Experience: I have been cooking professionally for people in one way or another for more than 25 years – in professional kitchens and in family homes.

Your Specialty: Comfort foods! I was raised in the south just down the road in Danbury, Texas, and learned to cook from my grandmother. She taught me that anytime you can cook for others, you cook with love, and no matter what you cook, it is special. Every time I get in the kitchen, even the big professional ones, I remember what she taught me. That is one reason why I was drawn to The Cock and Bull, it is a scratch cooking kitchen. If you can create the dishes from scratch, you are making it more special. I take great pride in choosing fresh produce and other quality products to insure that my staff and I can create amazing dishes. We buy only the freshest produce and we even get our meat ground fresh just for us to make our amazing burgers and meatloaf.

Have you ever prepared a meal for anyone famous?  Yes, I have had the honor to cook many meals for Jane Robelot (former co-anchor of the CBS morning news) and her husband Mario and son George.  I also cooked several meals at their home for Erik Haney (author of Inside Delta Force and Beyond Shock and Awe) and his wife when they were visiting.  Cooking for Jane, Mario and George brought me back to my grandmother’s kitchen – and what she taught me.

Is there anything new/exciting going on with food at the pub? YES!  We have made some great changes on all of our menus.  We have added grilled pork chops that have quickly become one of our top sellers, and a Pesto Chicken Pasta Dish with our scratch-made Pecan Pesto sauce. Our monthly Wine and Dine dinners are always a lot of fun. Special occasions call for special menus at the pub. On Mother's Day, we will be serving a special menu with many of our customers favorites as well as some special items created just for that day! Lunch is becoming more popular since we made some changes to that menu as well.

Please share 1 special cooking tip or technique for our readers: Make it your own!  Adapt a dish to suit your taste. If you go out and have an amazing dish at a restaurant, and you really want to make it at home, don't be scared to try it!  If it has ingredients that you are not sure about, or there was just a little part that you thought might be better if you used something else that you are familiar with – DO IT.  Replace those ingredients with things you are comfortable with. If you are not sure about cooking fish (which can be scary for some folks) replace it with chicken, and make the dish your own! Cooking should be fun!

When not at the pub: Chef Valarie enjoys spending time with her husband of 17 years and their two children Debra and Sam. A recent personal achievement for Chef Valarie was attempting the MR 340 in a canoe with her husband two summers ago.

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