FREMONT — From nurse to restaurant owner to deli manager to pet store manager, Warren Arendt’s variety of jobs reflects his array of skills in the kitchen.

All Arendt’s tricks and skills in the kitchen were handed down from relatives. He learned how to can at 7 years old, and growing up, he said he was either outside with the animals or in the kitchen with his mother.

“If I can’t make it from scratch and I got to open a box I won’t do it,” he said. “A lot of people rely on their microwave. Call me old school, but I still rely on the stove.”

“I just love cooking,” he said.

Arendt owned and managed two restaurants in the Des Moines area in the late 1970s and 1980s. A truck stop and a Wizard of Oz-themed restaurant that served heart-smart food. Each was only open for a few years because Arendt sold them. Not because he didn’t enjoy it, but he had offers that were too good to turn down.

After that, he had jobs working at a deli, pet store and a farm in Missouri. Originally from Hedrick, Arendt moved back to the area after his mother became ill in 2005. Since his mother’s death in 2006, he spends hours in his kitchen cooking, canning and baking.

He cooks meals for friends, bakes wedding cakes on request, cans anything from his garden, and even makes his own wine.

“Christmas time is what I dread the most,” he said. Last winter, he made 452 pounds of fudge, and more than 250 dozen cookies for friends and family.

Arendt, who is diabetic, also cooks foods for people with special dietary needs. He bakes and cooks for elderly friends and family members and brings the food to them.

“I like to see the twinkle and smile on an older person’s face when they say ‘thank you for thinking of me,’” he said.

Arendt has taken elderly friends meals when they were snowed in and regularly takes a friend to get his haircut.

“It’s just a good feeling,” he said. “My mom always taught me to respect the elders because some day you’ll be there too.”

Arendt is always in the kitchen. Some days he is busy cooking, baking and canning until 2 a.m.

“It takes time and if you try to rush it a lot of times it just doesn’t turn out,” he said.

“No matter what your making, the main thing you got to have with it is love and the time to do it right.”