Cooking by Janine Winters
Cooking is a skill. And cooking can also be an art.
Janine Winters really enjoys cooking and preparing food. She has the skills and the artistic ability. Clearly it is something she enjoys, to prepare good food and to share it with others.
After her beloved husband John Winters passed away, Janine eventually found a purpose for some of the farmland they purchased in Desha, Arkansas. She had a greenhouse built and was quite successful with hydroponic farming of various fresh herbs. She later turned this into a good business venture as she had the herbs packaged into various pestos and Wal-Mart was a major distributor. You can read more about this, but suffice to say this was quite encouraging to Janine as she found satisfaction and purpose in this venture.
Janine learned early in life how to cook. Over the years running restaurants she developed into a very good cook. She has had a number of real life experiences in the food industry and restaurant business. But her earliest days around the kitchen helped her learn ways to prep and combine various ingredients into delicious meals.
From her memoir, French Twist, page 20:
It seemed there were always many people around. The men prepared the méchoui, lamb roast, cooking it outside in a big fire on a spit. The ladies in the kitchen prepared tajine, a hearty stew with vegetables, and couscous.
I loved to help harvest, cut, and wash the vegetables. Most days we served thirty or forty people, and that’s how I learned to help in a kitchen.
My mother and Aunt Rosalie were in charge, and I enjoyed being their helper. “Here, Janine, chop these vegetables,” Mom told me, “but be careful not to cut yourself.” I did as she asked. “Good job!”
I ate up the compliments, which nourished my self-esteem as much as the tasty food my mother and aunt prepared.
Everyone eats. Preparing food that is both delicious and healthy is one of Janine’s priorities. For a while, in the Ozarks where she still lives on her farm in Desha, Arkansas, she exhibited her talents with a regular newspaper column, The Perfume of Cooking and she turned that into a cookbook.
Her personality and ability in the kitchen and how she shared it made her something of a local celebrity. Another media profile in Ozarks Food had the writer, Bob Pest, praising her ability with herbs, salads, wonderful sandwich creations, and even delicious desserts, all made fresh in a cafe she once ran in Batesville called Janine’s Cafe and Cooking Secrets store.
He recognized her as an artistic chef, one who shared her talents garnished with stories about her amazing life. As he put it, “You either get an amazing experience with your lunch or an amazing lunch with your experience.”
Thanks to her multiple restaurant experiences, Janine has honed her culinary skills with a smart business sense and a persistence that eventually would pay off, even when met with difficult challenges.
For example, when she bought Cafe de France in Winter Park, Florida, it was with hopes of running a family business restaurant. Although her two children did not stay with the endeavor she found others who assisted her and it became a popular place to eat. But everything was not easy.
Also from her memoir:
From day one, I’d rolled up my sleeves and worked hard. Soon, I was enjoying the work. We had good customers and a relaxing ambience. I’d missed the restaurant life and was back at it. Everything was great: the cooking, the food, and providing good service to the customers.
One of my goals was to have an outside terrace in the space under the awning, something common with restaurants in France. I thought it would be wonderful for us. But when I applied for a permit, the City of Winter Park turned me down. It didn’t allow service on the sidewalk, but I didn’t let that stop me. I could be persistent and stubborn when necessary. After a lot of pushing, I got the first permit for a terrace in the city!
Be sure to visit our website often and learn more about Janine Winters and her wonderful cooking adventures.
She will be posting some of her recipes for you to try and sharing more about her love of cooking and preparing good food.
