Vickie McCorkendale - Profile

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<title>Hi, I'm Vickie and I love food</title>

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Hi, I'm Vickie and I love food. Over the past 15 years I've slowly become a very zealous foodie and avid entertainer. It wasn't always like this. As a child growing up in Lakewood, CA there was very little culinary inspiration available. To top if off, I was a picky eater and my parents never, ever, entertained.

It wasn't until I started dating Bruce and transferred up to <a href="http://www.ucla.edu/">UCLA</a> that my interest in food began to develop and mature. Bruce and I were young and adventurous. We'd never seen such food selections as were available in Westwood/West Los Angeles. We wanted to try it all!

Roommates were also a big influence. Diedre in particular would stick her nose into cookbooks and come out with food for the gods. We'd plan a simple college bash and she'd slave away tirelessly and create a 10 layer homemade pesto-torte!

For a while I worked for a connoisseur insurance agent who often took the office staff to lunch at the latest hip restaurant in Los Angeles. I was in heaven!

So, with all these influences, I began cooking and entertaining - a lot. I've hosted countless events for friends, family and co-workers. I've catered at private parties. Eventually I took most of the professional cooking courses through the <a href="http://www.unex.ucla.edu/index.htm">UCLA Extension</a> Hospitality Food Service / Culinary Program.

All this entertaining and coursework was done while I was working at the University of Southern California / Information Sciences Institute (<a href="http://www.isi.edu/">USC/ISI</a>). Working at a computer science research institute allowed me to be online when the World Wide Web first began. I've been giving and receiving food advice on newsgroups for over ten years (eesh, has it been than long?).

I have to thank Suite101.com. They've given me a forum for my passion. Since 1997 I've had the opportunity to write and to help others from all over the world. The Culinary Q&A topic is here for you, the reader. I hope I can help make your culinary adventures fun and successful!

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