I cook, and I write.

Ooooh-eeeee, here I am. This has been a long time in the coming, but I can hold out no longer. It is time to begin this blog. People have been asking, and here I am, finally. How far these words will travel throughout the blogosphere, I do not know, yet, but I'm willing to risk sharing my writing here with anyone who cares to read it. After at least a year and a half of daily reading of food blogs that at times has bordered on obsessive, it has become clear that I can't wait any longer; I want in on the party too. Letting friends as well as strangers in on some of what swirls around inside this pretty little head, it's new for me, that's a fact, and it's risky. But I have plenty of history as an intrepid risk-taker in life, so I'm pretty sure I'll be fine. Hopefully, there will be at least a few folks out there who will find value in my posts. A few readers will be all right, and any more will be a gift.

What will I share here at The Sage Table's blog? Well, what am I into? If you knew me, the answer would be easy: I'll share about food. What else could I possibly want to write about? I am obsessed, not only with cooking, but with everything to do with it.

I love plants and herbs, farming and farmer's markets. I love knowing where my food came from and the care with which it was grown, who grew it, and when. I love recipes and culinary history and finding the perfect classic recipes from which to begin a stint in the kitchen. I love jazz and cooking like I'm John Coltrane, making it all up, starting with a phrase, an idea from which to riff, taking it from there to create a whole masterpiece, a meal which is a symphony of flavors, colors, tastes, and textures. I love simple food just as much as fancy, if not more.

I love the idea of food as medicine. I love experimenting with different ways of eating and watching how subtle changes in my diet make a difference, when they do, which isn't always. Nutrition, I admit, is a quandary to me, even though I have studied it for years; it's an issue that never quite escapes coloring my decisions in the kitchen, and it will play a role in what I share here, for sure.

At heart, I am a sensualist with a fixation on creating delicious tastes. I love the pleasure wonderful food brings to me and the communities and people around me, and I find nothing more gratifying than sharing food with my circles of friends and communities. I live in the Bay Area, where most people I know are incomprehensibly busy. I'm the only one I know who has time for most of what I do, plus some people pay me to do it, so I have time to experiment and create, spending entire days in the kitchen with just myself, learning, experimenting, tasting. I love sharing the fruits of my labors with my clients, whose appreciation and accolades drive me forward from day to day. This work I do, cooking, it feels like a luxury, and my gratitude for that fact permeates my soul of late. To do work we love, that others love us for, that is the biggest gift we can give ourselves, and I've done that, so gladly. Oh YES.

I am a teacher too, with two decades of experience in the kitchen and a brain full of knowledge and technique that I adore sharing in the classes I teach. When they set foot in my kitchen, my students invariably open wide to the inspiration I set out to give them. I figure that without inspiration, nothing else I teach them will matter. I'll teach here too, and inspire, so get ready for it.

So I will share what I know and what I'm thinking about, and even if it doesn't seem like it will at first, invariably it will take us back to food and cooking, every time. If you love those things, come back here and visit often, and partake, please, of my so-called wisdom. Within no time at all, there ought to be plenty to read here. I often call myself a procrastinator extraordinaire (I am so very good at it!), but once I get started on something, I've been know to become unflaggingly focused. I'll be back soon with more thoughts, I hope, and likely some recipes.