Since I was little, I have always wanted to be a good cook. My early cooking experience was growing up in Elkin, NC and cooking for my two sisters and my parents back in the fifties and sixties. My mother was very patient with me. She encouraged me to try out new ideas on the family.

Thankfully, my family was pretty good about enduring my "flashes of culinary inspiration". As you can imagine, many of them turned out less than terrific. But, my mom's early encouragement got me hooked on cooking.

Along the way I had the help of Mrs. Tharpe and Mrs. Walker, two outstanding Home Economic teachers.   They encouraged me to go to college and major in "Home Ec".  In school I  learned more advanced cooking techniques along with some fundamental "food technology". In fact, I was on my way to becoming a Home Economics teacher myself when life, in the form of my future husband, intervened.

In a short time, our family grew to include three rambunctious sons and two daughters -- not to mention an assortment of springer spaniels, one great dane, two boxers and one unbelievably free-spirited Golden Retriever.

I can't remember when we didn't have an assortment of buddies, clients, schoolmates, colleagues and neighbors around the house with their feet under my dining room table. (In fact, we ended up buying a 14' long dining room table and a dozen chairs so we could get everybody around the same spot.)

Since I always had such a large group around the house, I recruited them as "beta-testers" to try out new cooking ideas. It was always a lot of fun. And usually everyone was a good sport about trying at least one bite!

All those years of cooking for large groups of people taught me some very valuable recipes. I learned how to cook dishes that were both good for you and good to eat. And since my husband is infamous for inviting three or four families over for dinner and then forgetting to tell me about it, I learned to, literally, "whip up" satisfying meals in a big hurry.

Really, life was good. But cooking with ordinary stoves (I had "graduated" from an old gas range to a Jenn Air), life wasn't nearly as good as it could be. I began looking at the so-called professional ranges, the Vikings, the Garlands, etc. The more I looked at them the more I realized, that for me, they lacked finesse. They were "blunt instruments" that demanded a lot of attention from the cook -- not to mention a lot of rearranging in the kitchen for grease traps, ventilation hoods, special gas fittings and oversized gas lines.

Then I found the AGA Cooker. It was delightfully simple. It didn't require any major remodeling to my kitchen. It was easy for the local gas utility to hook up. In short, it was wonderful.

However, it took a few years for my husband to understand why I wanted to spend so much money for a new stove. Then, out of the blue, he gave me a four-oven AGA as a 30th anniversary present. (I knew when I married him he was smart!)

At first, the fruits of my labors with the AGA were simple. But, pretty soon, I was getting ambitious. I invited more and larger groups for dinner. Then I began to try more complicated projects. The AGA Cooker was solid as a rock and I became more and more confident.

During the winter of '99, I thought I'd go over the top. We invited 20 people over for a roast turkey dinner (the bird was 28 pounds!). The whole affair came off wonderfully. All the courses were ready, on time and served hot -- the AGA even kept the serving plates warm. The meal included the stuffing, of course, plus biscuits and french bread. Gravy. Two kinds of cranberry sauce. Fresh green beans, roasted vegetables (potatoes, rutabagas and turnips) and corn. Fruitcake, pound cake, biscotti and lemon tarts for dessert. We even made coffee with a french press using water that boiled in 2 minutes on the AGA's boiling plate. After it was over, and everybody went home, I thought, "WOW, I'm on a roll! The AGA came through like a champ."

In the meantime, I had met a few new AGA owners who were interested in cooking lessons. So, after our success with the big turkey dinner, I called my favorite AGA dealer, Bonnie Fleming, and bragged on myself a little bit. And in that conversation the light bulb went off and I said to Bonnie, "What would you think if I started a cooking school for AGA owners? Would anybody you know want to come?" Then I talked with Tex who owns a wonderful kitchen store, Compliments to the Chef, in Asheville, NC, to see what she thought about a cooking school for AGA owners. Both of them were positive and supportive, so I decided to go for it.

Since then, and with the help from Bonnie and others, the school has been a rousing success. We've been able to meet the expectations of many students. Tailoring each class to their specific needs. Soon we'll have a "low-fat" school up and running since we've had so many requests for it.

As I look back on my cooking experiences over the years, I realize that the inventor of the AGA was a smart guy. He designed a way for the cook to concentrate on the food and its presentation, free from the distractions of "stove management". With an AGA in the kitchen, I get so much more pleasure out of cooking.

If you're really into cooking, you should invest in an AGA. Next, you should come spend a few days in my kitchen with me, learning how to get the most from your AGA. Before you know it, you'll be ready for prime time! 

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