He started cooking at the age of eight and hasn’t stopped. Keith Cerny loves to cook and share it with friends.
Keith grew up in the Guinea area of Gloucester. “I am a member of the Hogge family. My father, who was in the Navy, met my mother when she was working in a restaurant in Yorktown where my grandmother was chef. We moved to Gloucester when I was one year old so I have lived here ever since.”
Being the older of two siblings it was Keith who helped his mother get meals on the table. “She was often very sick suffering with asthma. She would give me instructions on what to fix and how to do it.” Later he spent time with his grandparents, Willie and Florence Hogge, and learned much more about cooking. James River Stew was a special dish and he still makes it today, “Have you ever heard of James River Stew? Well, it’s a stew made with a hen and other ingredients such as potatoes, onions, etc., not a chicken. There is a great deal of difference between the two. A hen has more meat and...