ALL ABOUT FOOD:Anyone can learn to love cooking

This is another in our series of Laguna home chefs. This week we feature Rob Gage, photographer, world traveler, raconteur and party-giver extraordinaire. He would probably own up to all of these titles except chef, as he didn’t even step into the kitchen until he was in his fifties.

As a professional photographer of automobiles — in particular, cars and people together — he was on assignment 250 days a year.

In 1993, he and his wife separated and she moved to their ranch in Feather River. Their youngest child, his 13-year-old daughter, refused to leave her school and her friends in Laguna.

So, Rob found himself in uncharted waters. He knew absolutely nothing about household management and even less about the single parenting of a teenager. He didn’t know how to do laundry, how to clean a house or how to shop for groceries; and cooking was strictly terra incognita. Much to his credit, he did something fairly unusual: He decided to take a year off to figure things out and learn some new skills.

In the realm of the kitchen, he was most fortunate to have a family friend, Amanda Strolin, who was a great cook and offered to teach him the basics of getting food on the table.

She would e-mail him every Monday with a list of ingredients and shopping tips for the meal they would cook together that evening. He knew Amanda because she was one of a group of women, including his ex, who had been cooking together since 1976.

At that time, several women who were housewives and professionals signed up for a cooking class through the Laguna Beach recreation department.

As it turned out, the teacher never showed up but three of the women really clicked and decided to teach themselves to cook. They met every week and took turns doing research and teaching.

Each member brought their own wine and at the end of the evening everyone got a copy of the recipes they had all prepared together. They named themselves The Traveling Kitchens. The group eventually grew to 15 people who continue to meet and dine until this day. Amanda, impressed by Rob’s willingness to learn, eventually invited him to join.

Early on, one of the members, who was affiliated with Braniff Airlines, offered the group a great deal on a trip to South America, including stops in Iquitos, Lima, Bogota and the Amazon. They all had such a fabulous time they began to travel together.

In the middle of the ‘90s, these trips became annual and have included New Guinea, Morocco, Thailand, Bali and Africa.

Nowadays, they meet monthly and when it’s your turn to host, you have the option of putting on a cooking class, inviting a guest chef or taking the group out, since not everyone is a great cook.

Recently, Rob was puzzled by the resistance that he met from these world travelers when he wanted to take everyone to brunch at La Fonda (between Tijuana and Ensenada): somehow Mexico seemed too foreign. But, eventually he managed to persuade the group to go and the outing was a great success. Everyone was impressed by the extravagant buffet.

Another innovative member recently took everyone to Williams-Sonoma for a class in “The Mother Sauces: Hollandaise, Bearnaise and whole grain mustard.”

In addition to all this globetrotting, the other exciting tradition of the Traveling Kitchens is to put on an elaborate, theme-based Christmas party.

Rob’s house, an architectural landmark by John Lautner (a student of Frank Lloyd Wright), is considered party central because of its spacious open design and beautiful ocean views. The house is adorned with artifacts and handsome photographs from his extensive travels.

A committee of five does the planning and they take their job seriously. Rob is proudest of his recent Moroccan Christmas party. When looking at the album, we were amazed at how they had transformed his house into a veritable Moroccan pavilion.

Marrakech restaurant provided all the delicious food so no one had to cook and everybody could enjoy the festivities.

Rob did learn to cook and even took some classes at the Culinary Institute in San Francisco. His favorite thing to make is dessert and he is most proud of his lemon cake but we couldn’t squeeze the recipe out of him.

“It’s a secret,” he whispered.

But as life would have it, he has been culinary challenged once again. Two of his three children are now vegetarians. So, he has quite lovingly made the effort to learn some vegetarian dishes for the times when his children come to visit. His special recipe is Portobello Lasagne, which appears below with Rob’s entertaining directions.

PORTOBELLO MUSHROOM LASAGNE

9 pieces of curly edged lasagna

1 10-oz. package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup crumbled feta cheese

1 egg slightly beaten

1 cup of pre-made Alfredo sauce

½ pound Portobello mushrooms cut into 1/4 inch strips

1½ cups of your favorite spaghetti sauce

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese.

Heat oven to 375°. Cook pasta, then drain. In a bowl, mix egg, feta, spinach and all but ½ cup mozzarella. Dance a little! Locate a 13x19 inch baking dish. Spread ½ cup Alfredo sauce lovingly on to the bottom. Lay three pieces of pasta over the sauce. Spread with ½ of the chopped spinach mixture.

Then place ½ the mushrooms over the spinach. Next, spoon 1/3 of the spaghetti sauce over the mushrooms. Smile, you are halfway there! Dance a little more. Repeat all of this again.

Finally, place the last three pieces on top and cover them with what is left of the spaghetti sauce. Cover with foil. Hallelujah momma, things are looking up!

Bake 25 minutes and remove foil. Mix Parmesan and remaining mozzarella. Gingerly place your hand in the cheese and sprinkle on top of the lasagne. You have now used enough cheese to sink a battleship.

Bake an additional 10 minutes. Let it cool down a bit and have at it! Bon appetito, like we say in the old country... let the dancing continue!