

But there is only so much school can do for you, everybody has had to work in a restaurant one time or another and I haven't had many jobs in the field being only 19 but I have tasted both ends of the culinary spectrum.

Besides working with family I then had a job working at a local Greek/Mediterranean restaurant where a busy night was 60 covers (Covers = tables of people that order food). From there I cant say I learned new way to cook but it had opened my eyes to a real restaurant atmosphere, an experience which is can not be taught through any sort of classes.

From there I landed my next job at Restaurant Bricco in West Hartford. Now going from doing 40-50 covers a night to 250-350 is a monster jump and its here I learned that your fastest fast, just really isn't fast enough. I never once considered myself a quick worker by any means but this was a real eye opener. But it wasen't just the sheer speed and turnover that impressed me the most it was the dedication and care that the people had for their food. It didn't matter if we had a full board and more tickets coming in, every single dish put out was made to look "nice-nice" because if you didn't look at it and instantly want to eat it, what makes you think someone paying $25 for it is going to want to.

So I guess if it wasn't for the speed and dedication of Bricco, or the eye oping experiences at the first job in east windsor, or picking my high school to pursue culinary arts, or getting help from family, or even burning my hand on a cast iron pan before I could even read; if it wasn't for those things you probably wouldn't be reading this blog anyway, so I guess when it all comes down to why I went into cooking...

...Everything Happens For A Reason.

-R