Sublime Delights
Matt Hiltebrand
Founder
(a version of) My Story...
I grew up on a farm in the eastern plains of New Mexico. It is a windy, hot, rugged place to live, but as a kid I could not have had more fun. My wife and friends marvel at the truly irrational play activities I was not only allowed, but encouraged to do. Just for a tiny slice, a little vignette, a mere hint at my childhood...I had my first rifle at around 9 years old and quickly discovered that if you pull the bullets out of the rifle cartridges you can quickly accumulate a great mound of gun powder. Eventually my brother and I learned how to make our piles of gun powder into bombs. Those bombs became our greatest pranks and objects of fascination. By the time we hit high school, we figured out how to just buy gun powder by the crate load. And would you believe I still have ten fingers and ten toes? (As does my brother.)
Aside from blowing things apart, the farm was a great place for a kid to learn about growing food, both plant and animal, and how to butcher, preserve and prepare food. I spent endless hours either in the field or in the kitchen. With parental tutelage, I learned to pickle and can, smoke and dry, salt and store all the food we raised. I loved working in the kitchen. Eventually working with food became a passion.
Over the years since then I have worked on and off as a chef. I consider myself more of an obsessed hobbyist than a real professional chef, although I have run my own catering business, "Fanta Se catering in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (I understand there is a restaurant by the same name in Sante Fe, New Mexico. I have nothing whatsoever to do with that fine establishment.) Later, I started a private chef business where I cooked for several families. Eventually I found myself in the south of France where I worked as a Sous Chef in the Chateux du Prits et Prats.
Currently, I work in software as a sales engineer. It's about as far from a kitchen as you can get. And that kinda bugs me. To salve my pain and pursue my passion, I have come up with this website. Sublime Delights is my opportunity to do what I love.