From Student to Teacher
My mother was ahead of her culinary time and I learned alot from her. A devotee' of the likes of Julia Child and Graham Kerr I watched (and sometimes participated) as she rolled out spectacularly delicious dinner parties. I would eventually host and instruct people on how to celebrate their own special occasions
Setting Up Housekeeping
As a young wife on a budget, I played in the kitchen to create yummy meals for my husband. He had a very large family so I found myself entertaining them and contributing delicious dishes fo family celebrations. Year after year I received requests for certain dishes.
From Family to the Public
When my children were small,I decided to put an ad in the local newspaper to market my catering business aptly named Katering (I went by Kate in the 80's). To my surprise and delight, people hired me! I took well to helping them create memorable celebrations.
Restaurants
In the years that followed, I held several front of the house and back of the house positions in restaurants ranging from the local pub to fine dining. I absorbed all of the yummy ingredients and techniques from a myriad of talented chefs and built my own library.
As You Like It Catering
In the early 2000's I was working at a Basgel Shop, Bartending and Running a Catering/Personal Chef operation out of my house (totally illegal,I know). One day after catering a function that my Dad happened to be a guest at, Dad came to see me at the Bagel Shop. He proposed that I needed to open my own Brick and Mortar Catering business and he was willing to give me an advance on my inheritance (he was terminally ill at the time) to start my company. So I took him on it. I scouted a location, did my town stuff and became the general contractor to build out and equip the space. At about $10.000 Dad started getting a little squirrely about the money and anyone who knows about this knows that I was just getting started!. So I sold my house and completed the project (over time and over budget). I Opened As You Like It in the Spring. It was a small storefront serving prepared meals for takeaway as well as an offsite catering operation. The business grew quickly and I was finally able to afford a couple of employees to help out. While that did take someofthe burden off of me , I was still working 60-100 hours per week and the business kept growing. I did this for my Dad and now that he had passed away and I was missing my life I decided to shut it down.....Ya,I gave up! That is when I went to work for Markets.....
Something From Nothing
In tha last years of my career, I went to work running kitchens in small family owned Markets. While I did this mostly for the better hours, I found that I could transform ingredients like unsold meat and produce that was longer pretty and even grocery items into lovely dishes. I built a loyal following of customers with all palate types.
You can do it too, and by visiting me here, I can show you how.
So let's cook!!
