My personal food muse was __________ ....

[markovitch]

as for me, it is not a person, or persons, but a series of experiences at a young age. Those, and a naked determination at 10 never to eat a tater tot casserole again.

most recently, I have to thank the personal growth that came from cooking for a houseful of college kids, and my stint as a food columnist for my college rag.

archive here in case anyone is interested.

[dougery]

Definitely my mother and Graham Kerr. I loved helping my mother in the kitchen and she always had a great time cooking some of the most delicious meals which rubbed off on me.

When I was a kid, I got a huge kick out of watching the Galloping Gourmet. This guy is such an entertainer! May not be my favorite chef, but I definitely owe him my gratitude for getting me hooked on cooking!

[delhigirl]

my mother, who never made the exact same recipe twice. in fact, she never had a set recipe for anything. always different, always innovating, on a tight budget with four children, her food is the stuff of dreams. rich, spicy, crisp, tender, creamy, light, fluffy...I could go on and on. I miss the symphony of textures and flavours she manages to create in everything she set out to cook. money was tight sure, but we always ate so well. i never realised what a miracle she pulled off every day until i grew up. it takes so much discipline and love to do this for your family. she is number one on my list.

my paternal grandmother, an acerbic, bad tempered woman with a lot of energy and a surprisingly wicked sense of humour. she loved to rabble rouse among the family. but what a strong, earthy cook. she made everything from scratch using only the most basic, fresh ingredients. and used only wood fires to cook....all her food tasted smoky and pungent. fresh bread toasted with spicy spinach stews cooked long over a fire, spicy, cooked chutneys, pure chili pastes, smoky lentil soups. her personality really shone through her cooking.

MFK Fisher. when i was but a young girl i came across one of her books on France and the years she spent there. i was mesmerized by her words, her experiences, her description of food, life and love and how they intertwine. it fired my imagination as nothing ever has. for hours i would pore over the description of provence and alsace, brittany and the wine regions of france. it was the most magical literary experience i ever had. even today she is one of my favourite authors and i go looking for her books. i hope to read them all one day. i dont hear people talking about her very much now though...

[Marlene]

My father. Who took up cooking in his middle age, and made some of the best dishes I've ever tasted. He taught me not only how to cook, but how to have fun in the kitchen and take delight from other's pleasure when they ate.

My brother and I still make his recipes today.

Professional muses? I have to say only recently, and it would be Tony Bourdain. In Les Halles, he drills into the reader over and over, the importance of a mis en place, even in the home. Before I read that, I was a scattered cook, although I'm organized in all other ways! Now, I gather my mise first, and I seldom have to run to the store for things I've forgotten.

[Philanthrophobe]

My anti-muse was my mother; I learned to cook in self-defense.

My mother was a meal-assembler whose favorite kitchen tool was the can opener. She had a fear of "too much" garlic... wait for it...powder: a recipe for "chilli" [sic] calls for 1/4 teaspoon to flavor 3 quarts of canned tomato sauce, ground beef, and 2 cans of kidney beans.

Basically, she was just one of those people for whom food just wasn't important, and except for me, she cooked for people (my father and sisters) who felt the same way. When I complained, she told me that if I didn't like it I could damn well cook myself, so armed with her Joy of Cooking and BG&H cookbooks, I gradually learned how to make what I liked.

[goldie]

I can't remember a time when food wasn't important to me. My dad always says that some people eat to live and others live ot eat and that I fall in the second category.

When I was a young kid my mom was great about letting me in the kitchen. She was terrific about letting me help and experiment. Many nights I had my own pot of whetever we were having that I had seasoned to my taste (sometimes disasterous, sometimes inspired). It wasn't tht she was a particularly good cook (she's not) just that she was willing to let me in there. Then the best thing she did for me was pretty much stop cooking when I was in high school. My dad had a job where they were out several nights a week and I just took over the kitchen. It was great. I learned how to plan ahead, make shopping lists, and how to cook with what I had.

Once I kicked my mom out of the kitchen, I turned to cookbooks and PBS shows for ideas. She always had a subscription to Bon Appetit which I devoured. Mastering the Art of French Cooking was my Bible for technique on many things. I also really appreciated the James Beard cookbook she had (I don't recall the title).

However, my epiphany came while on my honeymoon. We travelled to Rome, Nice, Provence, and Geneva. The food was so amazing- better than anything I had ever tasted. Everywhere we ate from the tiniest bistro to the blow out meals was great. I'm sure part of it was being so in love, but everything was fresh and perfectly cooked. Also, that is where I discovered the ability of wine to enhance a meal. That trip totally changed how I cook and approach food in general. As I continue to travel I still learn more and am further influenced by these people who I wouldn't know on the street.

[Gifted Gourmet]

My anti-muse was my mother; I learned to cook in self-defense.

I gradually learned how to make what I liked.

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You are definitely my "separated at birth" twin ... exactly what happened to me!

Damn .. now I have to put you in my will ... you may even get a crockpot bequest (not crackpot, mind you!)

[Philanthrophobe]

You are definitely my "separated at birth" twin ... exactly what happened to me! 

Badly-prepared food is such a HUGE shaping influence!

[Gifted Gourmet]

Badly-prepared food is such a HUGE shaping influence! 

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In my particular case, it forced me into gourmet cooking which filled my every emotional need ... I became a caterer as my mother struggled with her Swanson TV Dinners ...as a child, I naturally assumed that all food came to the table in compartmentalized aluminum trays .. shocked to learn one could actually bake a cake, not simply go to a bakery to buy them ...

[McDuff]

Bill Lalor

[Gifted Gourmet]

Bill Lalor

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Might this refer to Bill Lalor of the trendy Manhattan eatery, The Saloon? He was your muse? Care to tell us more?

[JLam]

My dad taught me how to cook, and we watched Julia Child, Jeff Smith, and Martin Yan every Sunday on PBS.

The best day of my life was getting to meet Julia Child. Coolest day ever. I was working on a pilot for a cooking show, and we were with her for a few hours in her hotel room, interviewing her and chatting about food. What a wonderful woman, and I day I'll never forget.

[McDuff]

Bill Lalor

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Might this refer to Bill Lalor of the trendy Manhattan eatery, The Saloon? He was your muse? Care to tell us more?

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Yes, that Bill Lalor. But it sounds like you found a link that might be very old. I found one recently that has him working for The Ark Restaurant Group and I called their office last week and he apparently still does exist. I haven't had any contact with him since 1978. I just got to work. I'll tell a couple of stories when I get home.

Bill Lalor, when I knew him, was young (23 or 24) and ambitious. He drove a Volvo wagon, a Porsche 914, and an Alfa Romeo Spyder, but as talented as he was, he only drove them one at a time. He had a copy of Larousse banging around in the back of the Volvo, with notes hanging out of it that had phrases like "ouefs en gelee." Very mysterious to me at that point.

He hired me off my job as a busboy after a kitchen drudge reported to him that I was in over my head trying to make 100 portions of chocolate mousse for a Halloween party. He came over to the apartment, which was only across the street and down the block, and bailed me out, then offered me a job in the kitchen and I've never looked back.

Within a year, working with him and his brother, I was running the line at night, making up specials and all the other hotshot stuff. But it was his attitude about the ingredients we used, and how the customer was taken care of, that sticks with me to this day. We did nothing with the food that wasn't the "right thing." And if it took some discernment and time learning what the "right thing" was, it was time well spent.

He could have been a prototype for a character in Kitchen Confidential, and since he apparently still lives and breathes, I'm not going there. We had some wild times in that kitchen.

I was in and out the door a couple of times, finally for good after I apparently tried to choke the owner with his knit necktie. I showed up for work the next afternoon not remembering a thing, got talked to by the victim, and then had a sitdown with Bill. He said, Skippy's a little pissed off, give me a couple of days and I'll work on him. When I called him he said, and this is one of THE classic lines...."I'll tell you, pally. It's not looking good." I don't remember if I ever stepped foot in there again.

This was all in 1975-1978. In 1998, coming out of pastry school and needing a fill-in job before the country club job I wanted opened, I got hired at a caterer in Newton Highlands, MA. The chef at one point told me that he had been trained by one of the "top guys." I badgered him until he told me. It was no one I had ever heard of, he said. Then he said the name, Bill Lalor. I was stunned. He told me stories of a trip to Paris they had made together, and I knew it had to be the same guy.

And this link to the trendy Saloon, which is one of the few things on the web about Bill Lalor, makes me feel kind of special to have known him when we were both so young and to know that a lot of what he taught me has guided me for thirty years.

Edited January 5, 2006 by McDuff (log)

[H. du Bois]

1. My grandmother, who served fresh kitchen-garden foods in an era in which we were conditioned to crave Tang, fluffernutter sandwiches and Wonder bread. One of my earliest memories is plucking fresh radishes from the ground, dusting them off and eating them while she gardened.

2. My mother, who, while not a great cook, taught me everything she knew before she went back to work, leaving me with dinner duties. A memorable quote one Christmas: "Why should I buy you a Kenner easy bake oven when you know how to use the real thing?"

3. My younger sister, eventual co-dinner cooker and partner in crime, who had a far more adventurous palate than mine. One of my first forays to the grocery store after getting my driver's license was to buy artichokes, which she was dying to try. Of course, we hadn't the vaguest idea how to eat them ... oh, those inedible leaves!

4. An older version of The Joy of Cooking, our faithful teacher and guide.

[bleudauvergne]

In a way, my mom was always there as an unfailing source of last minute information when I was learning to cook. But the people who really inspired me, all along the way...

Childhood friend, Jessica Johnson. She moved when I was 8 but before that time we managed to perfect all kinds of candy from divinity to toffee, and we learned to cook lots of other things. I have wonderful memories of standing on chairs side by side at the stove at both her house and my house. It was with her, aged 7, that I first tried snowpeas, from the vine, in her mother's garden, and with her that I first ruminated on the mysterious quailities of bees and the honeycomb (her mother was a bee keeper). She and her sisters gave me some unforgettable lessons on the art of saying please and thank you too, which is somehow inextricably tied in to food for me.

Clare Murray was my partner in crime for our clandestine harvests of the fruits and berries of the neighborhood starting around age 9. I wrote something for the Daily Gullet about that. I also learned about garlic and learned I actually liked salad from Clare. I wrote her an e-mail just the other day to tell her how much garlic I put into that night's spaghetti sauce!

Susan Marsh taught me not to be afraid of the gas oven when we were in high school. We also learned to appreciate wine together. Sitting down like civilized people, drinking wine and appreciating its qualities.

A series of hungry boyfriends got me trying to cook once I was at the University. There was this pretty girl named Heidi who made this spinach dip in the bread bowl at Syracuse... The romance of apple picking and then making pies comes to mind, this would not be without a boy to make the pie for.

Travel to many countries does wonders for the palate. I liked the food in Holland and in Turkey. I wasn't very adventurous with German food. I still crave pickles and blinis from Russia. The food in Western China and over the border into Khazakstan was not too hot but the adventure of getting it was something I'll never forget.

After that, there's my Chinese housekeeper who gave me the cooking lessons when I was in Beijing. But heck, I can say the whole country of China was my personal food muse when I was there. That whole experience was like one everlasting first time with every kind of food imaginable, my first real experience with 'fresh'.

Here and now, my food muse is my husband. He fully supports my endeavors and is not afraid of me throwing a roast out the window if he criticizes it. He brought me to this wonderul country, and he loves to talk about food. His appreciation really is that fire that keeps me going.

eGullet has everything to do with my drive to continue, and to take it one step further, all the time! I have derived a whole lot of inspiration from this place.

[bleudauvergne]

Bill Lalor

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Might this refer to Bill Lalor of the trendy Manhattan eatery, The Saloon? He was your muse? Care to tell us more?

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Yes, that Bill Lalor. But it sounds like you found a link that might be very ...

... both so young and to know that a lot of what he taught me has guided me for thirty years.

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Wow what a wonderful wonderful story. This guy sounds amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that story with us.