Welcome to the Kitchen

Hello Dear Readers,

Welcome to the kitchen of the Gourmand Girl. Here we will explore the abundance and luxury that is the word of food.

What are my qualifications to lead you on this expedition? Well, I've been eating since the day I was born and that lifelong passion for food has led to my passion for cooking and food history as well as eating. I am the daughter and granddaughter and great-grandaughter of home culinarians who passed along their knowledge and love of food.

A 'gourmand' is defined as 'one who is heartily interested in good food and drink' and I am the embodiment of that definition. My philosopy of food is that the reason that food is so popular, so pervasive in all cultures, so completely a part of any society is that food is sensual, that is it appeals to all of our senses. Picture the perfect ripe summer peach and you gaze at the pink-hued flesh, touch the warm, fuzzy skin, smell the heady perfume, biting into it, juice running down as the sweet, sweet fruit caresses your tongue, hear yourself groan at it's deliciousness. That is the sensuality of food and it's in all food, not just ripe summer peaches. Food is what brings us together in celebration, comforts us when in mourning, nourishes our bodies and feeds our souls. We eat not only to sustain life but also to enjoy life. Hopefully I will be able to help foster that enjoyment.

I am a gourmand, which to me also means that part of that "hearty interest" in food is not just in the high end, gourmet frou-frou kinds of food but also in the simple, the healthy and the 'low brow' foods we barely admit to knowing about, let alone eating. No food is sacred, no food is taboo.

Welcome to my table, pull up a chair and join me. There is always enough to go around!