How many AudiogoNers are amateur chefs?


I know this is WAY off topic, but I am curious as to how many of you folks fancy yourselves as amateur chefs. I ask this as I just completed my first day of culinary school. This is not a school for training pros (we meet on Fridays for the day), but for those folks who want to become better cooks, learning to prepare menus, pairing foods and wines, etc. I still have my full-time profession, so this is for home.
slipknot1
I love to cook but I am a rank amateur. One of my goals in life is to take the time and learn doing it well. Thanks to all who mentioned new source material -- that should be fun to explore. My house is designed to listen to music while we are in the kitchen so we just turn it up a bit while preparing the meal.
I've been in the restaurant business all my life. Family owned and operated. A mostly seafood cuisine establishment, with myself being "on the line" for thirty years. But while I enjoy compliments on the food; I get a bang when the customers make comments about the eclectic styles of music they hear when they dine.

Please pray for me, as tomorrow is Mother's Day.
I'll never starve...cooked for my family when I was a kid because both parents worked different shifts...had a summer job at a camp in the kitchen...did most of the cooking when I was married...now that my kids are older and doing their own thing, they often complain I don't cook as much (must have edible)...my daughter often calls me to ask how to prepare certain things...I sent her and her boyfriend to a cooking class as a gift...I still enjoy it and can work a mean grill too...
I'm another weekend stove jockey. Got into it mainly because I love to eat (too much?). Still relatively low on the skills curve, but I've been reading a lot and experimenting here and there.

My best stuff is Cajun: each year my wife and I put on a Mardi Gras party for 100-125 of our closest friends. We make jambalaya, red beans and rice, gumbo, and spicy boiled shrimp. I would put our food up against anything from anywhere outside of Louisiana. . . Now I'm working on learning the fancier stuff.

BTW, where's Trelja? I think he's a pretty experienced cook, if I remember right.