I won't say that I grew up around the stove as that would be just the sort of trite image you'd find in all sorts of recipe books that have been turned into novels. However, I will say that my life has, in one way or another, been linked to the kitchen from a very early age. First and foremost, I have always loved eating. For me, life is more than just eating out of necessity. I believe that the one of life's main principles, one of its most wonderful virtues is living to eat. My parents always tell an anecdote from our childhood: they worked at a chemist's and when someone would ask for somet...