Who is Gourmet Jack?

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I grew up and spent most of my life in Australia, in Townsville in tropical North Queensland, Canberra down south in the Australian snow country and in Sydney. I moved to the United States in the mid 80′s and have lived in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and, Maryland. In recent years I have been in San Antonio, Texas. I never went to culinary school, but came from a large family of 8 who consumed vast amounts of food as they grew up. Our mother turned out three meals a day for this perpetually hungry group without the benefit of culinary school and no training other than learning by doing …. Experience, the greatest teacher of them all.

Mum not only prepared the daily meals, but found time to make jams, chutney and various cakes most of which were often in the winners circle at the annual Agricultural Show (US translation: State fair). She had a wide spread reputation for her mango chutney, rosella jam, Christmas fruit cake and Christmas plum puddings. Some of these will be featured in Recipes on this site.

I developed an interest in cooking in the US and it has now become a passionate hobby. I particularly like to explore Asian fusion flavors, Mediterranean and Middle East cuisines, Indian Curries, Spanish Tapas, Italian, and traditional Australian. In recent years, I have been dipping my little toe into baking – breads, biscuits (cookies), old english muffins, biscotti and pies.

My wife and I have a great recipe book collection and we will graze through them from time to time. There can be no doubt, though, that the advent of the internet has heralded the ability to access and browse through the greatest recipe collection on earth. Any regional cuisine, food type, ingredient, technique or tool can be found with the flick of a mouse. My favorite approach is to find a range of different recipes for the same dish, compare ingredients, add/subtract ones that appeal or don’t appeal, then put it all together with some flavor substitutes of my own that I have tried in other similar dishes. It’s a quick and easy way to develop a range of favorite recipes with your own special twist.

Gourmet Jack will be my chroncle of the meals or individual dishes that are my favorites along with any tips and techniques that I have picked up in the school of experience.

Gourmet Jack