Style:  Big, bold Southern flavours
Cuisines: Southern cuisines with my own personal spin
Qualifications: Accredited Food Safety Supervisor and Covid 19 Infection Control Training

It all started in the "South"! I grew up in the USA, North Carolina. I remember watching my Grandma Inez in her kitchen cooking cornbread for my granddad. She would always hum her favorite song while she cooked. I would ask her what ingredients she was adding to the cornbread. She would always say, "a whole lot of love." This was the beginning of my love for cooking. Every time I start making a dish, there is not a single moment that I don't hear my Grandma Inez say, "if you cook with love, it makes the dish taste better."

Dishes with big, bold flavors are where it's at! My favorite TV chef is Bobby Flay. I commonly put my own spin on recipes, much like he does. This hasn't failed me yet. I will always add an ingredient that highlights my Southern upbringing. Southern cuisines are my favorite cuisines. The greens, soups, fried chicken, seafood, cornbread, and banana pudding are just a few of the dishes I love to cook!

At age 50, I went to culinary school. I wanted to learn as much as I could about cooking. That was one of the best things I ever did. Cooking is my passion and it comes through in the way I feel when I'm cooking. I wake up thinking about it and go to bed thinking about. It's not a job, it is a joy!

Cooking is a big part of my day to day. Where I grew up, we live to eat... I was a sous chef at a storied beach-front hotel on the even more storied coast of North Carolina. When I arrived in Australia, I quickly became the chef for Vegan Soul Food.

I love cooking for FoodSt because I can cook from home and get paid to do it. Life is good!