About Me

Hi, my name is Rustam. I grew up in a multicultural family. My mother was a nice Jewish girl from Queens and my father was born in Iran. My mom’s mother was a bookkeeper and worked many hours. She was the sweetest grandmother you could ask for but could not cook to save her life with a few exceptions. Marnie’s chopped liver was to die for.

Marnie loved to feed her family and when we got together she made sure we had the best bagels, cream cheese, lox and whitefish money could buy. And, of course a batch of her chopped liver with wonderful Jewish Rye bread.

When my mom was a young girl, she took on the family cooking. She had a natural, culinary knack and loved to make tasty meals. She learned to cook dishes from other cultures and nations. When I was growing up we would have homemade Chinese and Italian almost every week.

Mom was a very good baker too and we often had pie, especially in the summer: blueberry, peach and apple pie in the fall, sometimes with raisins which is a personal favorite. Those little bursts of sweetness blended with the tartness of the apples and the earthiness of the cinnamon were like a bite of heaven.

I would often watch while mom was cooking and ask her questions. I really liked the idea of cooking and I loved Graham Kerr, the Galloping Gourmet. Any time we didn’t have school I would avidly watch his show.

When Mom started working one night a week, we were on our own for dinner. Omelets and salad were a staple, as my sister and I learned to cook. Spaghetti with canned, White Clam Sauce also become a common Thursday night meal. Eventually I found a recipe for clam sauce from a NY Times food critic and no more canned sauce, yay!

Thus I began my own journey into cooking. I had seriously considered going to culinary school but that never materialized. So I am like you with no training and I have never taken a cooking class. I hope you enjoy this blog as I share what I have learned in the kitchen and from watching cooking shows.

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