My name is Linda and I love to cook. Before following my passion to prepare tasty food, I was a yoga instructor, a mother, a graphic designer and a businesswoman. But through it all, my love of food has been an important subtext of my life.

As a child, my extended family often gathered to share home-cooked food together; this was a great source of joy in life.

When I was eleven years old, I took over the job of preparing dinner for my dad and my two siblings because my mom was gravely ill. I had a limited repertoire of dishes that I could fix -- only what mom had taught me and what I learned from cookbooks -- but those difficult times developed in me a feeling of confidence in the kitchen -- given even the meagerest set of ingredients, I felt I could turn them into a meal!

In high school, I was bound for Vassar College, and "restaurant work" was a means to afford that goal. In my senior year, to my friends' amusement, I won the Betty Crocker Award for home economics. I'd never taken a single home ec class, but had learned domestic skills by trial and error.

A few years later, living off campus with my boyfriend (now my husband) our little apartment became a frequent gathering place for friends seeking some homey warmth and companionship. Reflecting on my mental snapshots of those years, somehow I was always the one putting food on the table.

Then came the hippie years, and food acquired a whole new set of meanings. Hitchhiking across Canada, we headed out for Oregon and the frontiers of communal living. Rejecting the frozen, processed, "plastic" food of our childhoods -- fast foods were still in their infancy then -- young people were getting back to the land and rediscovering the joys of growing, harvesting, preparing and eating food together.

Commune visitors brought fresh news of interesting diets, healing food remedies and food philosophies, which we tested with enthusiasm -- herbal teas, homemade yoghurt, alfalfa sprouts, macrobiotics and vegetarianism. In our minds, food had become more than sustenance, more than an answer to "the munchies." It had become part of the revolution -- a better, more natural way to live. Food also gained political significance for me, especially after reading Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe.

During those adventure years, I planted and harvested organic vegetables, helped found an organic food co-op, developed the menu for one natural foods restaurant and co-managed another. I studied yoga, traveled to India and taught yoga and vegetarian cooking classes. I remember cooking up a huge batch of kitcheree (curried mung beans and rice) which we served for free at one of the first nationwide celebrations of Earth Day.

After beginning my career in publishing and graphic arts, I continued to experiment with ethnic foods, testing recipes for cookbooks our company produced. In doing so, I gained experience with a wide range of ingredients and cooking techniques.

Later years brought a different awareness of food. Raising our daughter as a vegetarian, I learned to make a variety of tempting, delicious, child-friendly meals and snacks to compete with the junk-food that seemed to be everywhere. Then, when my husband became ill and required special dietary restrictions, my culinary inventiveness was put to new tests. I learned the importance of delicious and nourishing food in nursing the body and spirit back to health.

My greatest pleasure in life is putting beautiful, fun, delicious meals on the table. Using the freshest ingredients and culinary ideas from around the world, I prepare healthful seafood and vegetarian meals that are good for the body and lift the spirit. I hope you will let me cook for you!