Hi I'm Andrea. Welcome to My Pocket Kitchen. I am a professionally trained Chef and Pastry Chef and have been working in the food industry for over 25 years. For 6 years I ran and operated a successful bakery in Toronto, Canada which I recently sold. After taking a little hiatus I'm now on a mission to figure out how to live my best life! Cooking and baking has been, and always will be, a big part of that life. I also have a passion for teaching and photography so a blog makes sense right? This brings us to My Pocket Kitchen. This space is dedicated to learning and inspiring whether you are a novice or a pro. My style is un-fussy food that tastes good, period. I strive to provide you with easy to follow instructions with lots of tips and tricks, as well as detailed information on certain ingredients.
Getting a little more personal...
My Pocket Kitchen was born in our rented Toronto home that had a very tiny kitchen. I wanted to show that you don't need a big, fancy kitchen to create delicious food. The neighbourhood we lived in is called "The Pocket". Obviously that's how I came up with the name for my blog. I also thought of that kitchen like my little creative pocket where I developed recipes for your back pocket! You can see how it all unfolded...
Now we live in a beautiful century home in a small town east of Toronto. We moved here one year after I started my blog. I no longer have a tiny kitchen, but continue to create the same kinds of recipes you have all grown to enjoy.
I am a mother of 2 boys...ahem...young men. I've been married to my husband for an insane number of years and he is still my best friend. Besides being in the kitchen I also enjoy sewing, gardening, and back country camping.
I graduated in 1991 from both the Pastry and Culinary Arts (Chef's) programs, at George Brown College in Toronto. I started cooking and baking for work from the ripe age of 13 when I got my first job working for my grandparents at 2 of their 3 restaurants. Basically I've been doing this my whole life. Except for the 5 years I took time off to start a family, although "time off" is never how anyone should describe starting a family and there was a serious amount of cooking and baking happening during that time. I have traveled quite a bit and spent extended time living in Spain, Thailand and Argentina. The Argentina trip was the most recent. We left our jobs, put everything we owned in storage, except for 4 backpacks, and set off for Argentina, kids in tow. We spent 6 months living in Mendoza and travelling around South America with our boys who were 9 and 11 at the time. Most people thought we were crazy but it was one of the best things we've ever done.
You may notice mention around here of the Livy Method. This is a weight loss program I did and is how I lost 70 lbs in 2019. If you are interested in checking out the program head over here www.ginalivy.com . Most of my recipes here are completely on plan for this program and is what I was eating while losing weight and still do. It's just good, wholesome food.
Thanks for stopping by and listening to me ramble. I hope you’ll continue to come back and hang out.
Andrea