Let's introduce ourselves and get to know one another better

I’m in the Washington, DC area, just over the line into Maryland.

I love home cooking, and getting people to cook with real ingredients. I also love baking.

There are many, but one favorite memory is of visiting family on the North Shore of MA when I was young. Every once in a blue moon we’d gather everyone up (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, dogs) and have picnics on the giant rocks overlooking the ocean, right around dusk. Steamed lobsters, corn on the cob, etc. Back then, I had no idea all the work etc that went into those meals, just that it was good.

I love animals, and there’s usually a cat or dog (or both+) helping me in the kitchen.

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Wow. So this is where everyone went. Been showing up at the old playground every now and then to see who might show up but it was depressing with the empty swings, slides and seesaws. Tried giving a push to some little tyke on the swing but I did have my heart in it.

Where are you? Mostly NYC, but I have some secret other locations that I travel to for top secret missions.

What food-related topic are you most passionate about, that you want people to ask you about and you can’t stop talking about it? One topic? You gotta be kidding me. How can I pick one topic? That’s like asking me to pick my favorite dish or child.

What’s a great food experience you have had? My second trip to Italy, I ended up coming late into a small coastal town. Checked into the hotel and the innkeeper directed us to the only restaurant still open. Ordered a grilled seafood platter. One bite and I just had to stop eating. Couldn’t believe how good it was. Freshest most unbelievable seafood I had ever had in my life. Nothing since has come close.

A little tidbit about you Early in my career, I traveled extensively. I racked up over 2 million frequent flyer miles. I would calculate in my head each time I got on a plane how many trips around the world I had flown. These days, I hate traveling. The last thing I want to do is get on a plane. Every time the family wants to go somewhere for vacation, I ask why can’t we just stay home and I can putter around in the yard. My family protests against any thought of a staycation. However, I will still fly happily someplace for a great meal. Got my priorities set.

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Welcome to the Bay State, Thimes! HO is now home to many ex-Hounds from the Boston area.

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Hello It’s JT, thought you got away from me did you?

Philly PA, Kensington precisely.

Ask me why SEPA is a great food region or about why I have all that vintage cast iron hanging in my kitchen and you will probably regret it

Bringing Texan friends to The Bronx’s Belmont and watching their eyes pop out of their heads - not the BX you imagined huh?
Homemade home-raised sausage on a family friends farm in Upstate New York.
Sharing salami, brie and baguettes and a bottle of cheap red wine in a Paris hostel.
Everything I put in my mouth in Siena.
Grilled fresh Jersey corn and sweet melons with crabs caught that morning in a Wildwood rental
My first bit of a quesadilla de camarones in a Houston taqueria - oh, that’s what Mexican food tastes like?
Italian-American style thanksgiving dinners.

I am a NY native, went to school in TX and now settled in Philly. I grew up with great food given Italian American roots and the opportunity to travel. While I always cooked for myself to some extent and often for guests and parties since college moving to (a then rather desolate neighborhood in) Philly and away from the endless and convenient takeout options of NYC and Houston TX definitely demanded I up my game.

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Glad you made it, JT!

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Benvenuto, JTP!! Happy to see you.

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I’m in Aberdeenshire, Scotland

I’m obsessed with cookbooks, food shopping and um, eating.

My greatest food experience was pretty much eating in any restaurant on our holiday to Cape Town, South Africa. only marginally spoiled by being pregnant and therefore not drinking any of the wine, and having a toddler in tow.

I spent several years living in Singapore, so got to see lots of S.E. Asia

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I am in Southern New Jersey, USA. Was a long time “C” member.

I am very passionate about well marbled aged steak & high quality shell & fin Fish.

I enjoy aging my own beef & cooking it M/R on the Big Green Egg.

One of my favorite pass times is getting together with our close friends and enjoying top shelf ingredients and cooking them the way we like it.

Outdoors person…boating, fishing, shooting, carpentry & COOKING!

Almost forgot, loves to EAT!

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1.Where are you? 30 miles west of New Orleans

2.What food-related topic are you most passionate about, that you want people to ask you about and you can’t stop talking about it? Hmmm ya know, I don’t know. I like all food.

3.What’s a great food experience you have had? Birthday at Stella with my good friends (Harry Shearer at the next table), any dinner at Muriel’s and a lunch in the courtyard with my good friend Henry in the rain at Napoleon House in the Quarter. That might be the best one ever.

4.A little tidbit about you. I was a former law office manager, now I am a banquet server at a hotel. Quite the change for a person of my age but it’s been fun.

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I completely dig your avatar. “HEY, ANT!!!”

Thanks…Giving up my age but that was my favorite cartoon.

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I still like to watch the pink guy.

Guess I’m REALLY senile - I thought it was a greyhound!

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I reside in the middle of freaking nowhere- Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, Canada. 3hrs East of Edmonton. 3hrs West of Saskatoon.

I love talking about cooking, ingredients and recipes. I also love reading restaurant reviews.

My greatest and weirdest food memory was eating “baby”, like bug sized, live lobsters on an island in Costa Rica. Our guide opened an oyster that he dove for and these things were living inside. He said they were a delicacy.

Living in a culinary wasteland ( chain, chain, chain…) makes you a better and creative cook.

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1/ WHERE: I live in the Parisienne region in France

2/ FOOD-RELATED PASSION: French food, Japanese food, Chinese food, any food that is good :smile: I grow my herbs, tomatoes, my own vegetables, a bit of fruits, so I can talk non stop about that too!

3/ BEST FOOD EXPERIENCE: every time, when I travel, I try to organise and have a good culinary experience, it’s a good way to learn about the culture of a place with food! While the best food experience has not necessarily to do with the most complex meal, it’s more about sharing and atmosphere. A merrily well cooked, fresh ingredient meal can very well beat a Michelin starred meal with the cold sterile atmosphere.

4/ ABOUT: I When I start to learn French with the TV, specifically with “Bon appetite bien sur” when Robuchon was in his brief retirement period. To be honest, Robuchon is not an exceptional tv presenter, but the chefs he invited, the recipes I’ve tried were always delicious and they worked. (You know how many recipes are not tested and contain errors). Starting there, curiosity leads me to read a lot of blogs, magazines, books (owner of more than 100+ cook books), eating out in restaurants, and even start growing my own veggies.

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Apparently I didn’t do this, maybe it was on another board.

  1. I am in NW Arkansas, and the Ozarks in general. Previously in St Louis.

  2. Mostly I like to talk about how people talk about food. And usually I’m the one asking questions, because there’s probably no answer.

  3. My “great food experiences” have largely been pedestrian. Dolly Madison apple rolls. Blueberry cake doughnuts. Velveeta and Rotel and ground beef nachos. Chilaquiles. Jalepeno Doubles at McDonalds. Deep dish pizza at Black Thorne in St Louis. Hot peach cobbler topped with soft serve vanilla ice cream.

  4. I started cooking at 30 because I realized it was cheaper than living out of the corner gas station. I had ambitions for a long time, but never got serious about it all. Haven’t given a fuck about food itself for a couple of years because all the other cooks on tv sucked all the fun out of it and there’s nothing left to discover, at least on my level. Now I’m turning 50 and if I cook, great, if not Popeye’s does chicken right (but Church’s does the biscuits better). So I’m more interested in what people say about food than I am about food, at this point.

Edit: also I was Ennuisans back then.

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I lived out of a corner gas station for two years in college. “Yes, Dad, I understand the Texaco card’s only for gas and ‘emergencies’. But, . . . .”

More importantly, welcome to the new digs (I promise, I’ll refrain from making the “free bowl of soup” comment about the hat).

Yeah, he is cool too.

Maybe somebody else’s glasses :smile:

  1. Boston-ish
  2. I like prissy plating. I am terrible at prissy plating. I drone on about sous vide and similar modernist techniques.
  3. I found HO through a food-focused website that suffered a disastrous redesign, where I was a longtime lurker and former enthusiastic poster. Fortunately, I always disliked my username there so I’m pleased to pick a new one.
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