From the Plains of Africa to the Lava Flows of Hawaii
by Jill Inforzato

Sometimes it seems as if I was put on this earth to cook and bake.  My first Girl Scout badge was for cooking.   Shortly after that, I memorized the Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe.   In school, home economics was always my favorite subject, and I continued to study it throughout high school.  I graduated from the University of Hawaii with a bachelor's degree in home economics education.

Degree in hand, I planned to conquer the cooking world only to "learn" from my male college counselor (who was soon retiring) that my only options were to be a teacher or a wife!I was young, and it was the early 70's when women were not widely known as professional chefs.  Had I spent 4 years in college training to be a wife?  I think not!

Well, off I went to join the Peace Corp.    Mission:  teach the African villagers of Botswana how to cook and sew.   Spaghetti cooked over a campfire turned into a soupy mess.  The school in the village of Kanye had a modern home economics department.  My assignment was to teach the villagers how to use modern equipment.  The eager students nearly blew up the classroom with a gas stove.  Needless to say, we forgot the modern equipment and worked with a wood-burning stove (about which I knew nothing).

After Botswana, I returned to Hawaii, taught school for one year, and realized I wanted to cook and bake.  I was always dreaming of beautiful desserts I would create.  I had collected recipes for years.  When I took a job cooking for a family in the Honolulu suburbs, I was able to test all the recipes I wanted.

I moved to the Big Island in 1984 and opened a small restaurant which later evolved into Jill's Country Kitchen and Hawaiian Shortbread wholesale bakery.

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