Aliwaks

Philadelphia
Restaurant Marketing PR/Server/Culinary Student

I've always been a curious and enthusiastic eater, I started cooking when I was around 6 or 7 and haven't stopped yet. I've worked in and around the restaurant biz, even going so far as opening a restaurant a few years ago. It didn't do so well proving a love of food will only get you so far. A few months ago I made the commitment to try again to make my living in the culinary arts and enrolled in culinary school. Not sure where it will take me to the back of the house, the front of the house or behind the keyboard, but I know I am following my bliss. A native New Yorker, I emigrated to Philadelphia 10 years ago and live South Philly, surrounded by fantastic ethnic food markets, with my boyfriend and our three formerly homeless cats.

• What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?
  That's so relative is kishka stranger than rattlesnake?
• What do you cook when home alone?
  My favorite home alone dinner is pasta with a fried egg, bread crumbs and peas
• Your most treasured kitchen possession:
  My grandmother's soup pot
• Your ideal meal:
  just picked asparagus/soft cooked egg/black truffle vinaigrette + fried chicken, grilled corn, heirloom tomatoes + black raspberries, cream, shortbread
• Something you'd like a chance to eat or cook:
  would love to experience Alinea, would love to cook paella outdoors or lamb in a stone oven
• The number of bottles of wine you own:
  5... I've hidden them, they are waiting for special occaions
• The ideal number of guests for a dinner party is:
  8
• Kitchen pet peeve:
  bravado
• Your favorite cookbook:
  Marlena Speiler's Pantry Cookbook, Chez Panisse Vegetables, Claudia Roden's World of Jewish food