At the risk of sounding even more cliché, I believe it all began with my mother. When I was young, I looked up to her a lot more than I sometimes realized. I now credit her for my addiction and early introduction to coffee and my love of cooking shows, because those were the things she's always enjoyed as long as I can remember. To this day, we frequently talk about both when we're together or chatting over the phone. We both ogle over kitchen tools and food photos or recipes and ramble on about the characteristics of our dream kitchens full of bamboo, granite, and stainless steel. She and I are very alike when it comes to food and she's one of my biggest fans, even though she rarely gets to eat the food I cook.