By Theresa Curry Correspondent When John Herochik cooks, he thinks of his mother, Helen  Kustura, the oldest of 12 children growing up in New Jersey during the Depression. Helen, the daughter of Russian immigrants, lived with her family in a two-bedroom house, known locally as the home with the last working outhouse in Perth Amboy. 

By Theresa Curry Correspondent He became a home chef for all the best reasons, said Sherrie Lindsey of her husband, Wayne: He loves to cook good food and watch his family enjoy it. "Now all men can throw a steak on the grill," she said, "but my guy whips up some beautiful vegetable soups with different stocks."

By Theresa Curry Correspondent Paula Fleming grew up on a small island in a big sea, surrounded by the warm Caribbean. St. Thomas, one of the Virgin Islands, has about a tenth of the population of Virginia Beach, the city Fleming now calls home. One of her earliest memories is of her mother frying banana fritters, the smell of cinnamon and butter filling the kitchen.

By Theresa Curry

Correspondent

Al Castorano’s  grocery store was just across the street from a Brooklyn  brewery, so lunchtime was hectic. Dianne Bailey  has childhood memories of heading over there with her mother – Al’s daughter, Mary Augugliaro  – to help serve the hungry brewery workers.

By Theresa Curry Correspondent Rebecca Morgan never picked up a book or dialed into the Food Network when she began to cook. She grew up in Monrovia and learned to make fufu, gravy, fried potato greens and coconut candy by watching what other Liberian women were doing all around her. "I didn't know anyone who used a cookbook," she said.

By Theresa Curry Correspondent

By Theresa Curry Correspondent FISH FROM THE WARM CARIBBEAN, fruit from the trees, sweet potatoes from the earth and hot bread straight from the frying pan - that was dinner in the Belmont neighborhood of Port au Spain, Trinidad, home to Pat Forde until she left the island for New York City.

  By Theresa Curry Cooking has been a longtime hobby for Virginia Beach businessman Joe Takach, and he has a full outdoor kitchen for summer meals. It’s something he’s done most of his adult life, he said, first to save money and later because he came to enjoy it.

By Theresa Curry Correspondent

By Theresa Curry Correspondent Bob Diana was on a mission. At first it seemed like a simple matter, finding the right tomato sauce for the traditional recipes he'd enjoyed growing up in his Italian family in New York. As time went by, he became discouraged.