Randy Lay

My keen interest in food began about the time I sampled my first solid food and I have yet to look back! I had always enjoyed hanging out in the kitchen while my mother (an incredible cook) worked on dinner and had become fairly proficient at preparing food for myself by my early teens.

By eighteen I was hosting dinner parties for friends and wooing my first wife with intimate dinners for two. She never let me forget the first time I cooked for her: I was pretending to be a French waiter, delivering steaks hot off the grill when I fumbled a heavy (and sharp!) meat fork off of the platter. The fork landed tines down, and remained standing upright, impaled in the top of my sandaled foot. I think the steaks were cold by the time we wiped the tears of laughter from our eyes.

Later on I became a single father of two daughters, both of which shared my appetite for good food. From omelets on Sunday mornings to full blown dinner parties for their friends and families, they were and still are my favorite guinea pigs.

Aside from reading volumes of cookbooks & magazines over the years and watching Justin Wilson, Graham Kerr, and Julia Child before the Food Network was cool, I was never formally trained. I feared making a living in the restaurant business would ruin the fun for me and I always felt the long and odd hours would not be my cup of tea. Instead, I am the IT Director for a group of music industry companies including Cerwin-Vega, KRK Systems, and Stanton DJ.

I am also the grandfather of two lovely little girls and I’m wringing my hands in delight as I look forward to spoiling them with all kinds of tasty creations.