Growing up with a mom in the restaurant business taught me a lot and helped shape the kind of mother I became.
Our weekday routine consisted of Mom taking us to school in the morning, she went on to work and would pick us up at the end of the day and come back home from 3-5. Each day she brought food home from the restaurant for us to have for dinner. At 5 she would go back to work and come home again at 8. Dad went to the restaurant around dinner hour and closed up and got home around 10.
Mom would fix his dinner every night at 10 and Dad would eat on a TV tray, that was their routine every night. Can’t believe mom would do that every night after her full day at Mary Mac’s.
Dad was much more behind the scenes: he did all the produce buying, maintenance of equipment and was only there at night time. He didn’t have anything to do with running the restaurant, that was all mother.
(here is a picture of mom and dad on vacation. Would you believe I couldn’t find one picture of mom in the restaurant to share with you?)
Mother loved her restaurant, that is where she got her fulfillment. She was a trailblazer. I believe that part of my love for cooking truly comes from my heritage. How could it not?…when mom was pregnant with me she was always in the kitchen so I always say my love began in utero.
Family dinners are one of the most important thing to me and continues to be a huge part of my family’s life even now that my girls are grown. I suppose that is my response to the way our life was when I was a young girl and my mom was always in the restaurant. Steve and I always prioritized spending time with our girls, especially in their younger years.
It really is true, how much your mother shapes your life.