When I was a kid, I was a picky eater. I didn't like the Filipino food that my parents made for me and I didn't like vegetables. My diet was really unhealthy, not through the fault of my parents, but through my outright stubbornness and refusal to eat anything that I didn't like. And they had to feed me, so even if it was crap, they let me eat it just so I'd have something in my system. My school lunches consisted mainly of stuff you get in the frozen food aisles: Jamaican patties, taquitos, sausage rolls. Although I do remember a months-long period of third grade where I refused to pack anything but a bag of microwave popcorn and a can of Coke for lunch.
Looking back on that, it's crazy to think that I turned into a food enthusiast. Also crazy to think that I'm not obese (although when there was no "good" food around I simply wouldn't eat, much to my parents' dismay) or that I'm not nutritionally deficient (what a terribly preservative-packed diet I had!). I got older and eventually started eating regular food, and developed a love for baking, but the real turning point for me from average eater of food to obsessive foodie probably happened the summer after my first year of University.
I was working at a factory that produced film reels for movies 24/7 (you know when you watch the credits of a movie, and at the end it says "Color by Deluxe"? Yeah, that's where I worked). I worked the night shift, from 3:30-11:30 pm. I'd get home when all my friends were going to bed to prepare for their next day of working regular hours, so that summer I had pretty much no social life. With nothing else to do, I'd collapse on the couch and end up watching The Food Network.
I became more and more absorbed. My late night companions were now Giada, Ina and Bobby. Sometimes Sari, who I don't think was working that summer, would call me and we'd watch while on the phone together. By the end of the summer, we'd compiled a list of our favourite recipes and decided we'd get together to make them.
I drove up to Guelph and picked up Sari, and we headed to the grocery store. Hours later we'd made our first Food Network Feast of gruyere breadsticks, pasta carbonara, and tiramisu. We took pictures. It was delicious.
I've been obsessed ever since, and my food fixation only gets stronger every day!
