I enrolled in Herkimer County Community College (HCCC) in the Mohawk Valley in the fall of 1981. At the time, Herkimer did not have dorms so I shared an apartment downtown with teammate Brian Palmateer. My cooking skills and love of cooking started at Herkimer out of necessity. HCCC classmate Ed Anderson, a 6’ 5” basketball player from Rochester who went on to play several years of pro ball over in Europe, experienced the same phenomena in his first kitchen too. Ed’s place was just around the corner from mine. We hung out together and broke bread at each other’s apartments. Ed and I both knew how to cook from watching our parents cook back home. We both called our mothers from our Herkimer apartments, and other relatives too, to talk us through on how to cook something like sweet potato pie. “I called my mom to have her walk me through how to cook something,” said Ed. “I did that until I got to the point where I could cook it on my own.” He said, “I basically cooked southern food because that’s what I grew up on in Rochester.” His father came from Florida and his mom from Georgia. According to Ed both his parents were great cooks. My parents grew up in New York with my grandparents from North Carolina and Virginia. Growing up in Croton, my mother did the soul food dishes especially for Sunday dinner. As a result of our de-facto southern child rearing Ed and I cooked southern food in our Herkimer apartments. We cooked the traditional stuff such as cabbage and collards seasoned with smoked pork necks, fried chicken, banana pudding with the vanilla wafers and marshmallows on top, sweet potato pie, and corn bread. Please share comments on your first solo kitchen experience. Thanks!
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