Recorded Books Inc. - The homemade chef: ordinary ingredients for extraordinary food

Dear Reader: Welcome to my first cookbook. Before we get started, I want to congratulate you for deciding to learn more about this beautiful art known as cooking. With each page, we will embark on an adventure that will satisfy your appetite for knowledge, as well as for mouthwatering, fast, healthy dishes. The recipes in this book are inspired by the same dishes I cook at my restaurant, Sabores by Chef James, and at home. Growing up in Venezuela, I fell in love with food through Latin cuisine. As a person with a multicultural background, Im passionate about combining Latin flavors and cooking methods with different international ingredients that are simple yet anything but ordinary. The result is extraordinary Pan-Latin dishes that have my signature WOW factorquick, simple, yet sophisticated touchesthat will impress your family and friends as well as allow you to master invaluable prepping and cooking skills that you can use for the rest of your life. Whether youre a beginner or you have more experience, I promise you will have fun and be surprised with what you will discover through the joys of cooking. They say the kitchen is the heart of the home, and so it must be kept beating with good flavors and aromas.

For an inexperienced cook, the culinary world can seem intimidatingeven complicatedstressful, and intense, but theres actually no reason to fear it. With modern-day advances, cooking has become more simplified. We live in a time when modern kitchen utensils help make our job much easier and most supermarkets carry a huge variety of fresh, high-quality ingredients. When in doubt, we can refer to the Internet and social networks for answers to our questions.

Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to travel around the world, and this has allowed me to experience the countries I visit through their foods. I like to try typical dishes when I go out to eat, whether the restaurant is well-known or small, or just a food stand on the street (and many of them are amazing). I befriend the locals and get their recommendations on where to eat, which I follow to the letter. Although some recommendations arent all that great, most of them are 100 percent worth it. On many occasions, I have had better meals at small, intimate, local spots than at more high-end restaurants. This goes to show that cooking well is within everyones reach. You dont need a big kitchen, just the right attitude and a little creativity.

My own story shows that if you want to cook, or achieve anything you set your mind to, all you need is the desire to do so. When I arrived in the United States with my mother, I was only fourteen years old, and our start here, like that of most immigrants, was far from easy. We lived in a small house, and although the kitchen was also small, I used it to prepare easy meals. My mother was working up to four jobs to provide for us, and when I saw her efforts, I decided to pitch in by getting a job. Although at that young age I already had an interest in cooking, it wasnt my priority. My main goal at the time was to study and work to get ahead in life.

In those days, my routine was simple: school then work. And, boy, did I work! Before becoming a chef, I sold cell phones at a small stand in a shopping mall; I was so young that working at my age was considered illegal, but I figured out a way to convince the owner to hire me. I later sold vitamins and shortly thereafter jumped into telemarketing. Just when I thought Id stay in the industry, I was offered the chance to make radio commercials, so I decided to move into the social communications world. Meanwhile, I was studying chemistry so I could become a dentist (can you imagine me as a dentist?!), and as I was finishing my degree, I realized I was incredibly curious about cooking, so I decided to register at a culinary institute to follow my calling as a chef.