I’ve always liked cooking, but never really understood it too much.  I loved food, but the processes behind it was always a mystery, and to be honest, I wasn’t really fussed on knowing.  As I got older, got married and started having a family, my interest in food, and providing a complete meal started growing.  So I started watching, reading, asking questions, and more importantly, started experimenting.  From there, a real interest grew, quite rapidly.  Cooking went from becoming a way to wind down after work to something that became quite consuming from a thought point of view.
I got a wonderful gift from my work mates for my 30th Birthday which included a Chef’s knife, cookbook and probably the most poignant, admission to a cooking class.  That one class really set in my mind that food could become more than a hobby, and a passion to take it further.  Looking back, that gift was a real turning point for me.

From there, I cooked for anyone, and everyone I could.  I experimented all of the time with food for family and friends, in a myriad of different ways.  I loved looking at recipes, plating styles and flavour combinations and how I could put my own spin on them.  Desserts, meats, seafood, poultry, bakes, poaches, pasta, sauces.  Anything and everything got a go and offered a new chance to learn.  The only downside side, all of this awesome tucker gave me a decent roof over the shed, if you get my drift!  It got to the point that the feedback and comments I was getting from the people who were eating my food were very positive, and I started thinking that maybe I wasn’t as bad as what I thought I was, and maybe I could try something further.

Enter the”Master Chef Australia” moment…

Now that’s a story that I’ll share later!