Cooking Confidential

Who am I and why am I doing this? There is a reason. I have been cooking pretty much non-stop for the past 35 years. I started off with a bang as a 20 year old college student living at home when I took over daily dinner preparations for my parents and 13 younger siblings as part of my contribution toward my room and board. After college, I cooked in restaurants and university food service and did some free-lance catering. When I was 25, a very hungry David Nelson proposed marriage in September,we were married in November, and departed for a year’s stay in South India after Christmas. What a great food adventure that was! We inherited our short little south Indian housekeeper from the departing director of the Madras Alliance Francaise, so we spent our stay eating excellent French “cuisine bourgeoise” and traditional South Indian specialties–all made in our tiny kitchen on a portable 2-burner gas stove. Back in Minnesota, I cooked for David, a succession of housemates (who were sometimes younger siblings),a little French restaurant, a doughnut bakery and again, the university food service. After our second child, we began a somewhat nomadic existence which found me cooking with and for new friends and the 2 additional Nelsons who joined the family along the way.

Here in Philadelphia, I have cooked for, on average, 3 “homestay” international students from local English language programs and my family for the last 10 years on a nearly daily basis. But, what is the purpose of Cooking Confidential? I have a serious interest in food lore and cooking and has been doling out information and advice to friends and family, especially in the form of answers to 911 type (help!) calls, for many years. I try to always be there to help them with whatever problem they may be encountering in the kitchen–hence the Confidential. I have discovered over the years that for many people cooking is an unpleasant burden which they have come to resent. That’s because there has been a serious rupture in the cooking traditions that we once took for granted. My mission is to help unhappy souls learn to “think” food — to internalize enough basic tecniques and food lore (shopping, nutrition, food storage etc.) to put them into what I like to call “automatic pilot” mode. I firmly believe that a “kitchen restoration”, as my husband calls it, is easier than you think. People who do cook daily do not rely on cookbooks or recipes for the majority of their cooking. It is to help those who want to provide good nutritious meals to their families but who fell stymied because of their lack of familiarity with any number of cooking skills that I think I can be of service.