Why I Do What I Do

"You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces—just good food from fresh ingredients." —Julia Child

Amen Saint Julia! This quote sums up my entire food philosophy, which is to "cook smart, not hard." It is a philosophy I employ every day in my career.

I cook for a living. I used to cook in restaurants, which was immensely fun yet grueling work. Now, I cook for people in their homes. As a personal chef I often cater dinner parties, but mostly I spend my days stocking clients' refrigerators with tasty dishes that they can finish easily and reheat at their leisure. I am also a freelance recipe developer and tester. It's my job to create and test recipes for magazines, which basically means I get paid to play with food.

To be completely honest, after a full day of cooking for other people, the last thing I want to do is come home and cook dinner for myself. Oftentimes I don't, but I rarely order out. I tend to cook meals that refrigerate well and can be reheated or finished quickly. Also, I take full advantage of my leftovers. I'll roast a chicken for Sunday night dinner, use the leftovers to make a hearty chicken salad for Monday lunch, and whip up a batch of delicious chicken enchiladas for Wednesday night supper (enchiladas are a lot easier to make than you think). On Thursday, I'll throw the bones and a handful of vegetables into a large stockpot and make the simplest chicken stock ever (which I freeze and use for soups). I always purchase the best quality ingredients I can get my hands on. High quality ingredients often benefit from very simple preparations.

I must confess that the culinary arts were not my first love. Don't get me wrong--I have always enjoyed cooking and baking (it's in my genes; my great grandparents were bakers in Germany before they immigrated to America), I just never considered making a career out of it. I actually received my undergraduate degree in film and worked in television production for four years before I came out of the culinary closet. When I finally saw the light, I enrolled in culinary school and embarked on my thrilling new journey.

At first I was drawn to the exotic and complicated. It thrilled me to know that I could achieve many culinary heights, but after a while I realized it was the simple, cozy, comfort foods that truly made people happy--myself included. It's these foods that transport us to another place and time, that remind us of our childhood or that fabulous vacation we went on several years ago. Food is a journey and it should be an enjoyable one.