Passion - our driving force. How did IT happen?
Claudia & Dave in the kitchen of Cooking with Claudia
CLAUDIA
One of Claudia’s earliest childhood memories is helping her mother prepare supper. At the age of 3, she would drag a kitchen chair over to the sink, climb up, and help peel the potatoes and carrots.
As she grew, she worked alongside her grandmothers, mother and sister - preparing holiday feasts; learning to make homemade raviolis, tortellinis, pastas and sauce; rolling grape leaves and preparing kibbee and many other Italian and Lebanese dishes. As a high school girl, Claudia would prepare dinner for her parents and sister...and she loved it! That was how the passion started and Claudia never looked back.
Hosting elaborate dinner parties at their home, Claudia prepared meals for her husband and their guests that left their mouths agape! Many tried to convince her to pursue a career as a restaurateur, but she already had a satisfying career. As time went on, that satisfaction changed and Claudia recognized that she was most happy in her kitchen cooking - a simple passion that turned into a rewarding career change!
DAVE
Dave grew up in a household where food was not the main focus in the home. Chef Boyardee was his introduction to Italian food. When he met Claudia he couldn’t believe that people actually cooked food that was healthy and tasty. Early in their courtship, Claudia realized she had her work cut out for her as Dave was very naïve when it came to ingredients. He ate all the garlic cloves that were in a tomato salad! Not having any exposure to many foods, he didn’t know that “those white crunchy things” were actually cloves of garlic! He has grown by leaps and bounds. Now he is Claudia’s sidekick in the kitchen.