I was born in New Orleans, La and moved to Ohio when I was 10 years old. I have the Southern and Country influences in my blood. I enlisted in the Submarine Service and visited many countries throughout the world. I always tried the local foods. Some were very good and some were very bad. After I retired from the Navy, I started to find ways of blending the tastes that I experienced from other countries with the ones from home. Desserts are my favorite and are the worst things to eat. It seems that I enjoy the unhealthy foods the most. Cooking with my children. As soon as they were old enough to sit on their own, I'd put them on the counter with me and let them work their own dough. One thing I like to do is to duplicate a dish at home that I've had at a restaurant. Again with the duplication, once I made a Mexican chicken dish that was terrible. The sauce was runny and the chicken had virtually no flavor. I did however perfect it. I couldn't get the base for the sauce right. One night I woke up in the middle of the night and told my wife to remember bechemel in the morning. That was it and it worked.