Making the Chef

For those of you who don't know me personally, and just happen to visit FoodSAZm to find recipes or indulge in my witty repartee, I have decided it's about time I open up this blog to a more personal post; getting to know the SAZ behind the FoodSAZm.

First off, the name FoodSAZm....it may seem bizarre and even hard to pronounce so let's get it's origins out of the way.  Pronunciation : Food-saz-m (pretty self explanatory).  It is supposed to be a play on the word "foodgasm" which describes the euphoric sensation upon tasting amazingly delicious food.  Saz, was my nickname all throughout high school and college....so in a moment of desperate blog naming, somehow FoodSAZm was born.  Little did I know this was going to be the name I was going to stick with...had I thought in advance I probably would have come up with something more ingenious, but I digress.

Now for a little about me...I am a 26 year old Photographer & Retoucher working for the super famous auction house, Christie's (yes ladies, the one from the first Sex & the City movie).  I live in the best city in the world, New York City (obvi) with my husband and our Cockapoo, Yoshi.  I just got married about 2 months ago (yay!) to Justin, and awesome tech-savvy finance guy with a knack for collecting odd things like Medieval Swords.  FoodSAZm really started when Justin and I moved in together over 2 years ago.  Justin and I had these Friday night traditions where we'd each plan to cook a dish (not telling the other what we were cooking) and then eat the two creations for dinner together.  As Justin became less and less into the whole cooking after work ordeal, I took over the culinary dinner adventures in our home.  Justin inspired me to try all sorts of dishes and I thought to myself, why not blog this stuff?  And thus, FoodSAZm was started!

I never went to culinary school, never had formal training (unless you consider watching copious amounts of The Food Network, training), and any sort of "training" I did have, was from my wonderful Sicilian/Spanish mother.  But through experimentation and the inspiration that Justin gives me daily, I have really gone from knowing how to make Ramen to cooking dishes you could find in a NYC restaurant.

Cooking is my form of yoga.  Everyday at work, I think up ideas of what that night's dinner menu will entail.  As soon as I'm out of work, I am in chef mode.... I hit up the supermarket, get home, and start my cooking for our dinner.  Cooking is my way of winding down from a stressful day at work or from any emotional issues I am having in my personal life....when I'm in my kitchen, I am in my own world of tastes, smells and happiness.

In realizing lately just how happy cooking, menu planning, dinner party hosting and even food shopping, make me, I have been trying to explore various options of how to make this passion become a profession.  In the meantime, I am hoping FoodSAZm entertains you, teaches you and most importantly inspires you to become a zen chef in the kitchen! Keep reading and if you have any thoughts/ideas - please leave me some comments! Happy fooding!