My cooking career began at the tender age of 10 when the first thing I ever cooked was scrambled eggs.  From that point on I saw the range and oven as paints rather then just a place to prepare a meal.  As I went through my teen years I took every cooking class I could get myself into.  It was my Home Economics teacher, Mrs. Dunaway that really influenced me to be a truly creative cook.  It was the late Julia Child that inspired me to become a chef.  The one person that encouraged me the most was my late Grandmother, Viola Chartier, who herself owned a number of restaurants in Oregon.  I always felt that cooking was in my blood and I was always meant to do it.

Cooking was a family event during the holiday's with everyone contributing their specialty dish, mine were Green Bean Casserole and Candied Yams.  Holiday's with my husband Howard have become essentially the same thing with he and I making what always becomes a feast not soon forgotten by the friends we invite to share it with us.  Cooking you could say is still a family affair and Howard is very tolerant and always happy to be guinea pig to one of the off the top of my head creations I come up with.   I do occasionally come up with a stinker and he always say's of those "even the bad one's are good, just be careful and notify the EPA where you throw it out".  There is a reason it's called Culinary Arts and not Culinary Science and in my humble opinion a good cook is never afraid try new colors on the canvas of the plate.

The cooking I do does not subscribe to one cuisine but is a conglomeration of many.  French from Julia Child, Mexican, Italian, German & Central European from my husband (though he doesn't have a lot in the way of formal training I think he could hold his own against Flay, Cora and the rest that inhabit kitchen stadium or even host his own cooking show), American from my Grandmother, Asian from Martin Yen, Cajun/Creole from Chef Paul  and as of late Food Network's Emeril Lugassi has been having a profound impact on my style.  Emeril if you ever visit this page I want to thank you for helping me kick it up a notch in the kitchen.   

After high school I attended Portland Community College in Portland, Oregon where I studied in the Culinary Arts program.  It was there Professor/Chef John Sharp and Professor/Chef  Thomas Bailey taught me, you eat with your eyes.  As a result,  presentation became essential to my style of cooking.  A good chef is always willing to learn new techniques and cuisines Chef's Sharp & Bailey wanted to recommend me to the Culinary Institute of America but due to circumstances beyond my control I was unable to attend.  However my current husband has been working on me to give going to the C.I.A. another try even at the age of 52.  He reminds me that the late Sidney Sheldon didn't write his first novel until age 50.  At P.C.C. my skills increased and I was now ready to enter the realm of the professional Chef.

My first foray in to professional cooking was a catering business I started called "Special Occasion Catering".  I did breakfasts, lunches and dinners for 2 to 10 people.  It could be breakfast in bed, a intimate picnic or dinner for 2 on the veranda or balcony.  I enjoyed it because I would be providing the meal that would lead to a marriage proposal or was just a way for a husband or wife to say I love you.  Sort of a culinary cupid you might say.  If it was an occasion that called for a special meal for a couple or small group I was more then happy to prepare it, most importantly it made my skills shine.

In my professional life I have worked in a number of venues that would challenge me and take my skills to new levels.  Just to drop a few names where I have been privileged to work over the years, Club Cal-Neva, Reno, Nevada, Harbor Lights Restaurant and Rainbow Room Reedsport, Oregon, The Search Light Cafe, Winchester Bay, Oregon and of coarse 40 plus years in the kitchen at home.  The one place where I can really hone my skills and develop recipes.

All the recipes on my web site (at least the ones I will be posting in the Recipe Exchange, on my blog and in my 5 favorites) I have tested in the kitchen and they have passed muster with my biggest cooking fan and the one guy not afraid to tell me to go back to the drawing board, my husband.  He is also the person that designed and built this web site with me driving him crazy constantly looking over his shoulder.

Bon appetite

 Chef Susie