Hello,
I'm never sure if one must introduce oneself on forums. I really like this one, however. I stumbled upon it a couple of days ago and plan to hang around for a while.
I'm pretty well traveled but I'm from New Orleans, where I spent most of my youth and adulthood and also became a Chef. I was on vacation in Costa Rica when Katrina hit. Having nothing to return home to, I ran a couple of restaurants in Nicaragua over the next few years, until the Sandanistas were re-elected and I was relocated to South Florida.
I ran some restaurants and worked at some in Miami as the recession hit. During the recession found work directing a food bank, partly because I wanted to help and partly because the restaurants were serving garbage and closing left and right.
In the last 3 years I became ill and eventually fully disabled. No longer able to perform restaurant work, I now occupy myself with writing about food and cooking.
Yes, I feel like a human ping pong ball in a dystopian world occasionally.
As I said, I recently stumbled upon this site when I was looking up rafts for clarifying demi-glace and was really interested right away. I'll probably lurk around for a while when I'm not writing (I can't exist without working constantly) but here this is if anyone is curious. -TN