About Robb DeSimone
… So much of life happens over food and drinks. It’s how we connect. Food is connected to so many of our memories and emotions. The smells of tomato sauce simmering on the stove and meatballs frying in the pan bring me back to Sundays as a kid. It was a ritual. Mom in her apron, hovering over the stove with her wooden spoon, me at the kitchen table with the food mill cranking away to break down the whole tomatoes and separate the seeds. The meatballs, the size of baseballs, crusty from the frying pan. Mom used to leave a few out of the sauce for “the vultures” circling around the kitchen – my Dad and two brothers. You grabbed fast or you lost out.
Most of my recipes have stories behind them, and I find this to be true of a most cooks and bakers. That’s what this blog is all about. It’s about recipes and stories and the people who share them. It’s about adventures shared over food and drinks, in our home kitchens, or in somebody’s mother’s kitchen.
I hope you enjoy the stories and the recipes. And, if you have a story, and/or a recipe I’d love to hear it. Hit me up and we’ll make a date to meet (in person or through the miracle of technology). Robb@SomebodysMothersKitchen.com
A bit about me:
A tall, elegant woman once asked me to help her re-create a recipe for Philly Sticky Buns she remembered from her childhood. I had a café called “Fieldstones Sweet and Savory Foods”, and Virginia was a regular. She shared what she remembered and I worked through seven attempts til the day she stood at the kitchen door and bit into what I knew was going to be the final recipe. She stood there with her eyes closed and a sweet, slightly melancholy smile on her face, and I said, “This is it. You’re back on the streets of your childhood town. Sunday morning, walking home holding your father’s hand, the sweet cinnamon taste…” Opening her eyes all she could say was “Thank you.”
This is why I cook and bake. It’s moments like this.
Some background:
Though I have cooked professionally (in restaurants, catering, and I’ve even been a personal chef on private yachts), I have always approached food from more of a home cook perspective. Even in my bakery café businesses (Fieldstones Sweet and Savory Food and The Tattoo Turtle Café & Catering, both in Southern New England) my recipes were basically home recipes scaled up for production. My cooking and baking skills do not come from a classic culinary school training, but were learned in restaurants and cafes and catering operations. I’ve been lucky to have worked beside some amazing cooks and bakers from whom I’ve learned so much (and from whom I’ve stolen a lot of recipe ideas).
I live with my husband, Nick and our kids (the four-legged kind) in a small town on the shores of Buzzard’s Bay, somewhere mid-way between Boston’s North End and Providence, Rhode Island’s Federal Hill (both great Italian restaurant, bakery, deli havens) right off of Cape Cod.
IT’S COMPLICATED
“What kind of food do you make?” It’s a common question I get. And the answer is…it’s complicated. I grew up in a very Italian American household. Cut me and I bleed a mixture that is equal parts red sauce, olive oil and blood. So, of course there’s a lot of Italian and Mediterranean in what I cook. Though I was born along the Hudson River in New York, our family moved to South Florida when I was twelve, so a lot of my cooking is also influenced by the Cubans and South Americans who add lots of spice and flavor to Floridian restaurant menus. Then, I worked for half a dozen years as a chef on a yacht, wintering in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos and the Eastern Caribbean islands. So yeah, there’s some of that.
And then there’s the baking.
My original partner in Fieldstones was an amazing cook and baker named Lisa – and she was the most fun person I’ve ever had the pleasure to share a kitchen (and lots of wine) with. Lisa taught me that bread baking didn’t have to be scary or complicated. For a dozen years I started every day baking French Baguettes and loaves of Honey Wheat Bread, and Anadama Bread, and Seven Grain Autumn Sun Bread, and Oatmeal Bread, and Sour Dough Boules. There is something elemental and truly fulfilling in bread baking.
Lisa taught me laminated doughs and we’d make our own croissants and Danish pastries. Together we created over two dozen muffin flavors, and perfected our own Carrot Cake and a truly wonderful wine scented yellow cake, and a decadent Mexican Chocolate Torte, lots of pies and tarts.
And, now I have to stop because I have to go bake something.
IN CLOSING
Years ago, someone told me that cooking and baking (and restaurant life, in general) is an infection. Once you get it you can never be cured of it. It is in your blood. I am a kitchen guy, a foodie. My husband says he gained thirty pounds when we met. So, welcome to my adventure in food. Thanks for checking me out. I hope you enjoy the stories and the recipes.