Carlos Corredor, a.k.a. Timo

This blog is a brand new endeavor as of this date. I can think of a lot more important things to write about than myself, but since some visitors to a certain little web site I have out there have expressed an interest in knowing who I am, I am referring them to this blog – I just don't think a lot of personal information belongs in a business site. So here goes:

Shortly after I was born, my grandfather decided I looked like a well known Russian general named Timochenko. I don't know which one of the world wars this guy participated in (I wasn't there), or what the hell he did to attract my grandpa's attention, but the fact is, everybody started calling me "Timochenko", later shortened to "Timo". To this day, many of my friends/schoolmates in my native Colombia still call me Timo, not even knowing my real name, Carlos; my mother still sometimes addresses me as "Chenko". So, now you know the origin of this weird name.

About thirty years ago, my love of food led to my giving up my career as salesmanrealestatebrokerfinancialplannersecurities/commoditiesdealer and a bunch of other things that would make my occupation look like one of those long German words; I was unhappy with that gig, so one day I sold the Mercedes and the airplane and went to work as a cook in a little British (of all things!) joint in the San Francisco bay area, where I have lived since 1964. It wasn't long before I was manager, then chef at a few restaurants. In 1992, I opened a Spanish restaurant in San Francisco's Mission district – Timo's - which, happily, became infamous for great food and uncouth service. In the twelve years Timo's was open, it was reviewed twice by San Francisco's top newspaper, and both times was awarded three stars for the food; I am proud of that.

My wife of twenty years passed away in 2001 at age 43. She always handled the front of the house, even though she had a full-time job elsewhere. After that, things just weren't the same and I had no interest in dealing with the dining room/bar staff. I got fed-up after trying four or five managers and sold out. For sentimental/nostalgic reasons, I still keep the restaurant's web site live (there are a couple of pages dedicated to my late wife in there too) – actually you are reading this on the same web server. One of these days, I will post more about that here, when I write about food/cuisine.

I got the web site creation bug when I put together the restaurant site in the late 90's, and since 2003, I have been working on web sites and applications, but, like in the restaurant, I work in the "back of the house". At the restaurant, I was the chef – in the web sites, I deal more with security, database connection, logins and such. I could create great food, but I can't design sites very well. This is OK: now, a 'menu' is not a list of things to eat, it's at the top of the browser – and I don't have to deal with a bunch of servers, all I need is one.

So, what you see is what you get. I would appreciate any comments.

I will be back with more in the near future.