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Irene Watson, Publishing Editor of Reader Views is pleased to have as our guest, Valerie Hart, author of "The Bounty of Central Florida."

Hello Valerie, thank you for taking the time to participate in this interview.

Irene: Valerie, why do you feel "The Bounty of Central Florida" was an important book for you to write? What goals have you had?

Valerie: regional cookbooks have flooded the market. South Western, North Western, Cuban, Caribbean, Cajun and combinations ofincluding those referred to America's innovation that Asian fusion with one of the other regions, and includes highlights of the new creative chefs, the inclusion of fresh ingredients, the areas are.

When we moved from Miami to Central Florida 15 years ago, the Kitchen changed dramatically. Apart from local Italian restaurants that heavy tomato-based Sicilian cuisine featured, and a smattering of Mexican migrant workers catering to the north in this area, citrus fruits, Mama-Papa restaurantsOrlando was a unique cuisine of its own. This has its roots in the south of America with a rustic edge accessed fish and game, simply grilled or roasted and accompanied by fruit and vegetables freshly picked from the tree and ground based.

Each spring-fed lake yields bass. The larger lakes are flooded with alligators and tilapia. The St. John's brackish river is rich with blue crab and shrimp, and its tributaries filled with flounder, bass and snook. The wood duckseem only to the joy of the pans and just a bit south in Osceola County, wild turkeys and wild race bundantly for the lucky hunter. And, as in the rest of the South, barbecue there with their own versions of Central Florida's sweet, spicy mustard sauce and giant over slow smoked pork ribs slathered.

My goal, as food writer for The Daily Commercial, was to make people aware of the bounty of the area.

Irene: What challenges did youWhile I have this book and how did you overcome them?

Valerie: The challenges were delightful. brought my many trips to St. John's River with the ancient boaters me in direct contact with the people live and draw their living from the bays of the intercostals waterways. My membership and association with the NWTF (National Wild Turkey Federation) are not only taught me how to roast a whole turkey, but instilled respect for this dedicated group of conservationists who teachWomen surviving in the wilderness, as responsible gun ownership for children.

The most difficult challenge was to write the book, however, during the period on Monday, I write my Thursday newspaper column and teaching Kitchen will be confronted at the shelter. There was simply no time to do everything, and I had more money and more hours to create recipes late
At night and opening my computer to record before the sun rose.

Irene: Are the recipes of your own creation?Some of them have been passed down through the family for you?

Valerie: The recipes are my own, derived from my sense of taste and smell and the desire to create. My background of education in France (later, Cordon Bleu, courses after I started to teach cooking in Miami), and our 30 years of business in Italy, where we have a home in Florence and traveled extensively through northern Italy, brought me in contact with a variety
Chefs in the country and "nonnas" (Italian grandmothers) inHome Kitchen, the "secrets disclosed" for generations divided.

Irene: How did you come to a boil? Do you cook as a child? Where did you learn to cook? Would you like to cook any funny stories and learn that you relate to?

Valerie: I would like to say that I learned from my mother and grandmother, but fortunately, cook, this is not true. My mother and grandmother had absolutely no talent in the kitchen, probably because they cook more, do it for them. Theonly food that my mother knew how to cook were roast beef, turkey and grilled lamb chops. Those were the days when all the fat was left singing in a crust. We not only ate the top fat on the beef and between the bones of the chops, we enjoyed it. And the trick was to eat the turkey and beef, until the sauce poured over it solidifies into a hard, white mass.

We had a German chef for many years. My parents visited me was in their care. The kitchen was a sensual wonderlandChocolate and pastry cream and veal that they cautiously dipped in beaten egg and then in bread crumbs before frying a homemade golden brown delicacy, she said that she Wiener schnitzel with fried potatoes and buttery noodles served. Elizabeth never used an electric mixer, but butter and sugar and egg white by hand to make her 6-Layer German Doboschtorte, rich chocolate Sachartorte Viennese and Hungarian Caramel Cake. She was my first culinary mentor and their recipesappear in my first cookbook, The New
Tradition Cookbook.

Irene: I notice in your bio you aspired to be an opera singer, but until the food writing career ended, and then in a cooking career. Are there times that you like to turn back the pages and a career as a singer would?

Valerie: Sometimes when my life would have been very different. I will always remember studying under the great André Boge on the stage of the Paris Grand Opera. I of coursenot ambitious enough, or perhaps realized I had not determined the voice to great things.

Irene: Do you have a favorite recipe from this book? Why?

Valerie: guests and family members to eat with us, as a rule, require that the Key Lime Cheesecake I or flourless chocolate dessert soufflés Individual prepare. My duckling is the children's favorite and I offer 2-3 Schonmal sauce variations for your pleasure. Butternut Squash Soup I love and
refreshingStrawberry salad. I make dozens of hors d'oeuvres and Mushroom Roll frozen profiteroles dessert for unexpected company and because our lime trees are so prolific, you can always find a frozen lime pie.

Irene: This is a second cookbook for you. Her first cookbook was the new tradition, which was published in 1988. What do you have after writing the first, which you changed in your second book, The Bounty of Central Florida?

Valerie: My first cookbook was written as aResult of my years as a food writer for the newspaper at the Miami Beach and lunch restaurant, which I had for 15 years my husband's Wholesale Furniture Store, imports for the trade. The restaurant was my test kitchen. We did not sell the food, but it offered designers and their customers as you would at home. The buffet, which was changed daily so popular that people lined up around the block. We served over 100 people every day in the restaurant, we built in the showroomwith bricks from the old Union Station in Chicago that had been torn down.

Although most of the format of the first book on American cuisine and my interpretation of French and Italian cooking was based, allowed the wonderful ethnicity of Miami Beach I discover recipes for Matzo Balls, Stuffed fish, stuffed cabbage, brisket of beef and potato pancakes that I times in the newspaper during the Jewish holidays. I would go down, become what is "in" area now called "SoBe" knownThat settled during the late 60s and 70s still exclusively by older Jewish. I would approach the ladies who were shopping. Each had a different prescription for the same court, and everyone thought it was the best. I would then try to experiment and test the home and go back to the combination of ingredients was to my taste. Then I would write my food column.

The common denominator of the two books is my belief that people read more than exquisite cuisine like to cook, but wantand basic food to eat.

Irene: What do you hope comes out of this cookbook experience for you? Are you planning on writing another one?

Valerie: I do not know if I ever write another cookbook, but I have so many recipes that do not appear in the first two that I'm trying. Who cooks know that there always enjoy a new and different kind of preparation for the palate. There is never a final chapter with the cooking.

Irene: Thank you Valerie. Is there anythingWant to add about your experience or your cookbook?

Valerie: I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to express myself. This is the first time that I asked these questions and the interview was the most fun.

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