My Journey with Food...the Start of my Food Creations...

This has been a journey in my life since I was all of 12 years old when I started my hand in cooking. My inspiration and role model has always been my Mum. I do not believe I would ever match to her culinary skills. I remember the times she could cook and bake almost 4-5 dishes in one go without ever letting one go under cooked or burnt!

Over the years I have learnt, been inspired and awed by the likes of Martin Yan with his famous line : "If Yan can cook so can you", Gordan Ramsay (I know! but he is amazing), Rachael Ray, MasterChef Australia's judges: Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris, Matt Preston, Matt Moran and several others. I never miss a chance to watch and  learn or better yet smell, taste and learn.This has been since the start, I fail to follow recipes as well as I experiment and it turns out better in result through smell and taste. I remember when I was 12 and I waited for my mum to take her afternoon siesta so I could try and bake cakes (as I always wanted to experiment rather than follow direction). The first few as one could imagine turned out rock solid or a burnt disaster. Poor mum would wake up each afternoon to a smoky kitchen or burnt odour. She gave me an ultimatum(as I was obviously wrecking her baking trays through my experimentation) either I wait till she is awake so she can give me directions or listen to what she tells me and follow through on  my own. I obviously did the latter. Then began the journey of my baking/cooking adventures.

Two decades ago I had several of my good friends push me to start my own cafe/bakery to sell my sweet creations and one good friend pushed me to write my own book(back in the days when I did not own my own digital camera (not that I am doing any justice to it now:) ) or to at least digitalise my recipes from my handwritten books of my own creations. There was never time! Time... time...time always was the excuse. So now that I have it, I write this with my 2.4 yr old sitting on my lap:)

Well my recent trip to Prague and Italy did motivate me to start this blog backed with the inspiring words from my college mate and friend who saw several of my mobile pics on Facebook. This is my first attempt at blogging anything so I hope it will be palatable if not savoury (excuse the pun)!

I find that when I cook I need to be inspired by my guests, a place or a spice or a taste/smell. It may be something as simple as olive oil or garlic to help me create a whole dish! Whilst this may be easier for me, I never follow(ed) measurements so I find that I need to write it down as I cook or after I have just cooked if someone wants me to share the recipe with them. I normally go by taste, smell  and display as I mentioned. Well hope this blog helps me be more exact so as to help my readers extract the right measurements for their own cooking. Do let me know if you've particularly enjoyed any of my creations or have had to further experiment with it to gain a new flavor angle. Wish me luck and blessings as I start blogging my food creations.....