My name is Alexandra Stuart (Lexi!) and I am a WWU grad in Modern and Classical Languages, French emphasis. I work at L'Esperance, in Seattle, and hope to pursue a career in culinary arts. My dream is to live in France! My other dream is to run my own show, cooking-wise, somehow. I don't know how that will come about yet. Anything. I love to take classical recipes, especially French ones, and give them an American twist. Merging the best of the Kings of Cuisine (France) with the simplicity of American tastes. My Nonna is Italian, so we cook Italian foods. My mother is a great homestyle cook. I guess I want to take their traditions forward and develop a food style of my own. My first cooking triumph was delivering cookies to the sports teams in school which got good comments from guys for the first time ever. Making divine cakes from cake mixes. Boyfriend Bait Beef Stroganoff. Seattle Nicoise. Burning my arm on a commerical oven. Forgetting to put baking powder in biscuits - they ended up being hockey pucks, real impressive. Forgetting the sugar in cookies. I have a lot to learn, still. But I'm having fun!