about me

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I’m not a professionally trained chef – just a good home cook. I was given the Chef Mimi nickname years ago and the name just stuck with friends and family. My real name is Mimi, so that part is true! What I am in the kitchen is someone who’s passionate about everything food-related.

Professionally, I was a personal chef for eight years and I catered for ten after that. I was a food writer, had a weekly newspaper column, taught cooking classes, worked as a recipe developer, was a health advocate promoting feeding children healthy food (way ahead of my time), had a cooking show (not so good at that), and even wrote a cookbook. So you can see that much of my life has focused on food and cooking. Mostly because I love to eat!

I didn’t start cooking seriously until I married thirty-plus years ago, and then devoured cookbooks in order to figure things out. I could whip up Crêpes Suzettes, (thanks Mom!) but had never cooked a steak. So I followed a new recipe every day and learned from the ground up. My husband was a bit limited in his tastes back then, and I was raised by a fabulous “chef” in her own right, see GROWING UP FOODIE, so you can imagine the challenges !!! But he got better. In fact, I kind of created a monster! (He requested Ethiopian food our second Thanksgiving together!)

So I cooked and we ate, and I gained confidence in my knowledge. We also had two daughters along the way. I challenge any restaurant chef to take a mom’s place in her kitchen on a daily basis for 18 years. Three meals a day, every day, with good nutrition as the highest priority. That is a hard job, but one I will never regret having done so relentlessly. I’ve been accused of micro-managing their meals, in fact. However, it definitely taught me to creatively use whatever I have in the pantry and refrigerator, which is still something I naturally do to this day. Nothing goes to waste.

I don’t work in any food capacity professionally any more. But I still cook! Now my grown daughters come home, one married to a fabulous eater, and it’s no holds barred. It’s full-out hors d’oeuvres, fun drinks, creative meals, and flowing wine. Work? Yes !!! But enjoying food and family is the best life has to offer.

feature photo by Stéphane Gabart

303 thoughts on “about me”

  2. Dear Mimi, i am very happy that i have found you and your blog! I will follow with great interest. Love your food and travel posts! You have been to beautiful places. So much to discover on your blog :) You have one more fan now. Best wishes and happy cooking,Michael

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  5. My name is Nick and I work for a TV Production company Cakehouse Media in Jersey City NJ.I am an associate producer for Cake Boss and development producer for the company as a whole.

    We are searching for our next culinary talent and I wanted to talk to you about it and see whether you had any ideas. My information is below. Please give me a call if you get a chance.

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  6. Mimi, searching recipes online for baked pasta with ricotta and ham has turned me into one of your newest followers!
    Pasticcio will be my reply to 14 guests this Easter Sunday at my daughter’s home reveling as to it’s deliciousness as well as requests for the recipe! Thought it was a match made in heaven when I read in many homes also served this mouth-watering dish
    on Easter Sunday! After reading a nice comment written by Cocoa and Lavender, they had me at Tucson! PA gal here via Santa Fe.
    May you have a wonderful Easter!
    Suzanne Wille
    Washington Crossing, PA

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