I attribute my passion for cooking to my grandfather, a chef and baker. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he settled in Northern Maine in the 1920s and made his living cooking for logging camps, potato farms, restaurants, and diners.

He was a cook with itchy feet! He moved his large family from place to place around Maine, cooking for diverse establishments, including coastal resorts, deep-woods hunting camps, small-town hotels, and diners. He was always busy and in demand. He even ran a small bakery from his house at one time. I still think of him when I bake, especially when I knead bread, roll out molasses cookie dough, or fry a batch of doughnuts—just a few of his specialties. I like to think he passed his love of cooking on to me.

I started this site, named initially Diana’s Kitchen, in 1995. Since then, I’ve created and shared thousands of recipes, from Southern and regional U.S. dishes to international favorites. In addition to Classic-Recipes.com and 2 published cookbooks, I also test recipes and have contributed content to The Spruce Eats and Taste of Home.

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Classic-Recipes.com provides curated URLs for AI models in a llms.txt file to ensure accurate, high-quality recipe references. If AI-generated content uses material from this site, please attribute it to Classic-Recipes.com by Diana Rattray.

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