I was 17 years old when I moved to the U.S. This is when I moved in with my father and his wife at-the-time.
(A little background story: my parents divorced when I was about 3 years old. My father moved back to the U.S. - where he had grown up - shortly after. My mother had the custody and so I was raised by her while she never re-married.)
I must say that my father was and is a great cook as well. He has owned many restaurants in his life - both in Iran and the U.S. Even, my mother always said that he was a very good cook and that she learned a lot of techniques from him - especially, meat related. So, you can imagine that once I moved in with him, I was exposed to a different level of cooking. He was running his own restaurant at the time and soon after, I found myself working there. This was a great experience for me. I was exposed to dishes that I wouldn't normally order: calamari steak with lemon-butter sauce. YUM! I miss that dish. It's amazing how much you can learn about food by working at a restaurant when you are not even in the kitchen! I learned from people's orders, complaints, send-backs and so forth.
Once I moved away for college, I was spending sometime with my uncle and his wife who - by the way - are the most foodie people I know to date! My uncle was the one who gave me my first glass of Champagne. He was also the first guy who took me clubbing when I was under age (shhhh). That being said, you can only imagine how much this couple loved life, entertaining, celebrating AND cooking. Shout out to both of them whom I miss so much. I can honestly say that I learned a lot from them - on many levels. In my mind, they were the ideal couple. Since I hadn't grown up with that (remember, parents divorced at a young age, blah blah...), they had become my role models.
It wasn't until later when I had graduated that I met some wonderful friends in my neighborhood who also loved food as much as I did. By this time, I was an engineer at a General Motors in Indianapolis. I was cooking at this time, but hadn't expanded my horizon much. We always had dinner parties and enjoyed hanging out for silly reasons (like Sex and the City episodes on Sunday nights). One of the guys in our group was an executive chef. Understandably, the bar was set up high for these dinner parties. You felt like you had to show this guy how well you could cook and if he liked it, GREAT. If he actually complimented you, you felt like a rock star! Fortunately for my mother, he always loved her meals and she got the best compliments from this stud. But one thing that he always said was "PRESENTATION." "You can prepare the best dish, but if your presentation is not great, you cannot have a winning dish." It's very true. Don't you think?
Unfortunately, life wasn't always fun and delicious! Shortly after moving to New York, my beautiful mother - whom I was so close to - was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It was a very aggressive tumor and even the surgery and radiation weren't enough. She lost her life to this deadly tumor 10 months after the diagnosis... روحت شاد = Rest in Peace
Fortunately, I spent the last 3 months of her life with her. These were the most rewarding moments in my life and I learned so much about myself and my mother. I was also just a newly-wed then. To make matters worse, I lost my job (at this small PR firm) upon returning back home! This was truly the low point of my life (not that I loved this job or anything - NO! But this wasn't the right time to be job-less!). I needed distraction and motivation. My husband was also traveling a lot for his job. "What am I going to do with myself now?! This is going to suck!" Since I was also new to New York, I hadn't made very many friends either! After few days of being sick, jet-lagged and depressed, I decided to drag my butt out of bed, force myself to get dressed and out the door. I started walking from our Upper East Side apartment all the way to Union Square where I discovered the Farmer's Market. This made my day :) I just love that area, the shops, restaurants, the energy and now the farmer's market. I'd pick up a few things from the market and head back home to prepare a dish with my fresh organic ingredients. I found that the only time that I wasn't thinking about my mother or any problems was actually when I was actively in the kitchen preparing and cooking. All I was focusing on was cooking! "Wow - I found my therapy!" Cooking had become my savior!
