Food Heroes: Win Georgia Pellegrini’s Book Now

I was inspired to cook when my mom gave me Ree Drummonds cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks and then I discovered her blog. The pictures made me drool and I just had to learn how to cook!

While my mother certainly influenced my development as a home cook, my food hero would probably have to be Martha Stewart. As a teenager, I eagerly watched her show and flipped through her magazines, feeling a bit like a middle-aged woman but also eager to learn how she made things from scratch–and not just food but also the table decor to go with it! Though some of her recipes were complicated, I appreciated her seeming commitment to doing things properly, using excellent, fresh ingredients, and placing an importance on making things yourself. My shelves are now overflowing with cookbooks and many different cooks and food people influence me but Martha was one of the first.

My Italian grandfather is by far my food inspiration – his homemade tomato sauce (for which he still refuses to share his secrets) is the most flavorful pasta topping I’ve ever tasted. It may be simple and easy to make, but no dish I’ve had with sauce has quite matched his. When I’m lucky enough to visit Buffalo, NY where he lives (along with my extended family), I revel in the flavor and flair of his cooking.

My grandmother Grace is my food hero. She was a farm wife and i have always been amazed at how hard she worked. Her life revolved around her 7 kids, her kitchen, her gardens &orchard along with the animals she raised for her table.She only bought staples in “town.” The milk was fresh from the barn, the butter, cheese and ice cream were made from milk they sent to the local creamery. She butchered her own chickens and geese and collected eggs everyday. The most amazing sausages, salamis and roasts came from their animals. Occasionally there was fresh game. She canned veggies and fruit for days.
She and my grand father were 1st and 2nd generation Danish so you can imagine the wonderful Scandinavian influenced meals we had visiting them. She cooked 3 meals and baked breads, rolls and desserts everyday. During the busiest times, there were field hands to feed dinner along with 2 “lunches” (our coffee breaks) she to took to the fields. Those were usually Danish open faced sandwiches, cake and nectar ( her name for Kool-aid). And there were always folks visiting for supper. The food was always delicious, healthy and plentiful. She made an almond Danish, butter cookies and cakes to die for. Did I mention she did all this on a wood stove until she was 56 years old? I have tried making her recipes but they are never quite the same….maybe it was the wood stove.

My mom is my food hero. She taught me how to cook and instilled in me the importance of gathering together as a family every evening for dinner.

Lovely post:)

I would have to say my Mom – she raised my sisters and I vegetarian, despite all the questions that she got from concerned doctors and family members, and still managed to keep our meals extremely varied. I laugh when people assume that just because you don’t eat meat you must subsit solely on salads! She whipped up veggie sushi, vietnamese vermicelli salad with fried tofu, home made hummus and falafels, grilled portabella fajitas… She was very inventive in the kitchen and not afraid of trying new things – impressive for a girl raised in Kansas! Now I try to take after her creative ways, and find myself spending ages just trying to find all of the products. I don’t know how she did it with four little kids in the house!

I’ve had this book on my wishlist for awhile now. It sounds outstanding and your review confirms the “must read” status for me! My food hero will always be my grandmother. Her signature dishes, and the items I always request when I go home to Maine, are her biscuits and a fruit pie. Her pie crust is seriously to die for. It’s not only picture perfect but heavenly to eat too — perfectly fluted, crispy, and firm it’s everything a hearty crust should be. Every few years she gives me lessons on how to make her biscuits and shape pie crust but I can never get it right once I’m back home. Although…perhaps I really just love the experience of having her cook for me

I may be the only three year old who lived to watch Julia Child and the Galloping Gourmet on TV — my choice over Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. I even have a child-sized wooden spoon engraved with Julia’s name that I still use to this day. She started it all for me, and nurtured by my food-loving family, there was no stopping my love of food from snowballing. Thank goodness.

Cheers,

*Heather*

My mom is my Food Hero. Everyone loved her cooking, especially her biscuits. She cooked lots of other great things but her biscuits were always my personal favorite. Really wish I had been able to learn more directly from her. I didn’t really get into cooking until later in life, after she had passed away.

100,000 cowboy chefs who took native peppers, longhorn beef, and a Spanish-Mexican influence and “created” the foods and styles of Texas and the American southwest; My Texan grandmothers who inherited that style with a southern flair, a dash of Americana, and passed on the recipes; Ellise Pierce (http://cowgirlchef.com/) who carries on the tradition with a Parisian flourish; and finally Jim Harrison, author and poet.

my maternal grandmother is my food hero. when i was too little to actually be helpful in the kitchen, she’d give me little pinches of pita dough to make into “loaves”. as i grew older she incorporated my hands into her busy work around the kitchen, teaching me the recipes that our Lebanese mothers and grandmothers had passed down through the ages.

she passed away last week. i’m left with hundreds of handwritten recipe cards and an eternal sense of comfort and humility whenever i enter a kitchen.