Who’s in the kitchen?

I’m an amateur in the best sense of the word. I cook because I love it. When I get in the kitchen, all the dozen little annoyances/worries/stupidities of the day fade away, as I chop, slice, sauté, stir.

Not only have I never taken a professional cooking class, I’ve actually had to overcome a childhood in which bread was invariably squooshy and white, and the most used utensil in the kitchen was the can opener. In our midwestern household, frozen vegetables were deemed too exotic. But perversely, fish was always frozen. And breaded. And dreaded.

I started cooking when I was out on my own, out of necessity at first. Then I found I enjoyed it. Still, like most guys who sort of dabble in the kitchen, I developed maybe a half dozen dishes that were pretty good and coasted on them. But one day, I happened to look at a recipe and realized that (a) I could do this and (b) I had a pretty good idea what it would taste like. A real “Aha!” moment for me, the first of many. And the beginning of going from liking to cook to having a real passion for it.

A special thanks to my friend Rich Meyer, principal of Swell Advertising in St. Louis, for the superb Blue Kitchen masthead/logo design.

Oh, and I’m Terry. I’m responsible for all the words and photographs on Blue Kitchen, unless otherwise noted. All content is copyrighted and all rights are reserved, of course.