ABOUT THIS COOK:

I've always been a curious and enthusiastic eater, I started cooking when I was around 6 or 7 and haven't stopped yet. I've worked in and around the restaurant biz, even going so far as opening a restaurant a few years ago. It didn't do so well proving a love of food will only get you so far. A few months ago I made the commitment to try again to make my living in the culinary arts and enrolled in culinary school. Not sure where it will take me to the back of the house, the front of the house or behind the keyboard, but I know I am following my bliss. A native New Yorker, I emigrated to Philadelphia 10 years ago.

• What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?
  That's so relative is kishka stranger than rattlesnake?

• What do you cook when home alone?
  My favorite home alone dinner is pasta with a fried egg, bread crumbs and peas

• Your most treasured kitchen possession:
  My grandmother's soup pot

• The ideal number of guests for a dinner party is:
  8