About

 

Crazy4Food

This is me. On vacation. Far away. In a place filled with sun and food. A place where I and my Significant Other (henceforth SO) want to retire one day; where we can grow food, raise animals, and bake bread. And somehow earn a living. Far from winter, close to family.

I am a Foodie’s foodie. I grew up in the New York food business the granddaughter of a bigger than life personality who owned a coffee business that loaned money to restaurants, long before banks ever did (or ever will for a long time), and who, as a result, ended up being a restaurateur himself when some of his loans went south.

My father married his daughter and entered the business after the war. Birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, every celebration was spent at one of my grandfather’s famous restaurants. The glamour of the surroundings, the heft of the silverware, the hush of the waiters tread, the delicate clinking of cutlery, were all exciting but not nearly as heartstopping as the food itself: Italian, South American, French, Irish, New York diner, Rustic, aristocratic, imperial.

I wanted to be a part of it so badly it hurt. By the time I was of age though, the company had gone public and was no longer a part of the family. I found my own way, first with a degree in Nutritional Anthropology but lacking a dissertation topic decided to upon a restaurant in Citicorp Center when it first opened. That released the floodgates to a career that has spanned almost every facet of the food business with the exception of hotels.

My first venture was a pre-Starbucks gourmet coffee store; then the wholesale coffee business, followed by a 200 seat restaurant and scratch bakery, a bagel chain including a production facility, a gourmet take-out store, a gourmet food store, , importing, and at last, landing at Whole Foods Market where I’ve perched for the last 7 years.

In between all of this, I have catered, consulted, cooked, baked and written a well-recieved cookbook or two. I have raised two kids and run my own businesses, only now finding the time to do what I probably should have done all along: write about food. But without all the experience and the stories to come, I wouldn’t have had anything to write about.

A friend of mine, upon recieving notice that I had finally started a blog wrote “You have too much energy. I think you’re running away from something.” My response was that may be true, but it is also towards something else. I hope you enjoy that something else.