I have been surrounded with good cooks my entire life. My mom and both of my grandmas were excellent cooks. I was also in the Military as a cook. This is where I learned a lot of techniques, food network is where I learn a lot of new dishes to try! I love Italian/Mediternian Cooking the best! I grew up Polish, so I love a lot of those traditional dishes as well as my mom was a military brat and her mom learned to cooked dishes from all over the world! Oh there have been many over the years. Oh, don't we learn from our mistakes!