MY CULINARY JOURNEY BEGAN in an unexpected place: the classrooms of a high school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I was a teacher at the time, spending my summers working in kitchens and gradually falling in love with the art of cooking. It wasn’t something I had planned to turn to as a career; it just unfolded naturally.
As a graduate student, I lived on my own, and my interest in cooking was sparked when my dad sent me some
