Taste BUDS

My brother and I grew up in the back of a small town bakery.  I was certain that I would “blow that pop stand” and live far away.  Other than that I had no idea where life might take me.  He decided at age 7 to be a doctor.  We both have lived to see our lives come to pass in just that fashion.

Kate is my niece and  following in her father’s footsteps, and mine!  Married to an adventurous vegetarian eater (except for serious distaste for mushrooms that I cannot quite fathom), Kate is an inspired cook and loves a fragrantly spiced curry, a hot cha cha tamale, devils food cake (as long as there if no fruit lurking amongst her chocolate) as well as the snap to a great gourmet hot dog.  She makes a stand-out roasted butternut squash and rosemary lasagna and was top pick at this years cookie exchange when she brought her all-butter hazelnut  linzer shortbread.

My own culinary adventures lead me from coast to coast and then abroad to Paris where I was introduced to the French “mode de la vie” Daily fresh markets, neighborhood patisseries  and boutiques devoted to my desert island food ( cheese!) were adopted as my own preferred way of shopping and dining.  Barely settling back into life stateside I met my husband when we both applied (and were  hired) for the same restaurant job. Ultimately we took the giant leap – got married, had a baby and then, and opened a 75 seat restaurant of our own.

Kate and I have forged a special bond over the years and over projects I often dragged along to our family getaways determined not to succumb to boredom (or let my daughter and her cousin start to bicker over the lounge chairs at the pool).  Adults always congregated around the stove (and the blender filled with some rum or tequila concoction) and as our families grew up we added Kate to our ranks of creative cooks.

Now as she enters residency life is beyond busy, and it takes a concerted effort to make sure there’s time to dine together as a couple.  New docs don’t rake in big dough, so eating out is an occasion to be savored and probably mined for inspiration to make another great dinner at home.  That’s where I come in.

As a new cook honing her skills, Kate has lots of questions and simple cooking inquiries the likes of which I have encountered many times in my career as a chef and restaurateur.  Our blog has become an easy way for us to share our cooking and dining experiences, but also for me to answer a young cooks “culinary conundrums.”  So we are TASTEBUDS, and we are both happy to share our kitchen capers, our culinary question and answer dialogues and our love of all things edible with anyone who would like to tag along.