Those experiences were the beginning of Hauser’s lifelong love affair with cooking that’s led him into professional kitchens across the country to culinary school and into some of the biggest resorts in Southern California. In the technicolor of real life, he joined her in the kitchen helping her prepare dishes such as Caesar salad, clams Bordelaise and roast leg of lamb with mango chutney.

On a black and white television set in his childhood home in La Jolla, Chef Kurt Hauser watched greats such as Julia Child, Graham Kerr and Jacques Pépin instruct viewers how to cook as his mom sat beside him, folding laundry.