Kellie Brown, Lafayette, IN

My mom says that I fell in love with food by osmosis. Born two months early, I was a small baby and was slow to develop motor skills. Because I couldn’t sit up, my mom would sit me in my pumpkin seat and place it on the counter when she cooked. Even as I grew up, my instinct to be in the kitchen remained. Baking cookies and desserts with my mom was a highlight of my childhood. In addition, each fall when we canned tomatoes from our garden, I would sit on the kitchen floor covered in tomato juice as I smashed the tomatoes. Afterward, I’d stem the green beans while Mom cooked dinner.

Our family love affair with food doesn’t end in our kitchen. The Food Channel is regularly playing in the living room and rows of cookbooks line the dining room. Each Christmas, I buy my dad a cookbook expanding the collection. We also take our affair on the road. We are regular road-trippers in search of family-owned restaurants. I can’t remember the last time that we went on a road trip and ate at chain restaurant. In addition, we put a lot of time and research into planning vacations around our food. Most likely we will know where we are going to eat prior to arriving in the city.

It was this love of food that brought me to the Indiana Foodways Alliance. I believe it is important to be connected to the food culture in Indiana. Since joining, I’ve learned of the many foods that Indiana residents cultivate. Also, I think this is a great opportunity for local restaurants to appeal to a larger audience. Although I consider myself and my family culinary tourists in search of the next best local restaurant, I was unaware of just how many there are in Indiana. I plan to take advantage of the resources that the IFA Web site has to offer and plan trips to eat at these restaurants. Overall, I look forward to working with the IFA to assist others in their quest to learn Indiana food culture.