Jerome Bonds Jr. Photo by Stephanie Klein-Davis l The Roanoke Times

Owning his own restaurant for the first time, according to chef Jerome Bonds Jr., is like having an affair with his job.

“It’s like my other wife,” he said. “I’m thinking about her when I’m going to sleep, and I’m thinking about it when I get up.”

The fact that his new “mistress,” Norah’s Cafe at the Taubman Museum of Art, is even named after a woman is amusing to me, because Bonds is a victim of petticoats — he lives with wife, Shari, and their three daughters, Tateona, Danesha and Dayzhane. Even the family dog, China, is female.

But Bonds said he adores all of the ladies in his life, and credits his late grandmothers for planting in him a curiosity about cooking.

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To see a recipe for Norah’s Cafe tomato basil soup, click here.