My mother became ill when I was 5 so I had to learn to cook for myself. As a small child I was always fascinated with food. From tortillas to Prime rib I was always cooking something! TV was my babysitter and I learned a lot from Graham Kerr and Julia Child. My father was a very industrious man but he also had a passion for food and with one arm could cook up a full meal in half an hour! I guess he was the original Rachel Ray. My father also loved to fish and once a year we made our trip to Camano Island in Washington State to get our fish fix for the year. When he was a small boy he wandered down to the Fishtrap creek where the local Indian tribe the “Nooksacks” were gathering, smoking and drying their fish for the year. This is where I was first introduced to smoking foods. There are lots of recipes for smoking salmon but my favorite is still plain salt, smoke and salmon.