"Life is
uncertain. Eat dessert first."
-Ernestine Ulmer
"It's so
beautifully arranged on the plate -- you know someone's fingers
have been all over it."
-Julia Child
"In
cooking, as in all the arts, simplicity is the sign of perfection."
-Count Curnonsky |
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:: About The Give Sugar Team ::
|
 Alessandra
Sweeney (aka - "Chef Alekka") started her
culinary career baking bread with her Mom as a teenager. She
followed her passion and graduated from the Pennsylvania Culinary
Institute and completed an externship with Master Pastry Chef
Gunther Heiland. This led Alekka on her career path in pastry.
To enhance her skills she attended Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa
Canada for an Advanced Pastry degree. Her culinary travels
led Alekka to Atlanta, Georgia where she was an Assistant
Pastry Chef for the Bold American Food Company. Continuing
on, she moved to Chicago where she started her teaching career
at Sur La Table, the Wooden Spoon and Vanille Patisserie.
Alekka is now an adjunct Pastry instructor at Kendall College
and owns Give Me Some Sugar, an in-home cooking
class company for both adults and children. |
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 Roxann
Krull (aka - "Rox" or "Mama")
is a part-time web designer, part-time entrepeneur and full-time
mom. Roxann spent 7 years working on honing her web and design
skills. Although a great career, she decided family came first
and decided to try the stay-at-home mommy role on for size.
As fate would have it, her son Dylan, was diagnosed with developental
delays a short time later. This launched Roxann into researching
mode to determine causes and more importantly, nutritional
and biomedical solutions to help her son get "back on
track". She is by no means an expert but is learning
more every day about organic cooking and a healthy diet for
her son...and entire family. Opportunity came knocking a short
time later when Chef Alekka approached her with thoughts of
starting up a in-home cooking class business. Voila...Give
Me Some Sugar is born. |
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 Dennis
Sweeney's (aka - "Doctor Dennis")
initiation to wine was at nine years old when Grandfather
Sweeney gave him a special treat, allowing him to have a sip
of french wine. His immediate reaction was "Yuck!"
His next wine memory was on a trip to France with his grandparents
at sixteen. They dined on a six course classically presented
dinner, each dish with a different wine. When asked by his
hosts about the wine, he shyly replied, "It tastes nutty.”
They were impressed! Unfortunately, Dennis didn’t remember
much else of that evening since he was not used to having
six glasses of wine in a year much less with a single supper.
Decades went by. He went through the beer stage, bourbon stage,
inexpensive wine and more beer until meeting his wife and
discovering the pleasures of Gallo Hearty Burgundy in a jug.
Slowly and quietly they slipped into the wine generation and
started studying wine seriously. Over the past seven years
Dennis has accumulated a collection of about 400 bottles of
wine and about 20 books on the subject. He considers himself
to be an advanced novice, partial to American, Australian,
and wines from Alsace and Southern France, but mostly affordable
bottles he doesn't feel guilty about when looking at the receipt.
Doctor Dennis recommendations for wines are based on matching
the wine to the dish with an eye toward the pocket book. "I
welcome comments and feedback and will be glad to add your
suggestions to my ideas." Enjoy. |
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