Written for Edible Santa Barbara - Winter 2020-21 This is the power of gathering: it inspires us, delightfully, to be more hopeful, more joyful, more thoughtful: in a word, more alive. Alice Waters I celebrated my third Thanksgiving in America by travelling to Napa Valley. With no family in town, and friends otherwise engaged, my then English boyfriend and I had left the hustle and bustle of a hot and dusty Los Angeles in search of autumnal weather and holiday fare. We arrived late on...
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way… Charles DickensWhat a strange time this is. Dickens’ opening sentences from A...
Written for Edible Santa Barbara - Winter 2020Bon Appetit!“People who love to eat are always the best people.” Julia Child was being interviewed on television. When asked to what she owed her longevity she said, without missing a beat, in her trademark warbling, cooing voice, “Red meat and Gin!” I was captivated. Here was a woman who spoke her mind. She told the interviewer that we should eat all things, but in moderation, and that butter, cheese and crème fraiche were all good for...
Written for Edible Santa Barbara - Autumn 2019I celebrated my first Thanksgiving on a frigid day in Newport, Rhode Island in 1985. Having not grown up with this traditional gathering, nor being well versed in its culinary rituals, I watched with rapt attention as my good friend Brooke produced a gargantuan feast, complete with steaming bowls of squash soup, gigantic stuffed bird, mounds of butter and cream laced mashed potatoes, bowls of stuffing, vegetables and lots of pies. The inclement...
Nestled against the transparent playground wall of the Orfalea Family Children's Center lies a nascent garden. The rectangular, 12,000 square foot plot, is undergoing a metamorphosis: from flat, non-descript unused land, tucked into a corner on the west side of the UCSB campus, to a now burgeoning, vibrant, student-led farm with organic vegetables in some of its newly built beds.The seeds for the UCSB Student Farm were first planted more than ten years ago as Katie Maynard, the Sustainability...
Written for Edible Santa Barbara - Spring 2019Twenty years ago, not long after I moved to Santa Barbara, I toyed with, well actually seriously contemplated, wading into the turbulent waters of restaurant ownership. I blithely envisioned a chic bistro, complete with Chez Panissesque daily changing menus, yet the more I analyzed this potential venture and the enormous commitment it would take, the more I realized, sadly, that it was not to be. So, if not a restaurant, I chose to do, what was for...
Written for Edible Santa Barbara – Winter 2019In David Tanis’ book, A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes he prefaces the recipes in a chapter entitled North African Comfort Food with the following passage “What a strange idea: "comfort food." Isn't every food comforting in its own way! Why are certain foods disqualified? Can't fancy food be soothing in the same way as granny food?” Must it always be about loaded memories, like Proust's madeleine? Or can it be merely quirky, like M. F. K....
Written For Edible Santa Barbara - Autumn 2018The train left Paris precisely at nine o’clock in the evening, snaking its way out through the suburbs into the countryside, its swaying motion and rhythmic clickity-clack lulling its occupants to sleep. Lying on a bunkbed in the sleeper car, I would peer out into the darkness, counting the hours until we arrived. At each stop in the now somnolent towns, I would mentally trace the journey we were making, snaking our way across France, through...
In the little town in Provence my family calls home, the local farmers market takes place twice a week under dappled light in a large tree-lined square. It is one of my absolute favorites places. In fact, all farmers markets are, as they hold the promise of the unexpected...the first apricots or cherries of the season perhaps, or some plump, ripe figs, magnificent heirloom tomatoes or bouquets of basil and other fragrant herbs. Markets, anywhere in the world, tempt me, and I am drawn to them...
“If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with him… the people who give you their food give you their heart.” – Cesar ChavezFor the past sixteen odd years I have met almost every month with a group of friends to discuss books. At least that is the premise of our little ‘book’ club. We discuss a lot more. Over the years, as our lives have crisscrossed each other’s, and as we have watched our children grow, we have giggled and laughed out loud, cried...
