What can I say about me…
Well, I’d first like to thank you for being here, and reading this. This is huge for me. It tells me you’re doing a bit of digging, and you’d like to find out who’s behind the curtain.
<———-Yes, that’s me.
My name is Tony, and I love food. Eating it, and cooking it. Unfortunately, it’s starting to show on me too…lol.. I tell you, the older you get, the harder it becomes trying to shed those extra pounds…but I digress….
A Bit of History
As a young child, I was fascinated with watching my Mom and sometimes my Dad, cooking food in the kitchen. If Mom was cooking, I was right there by her side. I loved it! As I grew older, I started to cook my own little meals the odd time. Nothing too fancy, but things like fried egg sandwiches.
I Did Thanksgiving Dinner – One Thanksgiving (I was 9 years old), my Mom was ill. She had the turkey defrosted in the fridge, and it needed to be cooked. I remember watching her cook turkeys many times. Little did I realize that I had taken mental notes.
So, I washed and prepared the big old bird, then cooked it. I peeled potatoes, and got other veggies ready. Along the way, I would go upstairs and ask Mom’s advice on certain things. At the end of the day, I had prepared a simple but decent Thanksgiving day dinner. I was proud of myself, and Mom and Dad were REALLY proud of me. This was a pinnacle day for my 9 year old self.
“I remember the feeling I got from watching others enjoying a meal that I prepared for them.”
It was the first time I had ever felt that, and I loved it. The bug had bitten me. Going forward, I always felt like cooking something, and sharing it with someone else.
Working at the Italian Restaurant – At the ripe old age of 14, I got a job in a very nice Italian restaurant. Almost from the day I started working there (although, only a dishwasher at the time), I fell in love with the restaurant business. Specifically, cooking food for customers, which came some months later when I got promoted.
So, the timeline at the restaurant went like this: dishwasher, busboy, back-order cook (chicken cacciatore, spareribs, filet of sole, fettucine alfredo, veal, meatball, and sausage sandwiches, lasagna, various pastas, garlic bread, bruschetta, veal parmigiano, and probably a few other things I can’t remember right now), then pizza maker.
I Loved Making Pizzas – Pizza maker was my absolute favorite, hands down! Being the pizza maker meant you ran the kitchen. You were the Big Guy! LOL! This is where I developed my love for eating and making pizza. We would crank out over 250 pizzas on a busy Saturday, not to mention all the other food!
I thrived on the organized chaos, and the thrill of trying to keep up with the orders from the phones ringing non-stop for hours, and the waitresses bringing in order after order from the 110 person dining room.
“The fact is: You either loved it, or hated it. There was no in-between.”
I Bought a Bar – I won’t say much about this episode for certain personal reasons. In my late 30’s I bought a bar. I enjoyed the kitchen part of the bar. It was my very own kitchen, so I was free to experiment, and make menu changes. The drinking part of the bar was ran by staff and I had a manager in place to handle day to day staffing etc. My wife ran the administration, money-handling, and alcohol ordering.
We Shut Down the Bar – Due to a rough landlord, and some very unjust smoking laws we shut down the bar after just over 5 years. Things don’t always go the way you plan, and some things are truly out of your control. I wasn’t going to mention this next part, but we ended up losing everything. I’m mentioning it in the spirit of transparency.
Don’t Let the Waves Bash You Around – When things happen to you of this magnitude, you either curl up in a ball, and let the waves bash you around, or you don’t. I curled up in a ball for a little while. Then I snapped out of it! That is what brought me here today.
Present Day
These days, I still have my love for cooking, but not in a business way. I cook for my beautiful wife and myself. Periodically, we have friends over or our grown-up kids come over. Then I cook. Actually, as I write this, Easter is only about 10 days away. So, that will be a large-ish event, filled with lots of cooking and dark red beverages of about 12% alcohol! Lol!
I Sell Real Estate – I make my living in two ways. One is by selling real estate (which I have done since I was 19 years old), and the other income I have is from writing about products. Mostly products that are found on Amazon.com. This is my passionate hobby. Some people go bowling, others watch television after work. I sit down at my computer, and write articles and product reviews.
Bestkitchensreviews.com Is Born – So, this website was created because of my love for food, and because of a bit of frustration I felt when I wanted to buy a hand blender a few years ago, but I couldn’t find what I felt was reliable advice, all in one place.
So, I decided to write about kitchen products, and share my research on the pages of this blog. I use real buyer reviews and comments, and then I create articles to guide the buyer down a safe path, so the buyer can make a properly informed and educated decision.
I Have Cooking Videos – As you know now, through the years I’ve been exposed to quite a bit of cooking in business environments, and have gathered a reasonable knowledge of cooking. So, the other part of this blog is me sharing some cooking tips and tricks, and some recipes. You will find some video (they’re not professional production videos. Just me, sharing what I know…) on some of the pages here, mostly of me cooking something or explaining certain things (like how to make a pizza).
Reach Out To Me – I’d love it if you’d reach out to me with questions. I will gladly share what I know, and I’ll take suggestions on how to make this blog better. I’m planning to steadily add new articles and reviews pertaining to food, kitchen products, and even some kitchen renovation tips (we renovated our kitchen about 3 years ago, so I have some ideas if you need any…Along with a buddy, my wife and I did the reno ourselves…a massive undertaking!!).
Looking forward to getting to know you!
Tony.