When did you realize you were a foodie?

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Thanks, BuckyTom for starting, and restarting this thread. Only thing is as I tell my story you will probably regret it. :LOL:

I actually believe I was born a foodie. My Mom was of English/Irish heritage and was probably the best cook I've ever known. She would let me watch or help her in the kitchen as long as I remembered. She was also ill a lot and so when my sister left for university when I was 11, I started to make meals. Of course they were pretty simple at first - things like macaroni and cheese (baked) or spagetti, but I did pretty good. On Sundays when Mom was well we would have beef or pork roasts with all the trimmings and I would get to help. Mom also hosted most of the Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving dinners because all our other relatives were older. I loved those times.

Then there were the weekends when I would stay with my Dad's parents. My GranMom was also a great cook and she would let me help her make huge batches of candy (turkish delight), "nuts and bolts" and her famous ham loaf for my great-uncle's club bazzars. Also, when my friends were watching cartoons, I was watching cooking shows (the Gallopping Gourmet, Juilia Child) and reading cookbooks. The first one I bought was a paperback version of the Betty Crocker cookbook (just 2 years newer than ExpatGirl). It is now in several pieces and brown with age but I won't let DH or anyone buy me an updated one!

But I think my true calling started around the age of 8 when I started making the Christmas dessert. It started out with Jello type desserts from recipes I found in magazines to grabbing the November issue of Bon Appetit or other magazines, carefully writing out the instructions for the fancy cover dessert and replicating its every detail (even chocolate holly leaves and ribbons!). I loved the ooooo's and aw's I would get. (I wrote them out because I would return the good as new magazine back to the shelf in my Dad's drug store :rolleyes:) This branched into birthday cakes for my nephew's and friends.

I digressed and went to university for my other passion, writing; however it didn't stop my experimenting in cooking and baking. All but one of my jobs through high school and university were to do with food, and I would experiment on my room mates and friends as much as possible.

I went to school in another province and had an aunt by marriage close by where I would spend weekends. Her Mother was Romanian and she taught me to make perogies, stuffed peppers, cabbage rolls, etc. I also had some room mates from other places and learned a lot about French-Canadian, Szechuan, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and Italian cooking. I was majoring in English and minoring in French, but I think I learned more about food than either subject.

It wasn't until a couple of years ago when my DH and I sold our internet business that he was able to convince me to go to culinary school with some of the proceeds. I surprised everyone (including myself) by taking the culinary program instead of the pastry, but I had taught myself enough about that and really wanted to explore the savoury flavours for a change. I still ended up in off hours in the pastry kitchen asking questions and even conning the instructor into letting me try things.

When my 80 year old Dad watch, with tears in his eyes, me get my diploma in culinary arts, he said he knew my Mom would be proud of me. I told him that she was my inspiration and the best "chef" instructor I ever had.

Sorry to be so long-winded. I am just so greatful to all the people who inspired me that I get carried away!
 
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When I was younger I actually thought I was deprived because everyone else's parents would make them Hamburger Helper! Silly......

Me too! And Kraft Dinner (though I did get a lot of this in university when I couldn't afford the ingredients I wanted!
 
the day I left home at the age of 17. I just knew there was a whole culinary world out there that I had been left out of with my mothers' cooking. Us kids were so depraved, culinary wise, that we each have sought out cooking as an important part of our lives. For mom, it was a chore at best. For us kids, it is a delight to explore, raise, prepare and eat. This is so different from the way we were raised.
 
No one in my family was really passionate about cooking and I was never encouraged to cook while living at home. I also only really started getting into cooking when I started living on my own.
 
Since I was 6 or 7 I always spent my time with my mom in the kitchen. Or rather whenever she was in the kitchen cooking I was always near. I think when I wa about 12-13 I decided to become a chef, well, that did not happened, but love for cooking is still there.
 
Julia Child's cooking shows really inspired me, too. There really was nothing like them at the time. I was watching them from day one. When she plunged that lobster, he-man that he was, into the boiling pot, and her mouth describing the process sounded like it was full of butter, I was hooked. Went out and priced lobsters that day....could not afford it.......but I remembered how to do it and years later when we could I secretly thanked her for her inspiration
 
My childhood exposure to food/cooking was much like bethzaring's. My mother was a pretty decent basic cook, but had no interest in doing it. Besides my dad, she had to cook for 5 children. However, she was, let's say, less than dependable because she constantly feigned illness or would pick fights and leave my dad for weeks, months at a time.

By age 8, I became the family cook. I was the oldest and a girl, so that seemed natural. I didn't seem to think the arrangement unusual and cooked everything imaginable right out of the gate. This should've soured me on cooking but, instead, I became fascinated with the process and by the time I was 13 I'd enrolled in a cookbook "book" club. I still have all those wonderful first cookbooks...and more.

Love food and love cooking to this day. Been at it for 50 years. Hope to be doin' it for another 50.
 
For most of my life, food was food with some of it better than others, and cooking was something that you did to eat, although, it was always good to "play" at doing something new. But it didn't really start until i was in my 20's and got to experience decent food in restaurants (inasmuch as it wasn't cheap eats cafes etc or home cooked (however well done) food) that my tastebuds expanded.

It wasn't though until I developed kidney failure and a lot of foods were denied me that my perverse nature took hold and I wanted those foods!! Also, with the change in hormone levels, my tastebuds also changed and foods that held no appeal previously, were now well and truly in my vision. Going out to eat became a treat for all the medical appointments and treatments (not to mention the hospital food!), and with that came greater inspiration to expand my culinary experiences. For the most part, if someone else wants to cook for me though, I am happy for that to happen. I just have different standards now as to what I consider good cuisine.
 
Bilby, sorry to hear about all your health issues but I can really relate as to how that can change your eating habits.

BTW, I'd be happy to be your personal chef....I have always wanted an excuse to see Australia!
 
Hmmm, it really wasn't until my kids were grown and on their own and my husband left me for a newer model that I really discovered I was a foodie. All those years of raising children and being the breadwinner, well, I was lucky to slam anything edible on the table. Then I came into this quieter time in life and I began to realize that cooking is an art that I could experiment with and really enjoy. I learned to savor food. I always tell my friends, if you are coming to dinner at my house, bring a box of Kleenex because the food is going to be so good you will weep at the table. When I cook for friends, I go hog wild, if you know what I mean.
 
I always loved food and being in the kitchen.

As a young kid my mom did NOT cook (she's great now though thank you food network and hungry step dad)... I have possibly the only Italian Grandmother who HATES cooking.... she still hates it at 85!

Fortunatley I was watched during the day by my great aunt who was a great cook. She cooked pretty much Italian-American immigrant fare but everything, even a simple bowl of pasta, was a labor of love and executed perfectly (her father, my great grandfather, was a tailor so this mentality of percision and craft was pervasive... this I did not inherit)

My love of food and cooking I belive comes from this aunt who was the most important person in my early childhood.

I had the opportunity to travel alot in my teens/20s and experienced a great variety of foods this way and I was always eager to try

I started cooking in college when I got my first apartment and it has been an important part of my life ever since.

During the periods in college that I was in the dorms we ate out alot too and I got to experience all sorts of great ethnic foods in the quest for cheap grub.
 
When I spent as much dining out as one would on a sports car in the month of Nov. 2007 alone... :angel: (which was more than my mortgage payment)
 
when i was seven. i voraciously read cookbooks like novels, i wanted to be in that kitchen, COOKING! and i cooked what a kiddo can cook. now, at 27, my love of food is mature & yet growing.
 
I never cared for eating that much until I was in high school and I took a foods class. I learned to appreciate what went into preparing a dish/meal and enjoyed the finished product so much, too much sometimes! From then on I was a foodie!
 
Been fun reading this thread. I hated cooking while growing up, this was mainly because, I never had the chance to cook at all, we always had someone to cook and clean for us, then as I became a teenager, I think my mum panicked, so she told me one day to make 'ugali'(stiff porridge made from maize meal)It was a disaster and she told me off. I hated cooking from then on, in-fact when I went to hotel school, I didn't apply to be a course in food production(which thinking back I would have really loved) I still hated cooking, but I learned a lot during my course about food preparation through the recipes we were given that I put to use whenever my friends came over to visit after I graduated. I slowly started experimenting and enjoying the results. After that, whenever there was a get together, I offered to prepare at least the main meal, no-one complained, they were happy to bring a salad or something. I loved every minute of it. So in my case it was a bit later that I realized that I loved cooking, but mainly because I was introduced to cooking under stress!
 
Having said all that and reading Luv's posting, I do recall having cookbooks around the age of 8 or so, that I enjoyed reading like novels.
 

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