Amy Felder
Amy grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin surrounded by sausages and cheese. Her work as a pastry chef has taken her throughout the country and across the ocean to Austria. But no matter where she has lived, she holds on to her love of a good brat and some sharp cheddar. Amy’s favorite form of entertainment is to make dinner for family and friends, and although the meals may not always include sausage or cheese, they are usually tasty.
Do you garden? I pretend to garden-that is, I like the concept of growing my own vegetables, but alas, I am hopeless at it. I do compost and have four large bins in my backyard. Composting is due more to a surfeit of leaves and ready access to tons of food scraps (from my job). I produce the compost and then spend a lot of time dreaming about what I would do with it if I actually had a garden.
Who taught you to cook? I learned to cook from my parents through osmosis more than anything else. There were no canned or frozen foods in our house, everything was made from scratch. My mom truly loves to cook and even today she is always trying out the latest recipes in Bon Appetit magazine. Perhaps I didn’t learn the techniques of good cooking so much as a love and appreciate of good, whole foods. This upbringing certainly made an impact on our family-two of four children are professional chefs.
What can you always find in your fridge? In my fridge you can always find that last little piece from my CSA that I had full intention of cooking but didn’t get to until the next week’s produce was delivered.
What is your favorite childhood food memory? My favorite childhood food memory is of my mother’s Christmas cookies. She would make literally dozens of different kinds-secretly working for weeks while the kids were asleep. On Christmas morning we would wake up to an array of cookie tins all opened to display their contents. We were given dinner plates and let loose. Waking up to a Christmas morning breakfast of milk and cookies was almost as exciting as waking up the gifts under the tree.