How did I get interested in food and cooking?

I guess I grew up in a typical Australian home of the 1960s. Mum cooked mainly meat and three vege. Our vegetables were cooked in a pressure cooker so they usually tasted the same. Mondays we had sausages, Tuesdays I think was rissoles and then a roast dinner on Sundays. Don't get me wrong while her mains were ordinary my mum had a real skill with cakes, slices and biscuits; a skill at baking I have never been able to match.

I might have gone on like this till this day except for a TV program that turned all of this around. It was Keith Floyd's Far flung Floyd series. He visited many asian countries and I was stunned, here was a range of food and cooking techniques that I had never even dreamed of. The most exotic food I had ever eaten came from the local chinese and was mostly deep fried. I don't know why but I longed to try these unusual and exotic foods.

I discovered the local supermarket didn't stock any of the ingredients I needed, where do you buy a wok? Of course today I could have walked into that same local supermarket and buy all the ingredients I needed. I did manage to find all the ingredients I needed and began a cooking adventure that continues to this day. Along the way i watched a number of TV programs that inspired my adventures, discovered some great cookbooks by writers like Charmaine Solomon and Dorindar Hafner ( a really amazing lady by the way).

While asian food was my first love and I love shopping in an asian grocery store I also love European food and have spent a lot of time learning about Greek and Italian food. I just love cooking and of course eating. I am a bit of a cookbook addict and have quiet a collection (so people tell me) but it is far from complete. I dine out when i can and like everyone i guess i have my favourite restaurants. Lately I have become interested in the history of food its origins and development. So I have begun exploring earlier recipes and looking at techniques and flavour matching which is so different from the way we cook today.

I have decided to do some professional training and maybe work a little in a professional kitchen, just for the experience. I must admit the job of cooking professionally is a tough one and at 50 I am too old to take it on full time.

I hope to keep learning and eating for many years to come.