Roberta Fahey Arlington Heights

Roberta Fahey's interest in cooking began while growing up in a Jewish home with a tradition of always eating meals as a family. "I have always enjoyed cooking, and I hoped one day to go to culinary school, but that never panned out," the 61-year-old said. If you want to find the Arlington Heights resident, just head toward the cookbook shelves in any bookstore where she's poring over recipes and pictures. "Presentation is also very important to me," she said, "everything has to be colorful and vibrant."

The wife, mother, grandmother and daughter (Fahey's father is 93 and her mother is 88) has tackled several catering events for friends and family ("they give me a budget and an idea, and I do the creating") using lots of fresh herbs from her potted garden. "Some of the staples that I cannot live without in my house are fresh garlic, fresh veggies, olive oil and several spices," the admittedly fussy eater explained.

Fahey enjoys cooking traditional Jewish dishes, and she hopes to pass recipes down to her children. "For Passover, I have 37 people here, and I generally cook everything, even the fish, chopped liver and my chicken soup which is made with chicken feet!" For the Jewish holidays, Fahey makes all the challah. "I make about 40 of them, and I give them to friends and family," she said. "This year, besides the traditional ones, I also made an apple honey challah and a savory Kalamata olive one which was a big hit." By the way, olives are her guilty pleasure, just keep liver and blue cheese away from her.

Today, she's working the home stove four to five nights a week nights preparing a lot of salmon and chicken, different kinds of soups and moving the operation out to the grill in the summer.

Fahey entered the Cooked of the Week contest four years ago and had so much fun that she's back for the 2018 round. "I won for the most fun to work with and the fan favorite recipe, but to me, the whole experience was very exciting." The ex-marathon runner and proprietress of a tie-dye business decided to submit a recipe the day before the deadline. "I was so happy to have been accepted," she smiled. "I really am looking forward to the whole experience again. Having fun is what life is about. I always tell my kids" enjoy every day of your life. You never know what tomorrow can bring."