ABOUT SUSAN-  I’m a native Seattleite. I grew up amidst all of the great city sights that make the tourists swoon. My family was always nosing around the Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square. We spent long weekends as fair volunteers at the Seattle Center. We windsurfed on the lakes and hiked in the mountains. I vacationed in a rustic cabin on Saltspring Island and visited my grandparents in the rich Walla Walla and Willamette Valleys. It doesn't take much imagination to guess where I developed an appreciation for great food and ingredients. 

When I decided to study cooking,  I sent off for information on a dozen cooking schools in Europe and ended up at the Cordon Bleu Cookery School. I chose the London school for a couple of reasons -I loved London, the language wasn't a barrier and the Cordon Bleu name was recognized internationally so I could conceivably find myself a job wherever my travels took me. In retrospect, I see some obvious flaws in my decision. First and foremost, London may have some of the finest restaurants in the world, but when I tell people I learned to cook in England they inevitably crack wise about mushy peas and pies made of kidney. At that time, the Cordon Bleu was at the very end of an era. The school had, for a century, been teaching young women how to become cooks in grand houses, holiday retreats and corporate dining rooms. Students in the US were starting their culinary training by learning nutrition and sanitation. I learned how to make mayonnaise with a wooden spoon. Our upright, English lady instructors tended to judge our tone and manners as well as our dishes. Outspoken, independent North Americans like myself failed miserably in that department. It was a hell of a year, but I did what I set out to do. I learned to cook.

Now, twenty years later, I have worked as a chef, baker, pastry chef, candy maker, caterer, teacher, food stylist, producer, tester, developer and writer. Food is a creative and infinitely diverse field that offers daily challenges in organization, artistry, economy and efficiency. Amidst the barely controlled chaos that is the professional kitchen I learned not only how to work hard, but to work fast and skillfully. I know not just how to make do with whatever is on hand, but how to get creative when things go terribly, terribly wrong. Those skills are valuable both in and out of the kitchen

The ability to cook well has given me enviable freedoms. I will always be able to find work. I can be very discriminating about when, where, how and with whom I spend my time. I’m no gourmet. It is the creative, tactile act of cooking and the anthropology of International home cooking that I love. I'd much rather scarf down a summer tomato or plate of crisp french fries than fiddle with some expensive, drizzled and dusted plate of stacked fussiness. Cooking well give me the cherished ability to make the people close to me feel warm and content, if not always happy. 

While I have been lucky enough to travel to many dream destinations and eat world class foods, nothing beats being surrounded by great friends and family at home with a bounty of simply prepared seafood, some garden fresh vegetables and loaf of crusty bread.