James here....

James here, I'm from East Van, born and raised by my grandmother on my mother's side, her family is from Lillooet/Shalath and my father's side is from Mount Currie. I am in the middle of 9 brothers and 2 sisters and have become a germ freak from that experience, but what I learned more from all that growing up is, they all sucked at cooking!
At the age of 11 is where I feel I caught the "cooking bug" at the EXPO 86 food fair, where I first tasted deep fried bananas with Ice Cream. 5 years after paying close attention to my grandma, and learning the basics, I applied for a job at Toody-Ni restaurant which was attached to the Indian Center on Hastings & Commercial ....washed alotta dishes before I was allowed to cut with a knife, but it was worth the wait. At 19, I joined welfare to get into the Picasso Cafe program, it dealt with more vegetarian dishes and organic meats, it was a year long course. Now at the age of 32 I feel that its time to grow up, hence me taking this course, which will eventually get me into a butchers class....