Welcome to PudgeFactor! I’m Chula, a professor by day and a foodie by night, and I’m Susan, a professionally trained pastry chef and award-winning writer. We are the bloggers, videographers, and award-winning photographers behind PudgeFactor!
We both love to cook and try new things. We also love to teach others how to cook and to be successful in the kitchen. PudgeFactor not only presents new and improved recipes but also focuses on the teaching aspect, i.e., how to do it and why. By teaching you, we also learn!
What You’ll Find In PudgeFactor
As you peruse PudgeFactor, you will find amazing, well-tested recipes from our years of experience. These recipes run the gamut from simple to sophisticated and everything in between. These recipes contain detailed instructions and step-by-step photos to ensure your success. We also include tips and tricks that we’ve learned through the years to help you recreate these amazing recipes.
How It All Began With Chula
PudgeFactor began over 30 years ago as a print cookbook of my recipes. At that time, Susan and I gave our family homemade gifts at Christmas. The PudgeFactor cookbook was one such gift! Up until that time, I cooked mostly from memory. I was surprised at how hard it was to go from “a little of this and a little of that” to writing recipes with enough precision to replicate them. Sometime after that, the decision was made to digitize the recipes for many reasons.
First, I wanted to have easier access to the recipes. Secondly, I was experimenting a lot with online technology, and putting the recipes on the internet was something tangible that I could play with. Additionally, I had experimented a lot with photography and Photoshop through the years, which gave me an excuse to bring my camera into the kitchen. Thus, PudgeFactor.com was born in January of 2012.
With the Addition of Susan
While I have been a part of PudgeFactor since its inception, it was in more of a sous chef capacity. I would often times help mom out in the kitchen if she needed an extra set of hands. Or she would ask me for advice in staging finished food for photographs. And every now and then, if I were lucky, she would invite me into her kitchen to feature a recipe of mine. And, of course, I was always a willing taste tester.
I have been cooking for as long as I can remember, and I got my love of it from my mom. I still have the first cookbook she gave me when I was 11. All of this and more is why I was so pleased to officially join PudgeFactor in 2023! It has allowed me to combine my love of food with the writing and photography skills that I honed while working for newspapers in Pensacola, Orlando, and Los Angeles.
About PudgeFactor
You may think that PudgeFactor is an odd name for the cooking blog. However, the word “pudge” has been used around our house for some time to indicate that the person is stuffed with incredible food. As originally conceived, PudgeFactor was a play on the words Fudge Factor.
In addition to sharing our vast experience in PudgeFactor, we’ve also been a guest columnist for the TLC Life section of the Tallahassee Democrat. In addition, PudgeFactor recipes have been featured in a number of publications throughout the US and internationally.
