HEDRICK — Dr. James Berry said that he “was such a fussy eater when I was young; didn’t like fish, garlic or most of the things which my mother served. So when I left home, I was desperate to find something to eat.”

That’s when he started putting foods together and using different spices “to see if they smelled and tasted good,” he said.

After a bit, he started liking some of the foods he hadn’t eaten before. He still smiles as he remembers when he returned home and ate a dish with garlic in it, much to his mother’s surprise.

Though he and his wife, Marilyn, just moved back to the Ottumwa area last fall, they have spent most of their married years in the Hedrick area. Berry was the chiropractor in Hedrick for 50 years until his retirement.

They thought when they moved to Wisconsin eight years ago that they would live there the rest of their lives. They had moved there to be near their only daughter, Susan, and her husband. Their daughter lost her four-year fight with leukemia in July 2008.

Since Dr. Berry’s brother and other family members are in the Ottumwa area, they decided to return here.

Berry, 88, says there are three or four things you must have to cook tasty food: “Onions, garlic, olive oil and amouré (love).”

He really does not have any recipes for his food — even his special (gourmet) dishes, because he just puts them together and goes by the smell and taste of each dish and knows when they are right. He cooks everything from scratch, he says, “because I can. What have I got to do? I am here all day and have time to chop, chop, chop and slowly cook and watch, and whatever is required to make a dish good. That is what is missing from most dishes. Good food takes time and care and no one seems to have the time to prepare it, but I do have.”

Doc prepares in quantities and freezes dishes and cans sauces so there are always meals ready to be served at all times. He also gives away meals to his family members and friends.

His specialties are homemade pizza, lasagna — all of his pastas are homemade— ; minestrone soup, bean and bacon soup, pepperoni egg bread, eggplant parmesan, macaroni and cheeses (with wine special cheeses), chili, pumpernickel bread, cabbage rolls, meat balls and spaghetti sauce.

He says there is nothing he won’t try that is in the realm of cooking, so this is just a part of what he makes or has tried.

One of his favorite places is a Des Moines Italian grocery store that carries special cheeses, homemade Italian sausage, herbs, and the gallon size olive oil needed for his cooking. He stocks up at Graziano Grocery on Jackson Street just behind Sec Taylor Stadium. The store has the imported foods he needs to create the smells and tastes of the Italian food which must be cooked slowly with only the real cheeses, herbs, and meats.

Berry recently entered a Chili Cook-Off contest between two churches just for fun. There were 15 entries. Each chili was in a crock pot and was given a number. Two judges, not acquainted with the cooks or members of the churches, had judging sheets and small cups of each of the 15 kinds of chili, tasting them and marking their ratings.

After the judging, they were down to one chili — a chili rated a “three pepper chili” (medium hot) – Red Chile Verde made by James Berry. He received his first framed certificate on the first cooking contest he ever entered.

Berry doesn’t have a recipe for his chili, but he tried to put one together: