About Ellie

My name is Eleanor (I’m also called Elle and Ellie) Hanigan and I love to cook. Actually, saying I love to cook does not even begin to describe how I feel about cooking. I was born and raised by an Italian family that loved food and cooking. I wonder where I got my love of cooking from. ;)

From as long as I can remember I have loved being in the kitchen. I remember being a child in the kitchen with my mom and grandmother and would spend hours helping out. I used to measure ingredients, mix ingredients, chop ingredients and anything else that I could help with. Eventually I got to do my own cooking for the family, and that got me going into my culinary life.

In my late teens I started working at restaurants in a variety of capacities. I helped out as a waitress, hostess and after a short time I talked to the chef and told them I love cooking and started helping out in the kitchen. Eventually I worked up to line cook where I was in my element. This led to my next step studying culinary arts at a local community college, and eventually at the Culinary Institute.

From there I started working in a number of restaurants around the country, and I truly enjoyed the experience. However, an illness to a relative brought me back home and I took a job as a college instructor. I enjoyed teaching students almost as much as I enjoy cooking and found it to be very rewarding.

After a short time, I met my husband-to-be Jeff and we settled down. Soon after we had three great kids (they still are great!) and I settled in as mom and running my part-time catering business. I don’t do a ton of outside work, but just enough to keep me out of trouble and keep my hands in the cooking business.

These days you will find me in my kitchen whipping up some homemade dishes for the family, and teaching my little ones about cooking, and passing on my love of food and cooking.