In the 1990s I was making a serious go at being a syndicated newspaper cartoonist. I collected an few encouraging rejection slips from various submissions, with enough notes from the editors to make me think I had a real chance. In Cecilia’s Kitchen was what I was working on when life interfered enough to make trying to hold down a full-time job at the same time as trying to develop a comic strip impossible.

The premise was pretty simple, a celebrity chef living in New York with her immigrant Italian father. Basically Rachel Ray meets Moonstruck. I thought working on the three angles of food, family, and fame would give me sources of jokes for years to come. Looking back on it now, I still think this premise could have had legs.

Although I had most of the gags mapped out for the month’s worth of finished strips needed for a syndication submission, what’s below are the only ones that I ever got close to finishing. So here, for the first time anywhere, come on and step In Cecilia’s Kitchen.