Irene Watson, Publishing Editor of Reader Views, is pleased to have as our guest, Valerie Hart, author of "The Bounty of Central Florida."

Hi Valerie, thank you for taking the time to participate in this interview.

Irene: Valerie, why do you feel "The Bounty of Central Florida" was an important book for you to write? What objectives did you have?

Valerie: Regional cookbooks have flooded the market. Southwestern, Northwestern, Cuban, Caribbean, Cajun and combinations of these including America's innovation called Fusion that incorporates Asian with any of the others highlight regions and the new creative chefs who are incorporating the fresh ingredients of the areas.

When we moved from Miami to Central Florida 15 years ago, the cuisine changed drastically. Aside from local Italian eateries that featured heavy tomato-based Sicilian cookery, and a smattering of Mexican catering to the migrant workers in this citrus area, mama-papa restaurants north of Orlando served up a unique cuisine of their very own. This was based on their roots of southern America with a rustic edge of accessible fish and game simply grilled or fried and accompanied by fruits and vegetables freshly plucked from the trees and earth.

Every spring-fed lake yields bass. The larger lakes are inundated with alligators and tilapia. The St. John's brackish river is rich with blue crab and shrimp, and its tributaries are filled with redfish, bass and snook. The wood ducks seem to exist solely for the pleasure of the pan, and, just a bit south in Osceola County, wild turkeys and venison breed bundantly for the happy hunters. And, as in the rest of the south, barbecue reigns supreme with Central Florida's own renditions of sweet, spicy and mustard based sauces slathered over slow smoked gigantic pork ribs.

My objective, as food writer for The Daily Commercial, was to make people aware of the bounty of the area.

Irene: What challenges did you have while writing this book and how did you overcome them?

Valerie: The challenges were delightful. My many trips up the St. John's River with the antique boaters brought me into direct contact with the people who live and derive their livelihood from the creeks of the intercostals waterways. My membership and association with the NWTF (National Wild Turkey Federation) not only taught me how to fry a whole turkey, but instilled respect for this dedicated group of conservationists who teach women survival in the wilderness as responsible gun control to children.

The most difficult challenge, however, was writing the book while being faced with Monday's deadline of writing my Thursday's newspaper column and teaching cooking at the shelter for the homeless. There just wasn't time to do it all, and I was spending more and more hours creating recipes late at night and opening my computer to record them before the sun came up.

Irene: Are the recipes your own creation? Have some of them been passed down through the family to you?

Valerie: The recipes are my own, derived from my sense of taste and smell and desire to create. My background of education in France, (later, Cordon Bleu courses after I had begun to teach cooking in Miami), and our 30 year business in Italy, where we had an apartment in Florence and traveled extensively through northern Italy, brought me into contact with a multitude of country chefs and "nonnas" (Italian grandmothers) in home kitchens who shared "secrets" passed down through the generations.

Irene: How did you get into cooking? Did you cook as a child? Where did you learn to cook? Do you have any funny stories while learning to cook that you can relate to?

Valerie: I would love to say that I learned to cook from my Mother and Grandmother but, fortunately, this is not true. My Mother and Grandmother had absolutely no talent in the kitchen, probably because they always cook to do it for them. The only foods my Mother knew how to cook were roast beef, turkey and broiled lamb chops. Those were the days when all the fat was left on to singe into a crust. We not only ate the top fat on the beef and between the bones of the chops; we relished it. And, the trick was to eat the turkey and beef before the gravy poured over it congealed into a hard, white mass.

We had a German cook for many years. My parents traveled extensively, leaving me in her care. The kitchen was a sensual wonderland of chocolate and pastry cream and veal that she delicately dipped into beaten eggs and then into homemade bread crumbs before frying to a golden brown delicacy she called Wiener Schnitzel that she served with fried potatoes and buttery noodles. Elizabeth never used an electric mixer, but beat butter and sugar and egg whites by hand to make her 6 layer German Doboschtorte, rich chocolate Viennese Sachartorte and Hungarian Caramel Cake. She was my first culinary mentor, and her recipes appear in my first cookbook, The New Tradition Cookbook.

Irene: I note in your bio you aspired to be an opera singer but ended up in the food writing career and then in a cooking career. Are there times that you would like to turn back the pages and pursue a career as a singer?

Valerie: Sometimes, although my life would have been very different. I shall forever remember studying under the great Andr