What's For Lunch?: A cooking guide for parents

My exposure to food began in my parent's kitchen at the tender age
of 6 with my mother teaching me the value of and how to stretch a
dollar. She had developed the food network, before one existed,
by keeping PBS on while Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, Galloping
gourmet, and so on, were cooking their magic. Every Saturday is
was all about food in our house. Watching it; eating it and talking
about it. My dad is the inventor, literally, he created dishes even I
was not sure about eating, and I love to eat! He would test us on
our sense of palate, by asking us kids;"what fl avors can you detect
in the food?" I knew at the age of 12 that I wanted to cook and so
I practiced. I failed a few times and a couple of failures were catastrophic, though I kept
on it. My culinary training started later in life, and the excitement of the work, has never
been stronger.