My Story
I have known for a long time that food has the power to transport someone back to another time in their life. When I begin a recipe by sautéing garlic in olive oil, I am eight years old again, sitting in my grandmother’s cozy kitchen. When I walk into an old-fashioned bakery, I am instantly blanketed by the warmth and comfort of memories visiting and working in my Dad’s bakery as a kid.
Cooking and baking has always been my thing. As a kid, I would make cakes without a recipe just to see how they would turn out. Over the years, I have taken dozens of cooking classes and courses to feed my passion. I’m always excited to learn new things…try new recipes. But, I never really thought much about looking back…capturing all of my family’s beloved recipes. After all, my mom was just a call or a text away if I needed a recipe. And then…she wasn’t.
It wasn’t until my beautiful best friend and mother suddenly passed away, that I felt the delicate strands of my family’s history begin to unravel.
As the only daughter and my mom’s right-hand pal in the kitchen, I found myself with boxes of scribbled, sometimes incomplete recipes from family matriarchs on the backs of tea-stained index cards and envelopes literally disintegrating before my eyes.
One day, I asked my Dad about the memorable meals from his childhood. His own mother died tragically when she was 47 years old and her sister, “Aunt Liz,” raised the younger sibs and was a beloved surrogate mother to all of them.
In my experience, my Dad rarely mentioned his mother. It was a painful loss at such a young age. However, when I asked him to enter his childhood through the back door of food memories, he suddenly had SO much to say! And in simply describing the holiday foods and special treats his mother and aunt made, he ended up sharing so much more…memories I had never before heard him describe.
This was such a powerful and unexpected conversation that it got me curious to talk to other family and friends. After so many of these conversations, I realized that when it comes to remembering the foods of our childhoods, especially those made by cherished family members who are no longer with us, the reactions are universally joyful, powerful and yearning to relive those moments again.
It became clear to me that scanning one-dimensional stained recipe cards or even creating a family cookbook was merely scratching the surface. There is such an amazing and enriching opportunity to recreate these recipes, interview family members to capture the stories and memories that surround them, and restore them to their original technicolor vibrance for the next generation to carry on.
Food is a multi-dimensional time machine. It can uniquely connect us to precious memories through taste, smell and sight. Yet without someone to capture and preserve these memories, they will wither away.
Some recipes are perfect as is. But, let’s face it, as the times and trends change, sometimes those same delicious flavors can be elevated with more modern ingredients and processes, while still honoring and protecting the core recipe and precious memories surrounding them.
I also want to be sure to preserve my own family’s food memories so that my kids will always have an easy way to recreate holiday favorites and treats that remind us of our our traditions and adventures.
And so, I decided to take a journey…. to rediscover, preserve and share the joy of my family’s most cherished traditions through food and storytelling… and hopefully help inspire others to do the same.
My Story
I have known for a long time that food has the power to transport someone back to another time in their life. When I begin a recipe by sautéing garlic in olive oil, I am eight years old again, sitting in my grandmother’s cozy kitchen. When I walk into an old-fashioned bakery, I am instantly blanketed by the warmth and comfort of memories visiting and working in my Dad’s bakery as a kid.
Cooking and baking has always been my thing. As a kid, I would make cakes without a recipe just to see how they would turn out. Over the years, I have taken dozens of cooking classes and courses to feed my passion. I’m always excited to learn new things…try new recipes. But, I never really thought much about looking back…capturing all of my family’s beloved recipes. After all, my mom was just a call or a text away if I needed a recipe. And then…she wasn’t.
It wasn’t until my beautiful best friend and mother suddenly passed away, that I felt the delicate strands of my family’s history begin to unravel.
As the only daughter and my mom’s right-hand pal in the kitchen, I found myself with boxes of scribbled, sometimes incomplete recipes from family matriarchs on the backs of tea-stained index cards and envelopes literally disintegrating before my eyes.
One day, I asked my Dad about the memorable meals from his childhood. His own mother died tragically when she was 47 years old and her sister, “Aunt Liz,” raised the younger sibs and was a beloved surrogate mother to all of them.
In my experience, my Dad rarely mentioned his mother. It was a painful loss at such a young age. However, when I asked him to enter his childhood through the back door of food memories, he suddenly had SO much to say! And in simply describing the holiday foods and special treats his mother and aunt made, he ended up sharing so much more…memories I had never before heard him describe.
This was such a powerful and unexpected conversation that it got me curious to talk to other family and friends. After so many of these conversations, I realized that when it comes to remembering the foods of our childhoods, especially those made by cherished family members who are no longer with us, the reactions are universally joyful, powerful and yearning to relive those moments again.
It became clear to me that scanning one-dimensional stained recipe cards or even creating a family cookbook was merely scratching the surface. There is such an amazing and enriching opportunity to recreate these recipes, interview family members to capture the stories and memories that surround them, and restore them to their original technicolor vibrance for the next generation to carry on.
Food is a multi-dimensional time machine. It can uniquely connect us to precious memories through taste, smell and sight. Yet without someone to capture and preserve these memories, they will wither away.
Some recipes are perfect as is. But, let’s face it, as the times and trends change, sometimes those same delicious flavors can be elevated with more modern ingredients and processes, while still honoring and protecting the core recipe and precious memories surrounding them.
I also want to be sure to preserve my own family’s food memories so that my kids will always have an easy way to recreate holiday favorites and treats that remind us of our our traditions and adventures.
And so, I decided to take a journey…. to rediscover, preserve and share the joy of my family’s most cherished traditions through food and storytelling… and hopefully help inspire others to do the same.