Hi I'm Andrea. Welcome to My Pocket Kitchen. I am a professional Pastry Chef and Cook and have been working in the industry for over 25 years. For the past 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 have, literally, hundreds of recipes that need to be organized, tested and re-written and also some that are tried and true. They come from near and far, old and new. I hope you choose to stick around while I go through the mess and get my sh** together. It'll be fun I promise!
Some other things I like to do.
Currently I'm teaching night classes at our city’s leading culinary school. I have taught cooking and baking classes many times over the years and am always learning from my students. I also enjoy sewing, gardening and binge watching shows on Netflix, oh and cocktails on our back porch...and also napping.
Getting a little more personal...
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. We live in Toronto, Canada in a rented house that has a very tiny kitchen. My blog and recipes are a testament to the fact that you don't need a big, fancy kitchen to create delicious food. Our neighbourhood is called "The Pocket". Obviously that's how I came up with the name for my blog. I also think of my kitchen like my little creative pocket where I develop recipes for your back pocket! You can see how it all unfolded...
I graduated in 1991 from both the Pastry and Culinary Arts programs, at the same College where I am teaching now. Full circle. 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.
Thanks for stopping by and listening to me ramble. I hope you’ll continue to come back and hang out.
Andrea