Hi. I’m Jerry Catalano. I’m a retired guy who isn’t really done yet in general, but is certainly done with corporate life. Except for eight years as a high school music and then math teacher, and a couple of years working in a hospital, I worked in corporate IT for 35 years, mostly in management.
I’ve been cooking since I was a teen, although I didn’t get serious about it until I was in my 30’s. Like many cooks, I started out making my mom’s recipes, and my first cookbooks were ones that she had. Over time I acquired more cookbooks and discovered Gourmet Magazine and Bon Appétit, and later on epicurious.com and other online sources. I learned to recognize a good recipe, and I learned the techniques I needed to execute the recipes well. So I’m a cook, not a chef. Recipes that I call my own are mostly derivations of someone else’s recipe or are my feeble attempt to imitate something I’ve eaten in a restaurant.
Then there are all of these other interests: travel, books, science and technology, health and fitness, economics and politics. I won’t plague you with that last one.
I live with my wife Debbie and our golden retriever Maggie, in Southern France. We moved here in 2020 from Southern California. We are happy and healthy, and consider ourselves fortunate.