I guess that my interest in cooking started early in life. I loved to help my mother make cookies and candies at Christmas time, so that my father could take a tray of goodies to work for his employees to enjoy. When I became a Boy Scout, the passion for cooking good food over an open fire, was kindled. When ever there was an opportunity to learn new cooking techniques, I was the first one in line to do so. I have cooked eggs in a grapefruit, baked potatoes in the coals and I especially liked cooking in a dutch oven. With these wonderful experiences as a youth, it doesn't come as a surprise that I continue to enjoy outdoor cooking today.

Over the years I have worked hard to perfect my abilities in the use of a dutch oven and a wood burning barbecue. I have tried my hand at cooking just about every type of food imaginable, just to see how far a dutch oven could go. There is one thing that I have yet to accomplish, though That is to make a soufflé that doesn't fall the minute the lid of the dutch oven is removed. I may even get that, if I keep going. This doesn't mean that I haven't burned my share of biscuits or served a cobbler just to find out the middle of it was still batter or scortched the bottom of the stew I was working so hard at. There is no substitute for practice and this is especially true when it comes to outdoor cooking. Modern gas grills make it easier, but, there is just something about cooking food over a real fire that makes it taste especially good.

Along with my love of outdoor cooking, comes my love of seeing others enjoy the meals I have prepared. There is no greater pleasure than to see eyes light up when you produce a perfect pineapple upside-down cake, 100 miles and several years removed from the conviences of the modern world. Or, when someone comes up to you after a meal and says, "That was the best pork I have ever tasted." Once, after her son returned from a camp out at which I supervised the cooking of the meals for the troop, a mother wanting to know what I did to my rice that would make her son not want to eat hers anymore. Wow!

OK, enough of the hows, now lets get to the whats. I am sure by now you are wondering just what experience I have and what I have cooked. So, onward we go. I do not have any formal education as a chef, however, I am a student of food and its history. I continue to study the cuisine of the past, to better understand why it is that we like the foods we like today. In addition, I cook whenever I get a chance, just to keep in practice. I have done luaus, medieval feasts, backyard barbecues and complete holiday dinners. All of which were done on location, where possible. I have cooked for groups as large as 250 and as small as 10, with the average size being between 50 and 100.

If I were to hazard a guess, I would have to say that my crowning glory, to date, was the day I prepared a four remove feast for 200 hungry medieval recreationists. The occasion was the 25th anniversary of the Barony of Tyr Ysgithr, the Tucson, AZ based group of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). Among other things, I roasted a whole pig in which I had stuffed a duck, on a large barbecue. When the time came to serve the pig, it was placed on a large tray, with the duck mounted on the pig's back. The duck was dressed up to look like a knight, complete with helmet, shield and lance. The tray was carried into the hall and presented to the head table, by two knights, with all the pomp and pageantry of the middle ages.

01/28/99