Culinary Keepsakes: Lynn Hicks blends passion and business

Not too long ago, Lynn Hicks found herself flip-flop clad and shuffling into the kitchen of a French master chef.

Her family traveled to Bermuda earlier this year, staying at The Newstead Belmont Hills Resort. Being a chef herself, the Beau Rivage restaurant caught her eye when she saw Jean Claude Garzia, who was named French chef of the year in 1998, led the kitchen. She walked past one day with her son's girlfriend, who suggested they stop in just before the dinner rush. At first she was reluctant, dressed in flip-flops and coming straight from the pool, but the hostess ushered them back to the kitchen.

Feeling slightly out of place, Hicks introduced herself, telling him about her background in cooking. Hicks said Garzia couldn't care less what she was wearing; he was interested in her kitchen skills. He invited her to come back that night to cook with him. What some might see as work, Hicks saw as pleasure.

So she returned. And she held her own. She came back the entire week, whipping up lobster rolls, ravioli, pastries. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were spent with a master chef.

"He said, 'You're welcome in my kitchen anytime,'<2009>" Hicks said.

The compliment came at a pivotal time. She had entered a crossroads in her culinary life. She had cooked and worked in restaurants for most of her adulthood. She remains president of the local alumni chapter for the culinary school Johnson & Wales University. But after taking time off recently from the restaurant world for her youngest son's last six months of high school, she was mainly cooking for friends and family. She still had a passion for cooking, but the question remained: What to do with it?

She had come into her own through cooking. Her mother cooked, but Hicks was rarely in the kitchen with her. Hicks' specialty instead was chocolate chip cookies for her father. Dad liked them golden brown, still soft in the middle. Hicks perfected it.

When her senior year of high school came she started to think about what was next. Her father wanted her to become a sery. But that wasn't in her plans. She wanted to go to college, and Johnson & Wales in Providence, R.I., accepted her. She jumped at enrolling without really digesting the curriculum. But she didn't really care about that. All she knew was that she was headed to college. She got there the first day and had to cook scrambled eggs and ham with raisin sauce for 1,000 people. She learned that this wasn't an ordinary college; this would be much more fun.

She spent summers with her parents in Belgium and after graduation moved there full time. She picked up on Belgian and Indian culinary traditions, but became known as the "Western" chef. If someone wanted to throw an American party, she would cook up hamburgers and hot dogs.

She had found the perfect merging of business and passion -- a combination many people strive to find. She was a cook. And she could make money at it.

She returned to the states and settled in West Virginia, where she met her husband, Greg. She opened Lynn's Espresso Cafe. The restaurant found a niche, and Hicks loved the work. The cafe lasted about five years. It was financially successful, but not enough to make it worthwhile, Hicks said. She moved to Hilton Head Island, a place her husband had been familiar with since his childhood.

Hicks thought she'd like to open her own restaurant on the island but wanted to get a feel for the market, instead of diving in immediately. But a case of Lyme disease found her bed-ridden, slowing any progress on studying the area. She recovered and started working jobs as a hostess or in managerial work in local restaurants. She even helped start the Hilton Head Island Basketball Camp 101, playing off her son's passion.

She still cooks for herself and her husband most days, welcoming friends to enjoy the meal. She's challenged herself by coming up with a new menu for home cooking after discovering her husband had a sensitivity to the food additive MSG.

She volunteers with the local Johnson & Wales chapter and has cooked for Marines on Parris Island, where she served up 60 turkeys to 800 people last year. And she still cooks for her two sons, making mini meatloaves and other freezer-safe meals and sending them to college.

So, what's next? Hicks isn't sure. Maybe she can expand what she does for her sons into a business. She knows she enjoys cooking and the relationships bonded around the dinner table. She figures whatever's next probably will reflect her mantra: "Whoever wants to eat, I feed them."