I'm 31, and I presently live in Mississippi. I am a world traveler, though, and have picked up ideas for dishes everywhere I lived. I was a private chef for a while, and I was also a line cook at a gourmet vineyard bistro on the bluffs of the Missouri river in Missouri. I like simplified dishes -- I am very interested in ancestral and "back to basics" cooking. I love to bake bread. Salads are so fun to create. I love cooking methods and recipes that date back 100 years or more. I enjoy making my own butter, vinegar, wine, and other commodities. I'm over fancy ingredients and fragile cooking methods. Traditional Southern food is what I love. It's light on the meat, and it is heavy on the food of the land. I make a few substitutions based on healthy choices: instead of animal lard, I use EVOO; instead of heavy cream in everything, I use low-fat substitutes. There's nothing better than a Sunday lunch of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, collards, hoecakes, field peas, and cobbler. Every time a loaf of bread comes out perfectly, I do a celebratory dance. Simple "prepping" procedures make a huge difference: brining turkey an dpork, for example. Don't switch up the used oil with fresh oil when making sweets. Just sayin'. Also... always use a thermometer when baking poultry. Nothing worse than cutting into a chicken for a large dinner party and the insides are pink as a steak.