About

Until that happens, though, my goal is to make sure I’m spending adequate time on these passions to make them feel like a real part of my life…no waiting for retirement for me!  One of the simple ways I do this is to create weekly dinner menus to ensure that we are cooking delicious homemade dinners whenever we are at home so that the often rushed last-meal of the day is more of a celebration and time to slow down and savor some good quality (cooking & eating) time together.  I also spend as much time and money as I can manage to explore my local food scene whether it be a new restaurant or bar, local farmer’s market or notable food festival.  Lastly, I try to plan lots of getaways which always end up having a strong culinary focus…I truly believe that food is a universal language and the key to getting to know a new place and culture.  Since I always spend so much time planning and researching (I am a market researcher by day, after all) my culinary-focused trips this site is an easy way for me to share those efforts with all of you so that if you are going to the same place you can leverage my research and resulting itineraries as well.  Of course if you have suggestions for the must-try food destinations in your hometown or otherwise favorite destination send them my way so I can consider them for inclusion.

SavoryGirl is a way for me to share my passions with all of you and hopefully, along the way forge a path to make these passions into a career.  I hope you enjoy my weekly menus/recipes, what I share about the local Bay Area food scene, and my foodie travel itineraries, photos and videos.  Happy traveling, eating & exploring!

Where my Food & Travel Passions Began:

I’ve been cooking for as long as I can remember, taught by my mother from a young age simply because I thought it was fun and liked to hang out with her.  One of my favorite childhood games was to mix together lots of my mom’s spices in a big bowl with a bit of water to make an exotic spicy slurry…which my father would always obligingly take a taste of!  Horrifying to think of now, especially since I know how expensive spices are, but a fun memory and early seed of a passion.  My grandmother on my father’s side, who I am named after (Liliane Suzanne) was an amazing baker straight from France…and even though she died when I was relatively young, I like to think I inherited my baking genes from her.  She made legendary homemade croissants and chocolate cream pie.    I also have an Aunt who loved introducing me to exotic foods from a very young age (such as Frogs Legs and Oysters when I was roughly 6) which developed a natural curiosity about both food and the cultures that ate these foods more regularly than here in the U.S.

When it comes to travel and exploring new cultures, I actually didn’t travel much outside of New England growing up but when I was in college I studied abroad in San Sebastian, Spain (which has an amazing gastronomic history & culture itself!) and travelled all over Europe which kick-started a travel bug within me that has been burning intensely ever since.  From that very first international trip, I naturally explored new cultures through food, markets, wines…which was apparent when I returned home from 5 months in Spain 30 pounds heavier.  Ooops!  Luckily I’ve learned to indulge and explore new cultures more responsibly since then…but honestly if I could find a way to get paid to travel around the world and eat and explore new cultures full time, that would be my dream life!