I was born in Antibes, France - a beautiful part of the world surrounded by good food and long family holiday dinners. My parents migrated to the NYC when i was 12 years old. I did not realize how lucky i was then, desperately longing for my hometown, but NYC had such a vast range of foods making my exposure and experience wonderful. I now live in Pheonix, AZ with my husband Tom and our 2 dogs Sparky and Sasha and Sophie the cat, everynight i try to cook something new, every meal i try to improve and learn. I often think and thank my Grandpa Chef "Gaby" for giving me the love of cooking and watching me from above guiding me along. Bon Appetit! I love to cook Asian and Indian food, the depth of flavors are intense. But i try to cook and bake from different parts of the world, makes life more fun and dinners more exciting! We come from the south of France where we have lots of Italian influence and being on the Mediterranean Sea we had access to lots of fishes and delicious tomatoes, abricots, lavender and citrus fruits. Let's not forget the olives! I'm made food for my new philippino family last year - it was challenging making a whole meal from another world! But i found lots of dishes here on Allrecipes! and they loved the food which gave me confidence to invite them over more often! Another challenge was my friend Allie who is a Vegan, i wanted to cook for her for her birthday and made a Vegan meal for her, she enjoyed it and asked me for some of the recipes! I once made these cupcakes and forgot the flour - they rose and rose then flopped down - i had to make a new batch before my guests arrived! I often burn myself but recently i was making guacomole for a friend of mine and i stabbed my palm while trying to remove a pit from an avocado, the blood finally stopped gushing out just in time for lunch!