Tom Payne has always worked in food, from his first ever job at age 15 in a grocery store to cooking professionally in a restaurant to earn money for graduate school.  In marketing Tom has concentrated on the baking business but his passion for food in general has remained strong. 

He has lived two lives which converge here in Feastern Europe:  Slavic languages and food.  For 11 years Tom studied the languages, history and cultures of Eastern Europe.  Most of that time he concentrated on Bulgarian and Russian, which he taught at the college level.