Let the adventure begin!

Welcome to Kitchen Fiddler! I have toyed with the idea of joining the ever-growing food blog community for quite some time, and I'm thrilled to invite you to join me for tales of culinary delights and musical (mis)adventures, with chocolate-related epiphanies and a bit of time-traveling thrown in for good measure.

Food and music have been the twin passions throughout my life. I began playing the violin when I was 3 years old, and I started helping my mom in the kitchen shortly after that. It's nearly impossible for me to separate these two lifelong enthusiasms, as I can hardly remember a time where the violin wasn't part of my life or that the kitchen wasn't my favorite room in the house. These dual passions have threaded my three decades on the planet, coming together most harmoniously in my life as a violinist in New York City, a place where the musical and culinary possibilities are endless! It is a rich existence, peppered with a variety of great musical experiences and made all the richer by my most beloved and colorful circle of friends who are all carving out a similar creative niche for themselves. In living a kind of musical hodge-podge here in New York, our bond is definitely strengthened by our mutual passion for cooking and eating. Between all of the various orchestral and chamber music concerts, recording sessions and Broadway gigs that we all play here in the city, there is always time for a wonderful meal with friends. Whether it is a feast that we’ve prepared for each other or an exploration of favorite restaurants in town, I think my friends and I would all agree that music and food (especially great music-making and glorious food) simply go hand in hand.

Many of you know that I have been working on my first cookbook for a while now. I am not a formally trained chef but I have been cooking all my life, and I have always derived great pleasure from sharing food with friends and family alike. While my cooking style has definitely evolved over the years, the idee fixe throughout my so-called kitchen career is one of continually striving to create food that is vibrant, bursting with bold joyful flavors, and infused with love. I’m talking about food that is meant to be ENJOYED with friends while lingering over great wine, conversation and laughter. I want my friends to come away from my table feeling well-taken care of and loved, and writing this cookbook is my way of being able to share these dishes that I love so much. This project is very dear to my heart, and after spending this past summer developing recipes and plugging away at the prose, I am happy to report that the cookbook is steadily coming together, slowly but surely taking shape. However, I am impatient and I feel compelled to share some of my favorite creations with all of you NOW, giving you a little preview taste of things to come.

With that in mind, this blog is a natural extension of the countless emails I've sent to my dear friends and family detailing my recent food adventures and kitchen experiments with both photos and words. When I experience something that makes my tastebuds roar with delight, I have a very hard time keeping that to myself! I have my own dishes to share, but I'm also eager to share other favorites recipes from my extensive cookbook collection. I already anticipate stories about post-concert merriment over meals as well as reports on various eating adventures around the city, with or without my sometimes gluttonous cohorts. And there will be chocolate, of course. LOTS of it.

Feel free to stop by here any time and say hello! Cheers!