NORFOLK There's little that's "everyday" about this month's everyday chef, 41-year-old John Cann. Instead of a gourmet kitchen filled with cookbooks and a big-screen TV tuned to the Food Network, Cann's Norfolk residence is home to a tiny cooking space and walls covered with brightly colored original acrylic and oil paintings. He doesn't even have a dining room table.

VIRGINIA BEACH
It’s a Monday night, and the Kempsville home of Missy Owens Vick is filled with the intoxicating smells of rosemary and basil.
Owens Vick, 35, is sashaying across her kitchen’s ceramic-tile floor in a triangular pattern, moving from the spacious pantry to the granite countertop to the stainless-steel refrigerator.

Everyone handles stress differently. Some let it overtake them, while others control it. Everyday Chef Edie Weiss churns hers into mounds and mounds of glossy rich, silky smooth ice cream.

The neatly stacked plastic containers that cover the top of Marie Macpherson Gordon's refrigerator speak volumes about her generosity in the kitchen.
She uses them constantly to dish up leftovers for guests to take home.
"My enjoyment is feeding others," she says in her soft Scottish lilt.

CHEF'S CORNER
VIRGINIA BEACH
Family was a major ingredient for Tina McCarthy's development as a cook.
Growing up in Connecticut, she learned her way around the kitchen by helping her mother prepare meals for four younger sisters.
Later, her grandmother, Nanny, taught McCarthy the art of a slow-cooked pot roast and how to prepare a magnificent roast beef.

A dark spot and a book changed their lives.
In January 2010, Linda Barrett noticed the dark spot on her husband’s face and asked him to see a dermatologist. The doctor found nothing wrong. The spot got bigger and Linda encouraged another visit. The diagnosis: cancerous melanoma.

PORTSMOUTH
Russell Wetherbee looks comfortable in jeans, a t-shirt and black-and- white herringbone socks as he stands at the stove in the tiny yet efficient kitchen of his 1949 vintage home. He should be.
He cooked breakfasts of waffles and peanut butter here at age 10 and watched his mother serve Hamburger Helper and canned tomato soup meals for him and his six siblings while growing up.

Zach Lewis bought a book about sushi and taught himself how to make it. When he was confident of his skills, he gave a demonstration and served the dish to his classmates.
He was 12.
At 19, he moved to Missoula, Mont. The day he rolled into town, he stopped at a little bakery to get a bite to eat and ended up working there for 2½ years.

It all started with a Century Duck Egg.
Miki Mizuki and Amber Allen shared the brined, aged delicacy for their first date, a Valentine’s Day lunch last year. The daring food choice was a sign of things to come.

NORFOLK
Kyle Bloom wields a knife in his Wards Corner kitchen as he chops cilantro that will brighten a sauce for his roasted pork tenderloin.