Thanks for visiting my site! Your visit really means a lot to me.

A few fun facts about me:

1.  When I’m home alone I like to eat drippy fruits (think mangoes, peaches, persimmons) right over the sink, an activity which might be considered an all-time favorite.

2.  I adore oil-packed sundried tomatoes. Sweet, salty, versatile, they’re my idea of the perfect food item.

3. I really like learning new languages, with the goal of learning Chinese by age 50.  Haven’t started that one yet so I’ll keep you posted…

4.  I have a hard time telling the difference between left and right (although I wish this were a joke, sadly it’s true).

I went to undergrad at Cornell University – they have a killer Hotel Management school which is great for anyone in the food business.  Kind of a bummer that I actually graduated from their school of Arts & Sciences   I got degrees in French Literature and Science & Technology Studies.

I started getting into food after sophomore year of college, most likely because I was fed up with eating Freshman-year cafeteria and Sophomore-year sorority house food.  I spent the following summer going through cookbooks in my parents house and subjecting them to all of my (mostly bad) creations. The next summer I landed a great internship at  America’s Test Kitchen, where I would test out recipes for the magazines Cook’s Illustrated  and Cook’s Country. 

After graduating I moved to New York, but ended up with a job I didn’t like, which made me dislike New York altogether.  I got the opportunity to move to Paris and study with Columbia University, and of course I took it!During my two years living there I found awesome opportunities working at:

- Elle magazine in Paris, where I got the chance to work with French chef Elisabeth Scotto and help produce weekly recipes, les fiches-recettes, for the magazine.

-  Promenades Gourmandes, a French cooking school that teaches classic French recipes to tourists and visitors.

-  Pierre Hermé Paris, world-renowned pastry shop and purveyor of hamburger-shaped, bite-sized macarons, where I helped to sell Monsieur Herme’s delights around the world.

-In between working at these places, I spent my first year in Paris getting a master’s degree with Columbia University, where I wrote my thesis on food immigration in Paris.  I also spent my second year in Paris in a master’s degree at La Sorbonne, studying “Alimentation et Cultures Alimentaires,” or Food and Food Cultures.

After two years in what I consider the most beautiful city in the world, I moved back to the place I hate: New York.  Except that for some reason this time I love it here. Most of the time. Except when it’s really crowded, I’m in a hurry, or an entire street block smells like wet sneaker.

Now I work at Haven’s Kitchen, a gorgeous cooking school, event space, and retail shop about a block and a half from Union Square in New York. I work as a prep cook, teaching assistant, and line cook when necessary.

I started this blog when I moved to Paris in 2009, under the title Cooking For One in Paris.  I changed the name for obvious reasons but the idea is still the same:  to show people of all cooking levels that making food for yourself is not only easy, but also well worth the effort.  A lot of people think of cooking for one as depressing, or lonely. I have never felt that way, because I see cooking for yourself as the most hedonistic of all pleasures: you are catering to no one’s tastes and whimsical desires but your own. And if you still consider solo cooking to be depressing, think of it as practice for when the real thing comes around: maybe someday you will want to wow someone with your cooking skills. No better time to start than now.

I really love your feedback because I want to make sure that the recipes I’m making are working for you at home.  So please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or send me an email and let me know what you think.

Happy cooking amore!