Restaurant business 30 years in various capacities. Worked in top high end restaurants in NY, Vermont, Honolulu, Santa Barbara, San Diego,and now Miami Beach. Learned alot from chefs, I'm the curious type, ask alot of questions, and love good food. Even when camping, the cooler(s) is full of fresh goodies, usually waiting to be combined with fresh caught fish or seafood. Like the Japanese tea ceremony, the enjoyment is also in the planning and preparation. Mediterannean, Northern Italian, Fusion, traditional American I will cook meat, though now I am an ovo-lacto vegetarian. I became this after being made aware of the horrific conditions and treatment of factory animals, and found I had lost my taste for it. Vegetarianism is a big world and I am exploring it. Once in a while my body craves meat, so I'll trot down to my local Whole Foods and pick up a free range chicken, and that will be it for a month or two. Must be the B12. I had a French grandmother. She tried to feed me and my 5 siblings offal: brains, tripe, liver, sweetbreads. No sauce could hide what it was, and the dog was well fed. I still pass on the pate. My other grandmother was 10th generation American, and did excellent baked beans, roast beef, yorkshire pudding, steamed brown bread, and rice pudding.I remember that fondly, and have her recipes. My Mom was a non-cook 50s generation "wow, all's I have to do is open a can, add water?" I don't like spam or hotdogs. Anyway, I invent my own traditions, pad thai or vegetable cheese strata, Dark rum cake, and assorted nut loaf. The list goes on.... Figuring out how to make genache correctly, buffalo chicken drumsticks, stuffed leg of lamb souffles are tough