Have been cooking since I was a small child through 4-H, Girls Scouts, and won some local cooking contests. Took several cooking courses as part of B.S. in Hospitality. Cooked and bartended through undergrad, and taught a cooking class at a community center my senior year. Large, elaborate meals with several courses. Challenging recipes. Battle scars: I absentmindedly flipped a coffee cake in a tube pan immediately after removing from the oven, gave myself second degree burns all over my hand and arm.