Andrew Hageman

When I was just a teenager, my mother left the family home, which meant eating meals my father had prepared, so I HAD TO LEARN how to cook or suffer the weirdest culinary creations. Once I put on an apron, I knew it was a calling. Now I tackle some of the hardest dishes to widen my horizons and vary my palette. My wife recently developed some food allergies (dairy) that created a need to learn more, and that is something I have enjoyed embracing with gusto and garlic.

I have always loved making a whole fillet Beef Wellingtons. I have adapted it over the years and now can boast that this dish has been all-but mastered. I just love bringing it to the table and carving it in front of the diners who are sat drooling. I think the dish is the most fun to because of the many stages of preparation that can neither be hurried or replaced...it is a process and a fun one at that.

I'd love to upgrade my 18-year-old Global knife-set for sure. In addition, I need to build a new outside grill, and then there is the making of a wood-fired pizza oven, which is the stuff of dreams (both pizza and the oven feature in my nocturnal nappings). Since I became disabled after a hospital blunder cooking became my salvation, so kitchen equipment will also get an upgrade!