When did you realize you were a foodie?

[luvs]

i think i've always been a foodie. by the time i was 7 i had a cookbook collection. at my Grandparent's on the one side of my family, i used to read thier cookbooks constantly, and at my other Grandma's, i used to dig through the cupboards and 'cook' when i was like four years old. i also used to have Grandma cook fried eggs for me, -i think i was maybe about 3 then- because it fascinated me to see the egg go from clear to white.
i didn't usually really eat the egg, though, just loved to see it being cooked. i learned how to bake very early on, and i knew how to temper chocolate at about 8 or so. going grocery shopping with my Dad on Sundays was one of my favorite things. my parents just kind of let me go in the kitchen after awhile. i think they just gave up. :D

[Bangbang]

My very first cook book was one I got from my Grand Mother over 40 years ago. I miss her a lot and I only new her for a short time before she died. She immigrated here with her family from England.

[AllenOK]

Ever since about '82 or '83, I've been "chunky". I got teased a bit in Junior High about having a "beer belly". I never really worried about it. I liked to eat. I had a reputation as being a kid who could eat a lot.

My mother has commented that the reason I have always been "chunky" is that when my Mom was growing up, it was her responsibility to cook for the family and farm hands, which included her parents, 5 brothers, 5 sisters, and I don't know how many farm hands. She didn't know how to cook for just a couple people, so she always made LOTS of food.

But, I never really remembered putting away a lot of food until my father retired from the US Navy and we moved back to OK and spent 6 months with my g'mother. She liked to cook, and she cooked "country food", and a lot of it. After then, I noticed I was getting a "beer belly".

When I was in my late teens/early twenties, I still hadn't moved out. But, I knew "the good life" was quickly drawing to a close, and that I was going to be out on my own, and I didn't know how to cook squat. So, I started buying a few cookbooks and tried to teach myself how to cook. And teach myself, I did. What NOT to cook, ROFL.

It wasn't until I did move out that I really started to pick things up and put 2 and 2 together when it came to cooking. My cooking started improving, in fits and spurts, but improved it did. After several years, I realized I had a flair for cooking, and liked to experiment with "odd" food, especially exotic foreign cuisines. Some folks I worked with told me I ought to go and get my Culinary Arts degree.

Well, I started attending college, and the rest is history. I've been seriously cooking for a living since '97. Been working in restaurants since I was 16, almost half my life now.

[luvs]

Originally Posted by Bangbang

My very first cook book was one I got from my Grand Mother over 40 years ago. I miss her a lot and I only new her for a short time before she died. She immigrated here with her family from England.

Gram's cookbooks are the best. maybe cause they smell like childhood and Grandma? i'm not sure.
my very favorite is one at my Grandpa's. it's yellowed and crumbling but it was Grandma's and has her writing in it, and Pap uses it, so it's just the best one i know of. :)

[kyles]

I was about 7 when I realised different cultures had different food. My best friends mum was from Hong Kong (very rare for people from other countries to settle in Tasmania in the 1970's, still quite rare). She had kiwi fruit, preserved plums, stir fry (very exotic, main cooking method in Australian homes now!) and I loved eating there.

My mum started learning Japanese cuisine, and then ndonesian, and finally Lebanese. My dad had lived in Sri Lanka and used to make amazing curries.

I grew up being surrounded by good food. My grandmother made her own cakes and jams, and she taught me the basics. Food was always seasonal and fresh, and both my grandparents and my family had a vegetable garden.

I was cooking for the family by the time I was ten. I never saw it as a chore, it was a privelege and luckily for my dh I still feel the same!

[VegasDramaQueen]

Originally Posted by mudbug

Ya making me hungry. How come I didn't marry Greg? Don't know if I can top your sotry, but will think on it.

WAIT A MINUTE, SOMETHING'S BOGUS HERE. WHO EVER HEARD OF AN ITALIAN NAMING THEIR KID "GREG"? IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE PAULIE, OR ANTHONY, OR CARMINE.

GREG is probably not his real name. Italians give their children Italian names and the nuns in school change them. My brother is named Erminio which in Italy is a very classy name. The nuns wanted him to have an Americanized name so they called him Herman. Have you ever heard of an Italian named Herman? My mother was furious, but the nuns stuck to it and the name stuck to him.

[VegasDramaQueen]

I too come from Italian parents. My first memories of food was when I was a very young child. My mother came from a poor village in Italy so her cooking was peasant cooking. She made some of the best tasting stuff ever. Her chicken noodle soup was rich and wonderful, her risotto was something I never got tired of, she did things to vegetables that made them terrific, and on and on. I loved vegetables of all kinds and still do. I developed a passion for food and it never left me. I am now 64 and still love good food. No one EVER had to tell me to clean my plate and I still don't have to be told. LOL

[mudbug]

One of the nicest compliments I ever received came from my future mother-on-law when I met her for the first time (eating Sunday dinner at her house): "You don't eat like a Yankee." Could that have been the moment?

[buckytom]

e'hem, just how does a yankee eat? :?

[mudbug]

Originally Posted by buckytom

e'hem, just how does a yankee eat? :?

You'd have to ask my mother-in-law.