Hi, I’m Olivia Mae Carter, and I’m a 38-year-old chef living in Chicago, Illinois. My kitchen journey began in a little house outside Des Moines, Iowa, where I grew up watching my dad flip pancakes on Saturday mornings and my mom coax the best flavors out of the simplest ingredients. I was the kid who preferred stirring cake batter to riding my bike, and by age twelve, I was baking banana bread for the neighbors just because it made me happy.
When I moved to Chicago in my twenties, I fell in love with the city’s energy—and its food. I worked in a few bustling restaurant kitchens, but I quickly realized my heart was in helping everyday people feel confident cooking at home. There’s something magical about watching a beginner discover they can make a perfectly golden roast chicken or whip up a silky soup from scratch.
I believe cooking is a conversation, not a performance. Recipes are like friendly advice—you can follow them exactly or make them your own. I love showing people that you don’t need fancy gadgets or a pantry full of rare spices to create something wonderful. Some of my best meals have been born from whatever was left in the fridge after a busy week.
These days, I teach small, relaxed cooking classes in my apartment kitchen, often with the sounds of the city humming outside the window. My students and I laugh a lot, swap stories, and taste along the way. I’m not afraid to share my own kitchen flops—like the time I mistook salt for sugar in a pie crust—because those moments remind us that cooking is as much about learning as it is about eating.
If I could tell any home cook or beginner one thing, it’s this: your kitchen is yours, and your food doesn’t have to be perfect to be worth sharing. The best recipes are seasoned with a little bit of yourself, and the only real mistake is not trying at all. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a pot of chili on the stove, and the smell is telling me it’s time for a taste test.