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Helen's Story
Helen is a native of England but was born in
Owerri, Africa. Her father worked in the oil
business which took the Cook family all over the
world including Africa, England and Lebanon. At
the age of 15, Helen and her family moved to
Dallas Texas. Attending high school for one year
she graduated and went on to a junior college in
Dallas. Later she attended the University of
Texas in Austin Texas and received an honors
degree in Mathematics.
Helen's love of cooking was fostered by her
mother, who is great cook herself. She trained
both Helen and her sister in the culinary arts.
During college Helen worked her way through
college waiting on tables in restaurants. She
held many memorable dinner parties on a
shoestring budget. At one of these parties she
met me, her future husband, although she did not
know it at that time.
Following graduation she went to England with
her parents and then to the South of France to
work for Floating Through Europe, a hotel barge
in the canal de midi, as the chef. Having access
to all the fresh, wonderful local ingredients,
and being on an unlimited food budget, Helen
further developed her passion for cooking and
honed her culinary skills.
Upon returning to the United States, Helen
continued her culinary career. She worked as a
chef in several restaurants in Austin, Texas and
taught cooking classes. She then ran into
a former acquaintance from college days, yours truly, and we were
married a year later.
We moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1984 to
open a County Line Barbecue Restaurant, the
company which I was with out of Austin Texas.
Today we run their own niche travel business and
are the proud parents of three children; Trevor,
Nicholas and Susan .
Most recently, Helen and I partnered with our
neighbors, John and Faith Forsythe in creating
the Help Me Helen salad dressing business. We
want to share our great food products with those
that have an interest in eating well and living
well.
Bon appetit!
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