What a life! What an amazing experience this Personal Chef life is. ....

Every day for 10 years now, is filled with a plethora of new challenges and delicious food! Each day is new menu, a new place, new party, a new kitchen, new clients, new guests, and new friends.

While I'm new to Weston, it feels more like coming home. I grew up in Miami lakes and many of my old friends are now here.

The Weston area offers some great food shopping. Among my favorite places to shop is The Cheese Course in Town Center. I always find that over the top ingredient for my cuisine. For the best fresh seafood, prime meats, and groovy produce, it's Ben & Bob's, hands down! Fresh Market in Pembroke Pines is another favorite stomping ground, for unique stuff. They have a bulk grain and spice section that inspires me.

My food philosophy is simple... work with great ingredients and I can't go wrong!

I graduated from FIU in 1985 and later moved to Texas in 1990. In Home Gourmet Personal Chef Catering started in 1993 in San Antonio, Texas. Having over ten years in restaurant and catering experience, I was ready to hang up "my own shingle". I didn't realize my culinary limits were about to be taken to new levels, by terrific and demanding clients requiring Roof Top entertaining, Halloween Bashes for 300 including full decorations with oversized pumpkin carvings, wedding receptions with decorated lighted trees and wedding bell ornaments.

I have met amazing people while cooking in their homes, taught classes that were so much fun we stayed an extra hour just to talk "food" and drink great wine. And I have catered my share of parties under amazing circumstances. My biggest challenge was probably this fund raising Cocktail Party for 450 on the roof top of a 1924, four story historic apartment building. The elevator was "historic" too. Its capacity was 750 pounds or about four people. The door even closed with a gate. Shuttling guests and food became the well-organized priority. We ended up serving hors d'oeuvre courses with full bars on three floors, including the lobby, entertaining guests all the way up to the roof top courtyard where the "real" party was going on. To me, that translated to 4 kitchens, 1 party and (0) elevator during the event! And just to ad a bit more pressure... I was premiering my new French-Southwest infused Menu with Grilled Fillet Mignon Canapé with Chipotle Crème Fraiche, Jumbo Shrimp Barquettes with Ancho Chili Pesto and Cilantro drizzled Blue Crab Cakes just to name a few. It was a blast!

During that same time, my regular clients quickly exposed me to how differently people truly eat. I was creating menus for low-fat, low-calorie, body building, high protein, Adkins, Pritikin, Fit for Life, low salt, low sugar, diabetic type one and two.... you name the diet, and I have likely cooked it! By adding the latest food trends into the mix, dinner becomes interesting every night. And of course, every cherished "family recipe" will always find a welcome home in my personal library. I have some "goodies" too, authentic gems, passed down for generations.

I got serious about cooking at the tender age of 12...primarily for survival reasons. Let's just say the running joke in my home was if mom couldn't boil it in a bag, then we needed reservations. I was extremely blessed to have a wonderful mother who recognized my talent, enjoyed the yummy results of my learning curve and found a private tutor to nurture my talent. My tutor was a CIA Grad. I still have her recipes in my now extensive library. I studied Classic French cuisine and technique with her until I was 15. My "graduation" from her teachings came when she coached me through my first wedding reception "Hors d'Oeuvres buffet for 75." After that I started catering fancy dinner parties for family friends. A couple month shy of the legal age to work, I landed my first restaurant gig, kitchen prep making the pizza pie! After that I worked my way up the food chain, at series of hip and fine dining restaurants, prep cooking then up to the "line"... that's were all the "off color" fun is! Cooking for catering companies was definitely the most challenging experience. I spent a full summer with "certifiably insane" Italian Garde Manger Chef. The Garde Marger is the chef in charge of cuisine presentation. Chef was totally nuts, she threw plate across the kitchen, screamed at the top of her lungs with this accent "if you no hav-a no imagination, no hav-a nutting!!! Your salad plates are @*!* .... I'd re-do another demo plate until it was gorgeous and transportable! Then I'd make another 500, each perfect. It was in that pressure cooker I found "my style".

I frequently dine out and check-out the "heavy hitters"... Chef Alan, Chef Norman... the biggies! I find it keeps me creative, true to cuisine and sharp. South Florida is the ultimate culinary melting pot. And I'm thrilled to be a part of that pot, adding my own interpretations to all of the fabulous ingredients found in our own back yard, and ocean and even the keys.