Hi! I'm Alea!
Hello! Welcome to Trendgredient! My name is Alea. I am a mom, a small business owner, and a food enthusiast. I have loved cooking and eating my whole life.
Some of my earliest memories are sitting on my grandfather’s lap in the 1980’s, watching cooking shows on TV. We enjoyed watching Jeff Smith (The Frugal Gourmet), Martin Yan (Yan Can Cook), and Graham Kerr (The Galloping Gourmet). During a time in my life when Saturday mornings should have been filled with cartoons, my Saturday mornings were spent watching the great chefs on PBS, cooking restaurant-style dishes.
In high school, every afternoon was spent watching an episode each of Great Chefs of America and Great Chefs of the World before beginning my homework. In the late 1990’s/early 2000’s, Saturday morning cooking shows made a comeback in my life and I woke up extra early IN COLLEGE just to watch Emeril, Bobby Flay, Ina Garten, and Rachael Ray show me how approachable cooking is, even for at-home cooks.
The problem was: I had never really set foot in a kitchen. Yes, I helped my mom make dinner sometimes. I baked a batch of cookies for school once or twice. I baked my best friend a disastrous cake in 6th grade, which notoriously became known as “the volcano cake.” However, it wasn’t until I was grown and married in my early 20’s that I tied on an apron and decided to see if my years of cooking show fandom were just that.
I decided to try my hand at my daddy’s favorite dish that his mom cooked for him in childhood: pot roast. Here is the amazing part: because I had watched cooking shows for the majority of my life, I knew exactly what to do during my first real kitchen escapade. I knew to brown the beef before sticking it in the oven to roast. I knew that I needed to chop my vegetables into similar sizes, so they would cook evenly. Although my first pot roast was not the best pot roast I’ve ever made, it was a decent first showing and I felt pretty proud of myself. More importantly, I discovered my true passion in life wasn’t watching others cook – it was actually cooking!
No, my passion never led me to a professional kitchen. However, this blog is my love letter to food and cooking. When my grandfather sat me on his knee at three years old, I’m sure he did not realize he was beginning my lifelong passion in life.
This blog is basically my way of sharing my language of love: food. I hope to help you learn more about cooking, essential kitchen tools, hacks to make your life easier, and food trends that shape the world in which we live. So, let’s lift a glass together as I invite you to my table.
