Erika Dupree Cline

I grew up on a small family farm in Tamms, IL, just 2 hours south of St Louis. Living in the country was the best, growing up around my immediate family all on one street. Everything was grown fresh which made me an all scratch ingredient chef. I started cooking at 5 years old with my grandmother which instilled my love for cooking. My father moved me, mom and my lil sister to Chicago, my birthplace. I was so home sick for my farm life that it made me a very quiet young lady all the way through high school. So I focused on cooking for my mother, father, and little sister. After high school we moved to Detroit where I went to culinary school and met my first husband. He too was a student at the culinary school; after graduating, we got married. A couple of years later the marriage didn’t work out, and we both moved on.