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093: Sylvia Fountaine: Traveling a Winding Path Towards Food Entrepreneurship

November 23, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Sylvia Fountaine of Feasting At Home on The Dinner Special podcast
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Sylvia Fountaine of Feasting At Home on The Dinner Special podcast talking about traveling a winding path towards food entrepreneurship.

Feasting At Home

Sylvia’s path has been a winding one, and has included practicing as a therapist for a few years, starting and operating a successful vegetarian restaurant for 10 years, and now, she’s the chef and owner of Feast Catering Company. On her blog, Feasting At Home, Sylvia shares healthy, seasonal, and global recipes to help us get inspired to try something new in the kitchen.

I am so happy to have Sylvia Fountaine of Feasting At Home here on the show today.

On Her Journey To Starting a Restaurant and Catering Company:

In college, I started off my business degree, and I was living down in southern California, and half way through, I got the opportunity to go to Europe for six months and just play around. It was really the first time that I noticed beauty, I guess. And so, over there, I picked up a camera and just fell in love with photography. Six months after that, after I came home, and it was time to go back to college, I wanted to change my business degree to photography. But my father said, “No.” And he said basically, “If you change your degree, I won’t pay for your college anymore.” So I kind of didn’t have a choice. I finished my business degree, and then ended up getting married, and putting photography behind me, moving up to the northwest, and then, just went into a completely different field.

I got a Master’s in psychology and ended up being a counselor, which was also not really what I wanted to do. It’s funny how you end up doing what other people think you should be doing, without actually asking yourself. And so, two years into that, I would find myself daydreaming as I was walking downtown, I was still a therapist, walking downtown to go to lunch and I would always pass this empty brick building. And I’d look in the brick building, and I could visualize this restaurant in there. And all throughout college, I worked in restaurants, just waiting tables, and I just had this fantasy of having this other life.

It wasn’t until I was actually in a counselling session with a client, that I was telling this person, you know, “You can do whatever you want. You can do whatever you want. It’s not too late.” And as I was saying these words, it dawned on me that I could do whatever I wanted. And even though I just got my Master’s, and spent some money getting it, I could change careers. So I did.

I opened a restaurant with a friend, and just went on a completely different path. We had no idea what we were doing, but it was an adventure. Did that for 10 years, and it was the time to sell, we had a really good offer, so sold the restaurant. I took a year off and started asking myself, “Okay, Sylvia, what do you really wanna do?” And I never asked myself before, really.

I decided I wanted to keep cooking because I loved cooking so I started a catering business. And then, eventually, somehow that led to the blog, and so that’s what I do now, both catering and my blog.

On Learning How to Cook:

When we first opened the restaurant, I was in the front of the house, and then halfway into it, my friend and I switched jobs. So I became the chef and she became front of the house. But all throughout the time, I was cooking too. And basically I learned how to cook just by cooking. I learned how to do most things in my life by just doing them. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know how to open a restaurant. I didn’t know how to run a restaurant. We learned as we went.

It wasn’t always pretty, we created a lot of little messes here and there, I mean, it was a fun ride. But you learn as you go. Same with the catering business, I mean, when I first started, I didn’t really know what I was doing, especially with the blog. I had no idea what I was doing.

On Keeping Things Fun in the Kitchen:

What always inspires me are things like produce that’s in season. So whatever’s in season, if it’s a really good, like, tomato that is at its peak, I’ll look at it, and I’ll say, “What can I do with this tomato that I’ve never done before?” Or if I have a new spice, “What can I do with the spice that I’ve never tried before?” I think for me, it’s always grounded in the seasons, and then it’s also grounded in taking me away. In winter, I want to be warm somewhere, but we’re here stuck in snow. So I’ll think, “Oh, I want to go to Bali,” and then I’ll try to cook something from Bali.

On Finnish and Egyptian Cuisine:

Finland is a Nordic country. They have a lot of lakes there. They have a lot of fish. So, a typical meal is fish and little baby potatoes and dill and kind of mild flavors.

When my dad would cook Egyptian food, he would use really warming spices like cumin and coriander, onion, garlic, tomatoes, just really warm, almost Mediterranean flavors. My dad actually came from Egypt and my mom actually came from Finland. They moved to the United States when they were in their 40s. My dad grew up in a little, tiny village in Egypt, and he was very, very poor. And even though he had relative success when he came to the States, he still is extremely frugal when it came to food. And so, he often would make zucchini dishes, and just very simple dishes out of very humble ingredients, but then his flavors, like in spices that he would use, would really elevate them.

On Her Travels and Food:

They really exposed me to new ingredients. There’s just so many ingredients in the world, and we only see a small portion of them where we live. And so it’s just, kind of like, how a painter has a palette and there’s a certain amount of colors, it’s given me more colors to work with in creating meals, just giving more ingredients to work with.

I really love the food in Vietnam. I was blown away by the food there, just because it was just so flavorful and so fresh, and healthy, and hot, and spicy. Just all the things that I love. But I was really surprised by how relatively healthy it was too — light. And I would go back there in a second for this one banh mi stand. It was just amazing.

On Where Her Culinary Heart Lives:

That’s a tough question, and I actually thought about that for a while, because it’s hard for me to pick a favorite cuisine. And when I thought about, “Where does my heart live,” truly it lives wherever I am at, because that’s where the best produce is going to be — the produce that’s closest to where you are. So here, in the Northwest, I have access to some incredible locally grown produce, at its peak. It hasn’t traveled for days to get here. It’s already ripe. And to me, that’s where my heart is, because that’s where the best food is, wherever you are.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I watch Top Chef, or I have in the past. And there’s a show called A Chef’s Life I’ve been watching.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

I think my favorite food blog is Local Milk.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook or Snapchat that make you happy?

On Instagram, I follow, this has nothing to do with food, Tasmania, the place, because, every time I see a photo of it, I want to go there. I follow Local Milk, that’s all I can think of right now.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

My most treasured item is my mother’s salt cellar. It’s like a Finnish salt box.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

That one’s hard, because I don’t think I disliked any ingredient, except for canned peas, but I still don’t like canned peas.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

For me, because I cook professionally, I like cookbooks that teach me things. Like Thomas Keller’s Bouchon and French Laundry. Cookbooks like that, that have a lot of new knowledge where I can learn.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

This is going to really age me a lot, and my husband is a punk rocker, so that aside, there is a song by the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, that does The Mission soundtrack, and there is a song on there called, The Falls. And it’s just cello, playing this beautiful song, and there’s just something about that song that, when I’m cooking, I feel like electricity is flowing though me. It just gets all the creative juices flowing, it makes me really happy.

On Keeping Posted with Sylvia:

Sylvia Fountaine of Feasting At Home on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted with her.

Either Instagram or Facebook, probably Instagram.

 

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: A Chef's Life, Bouchon, Caterer, Egyptian Cuisine, Feasting at Home, Finnish Cuisine, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Local Milk, Sylvia Fountaine, The French Laundry, Thomas Keller, Top Chef, Travel, Vegetarian Restaurant, Vietnamese food, Yo-Yo Ma

014: Karen Chan: Tasty Global Cuisines for Eaters Wanting To Try New Flavours

March 18, 2015 by Gabriel 2 Comments

Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with her.
http://traffic.libsyn.com/thedinnerspecial/TDS014.mp3

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Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast on Tasty Global Cuisines for Eaters Wanting To Try New Flavours

HonestlyYUM

Karen has been globetrotting the world and documenting her food adventures since 2009, and today she’s the food editor and co-founder of HonestlyYum, where she helps to create an experience that inspires readers to try seasonal recipes, delightful drinks, culinary adventures, and festive DIYs.

I am so pumped to have Karen Chan of Honestly Yum here on the show today.

On What First Drew Her To Start a Blog:

Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about what first drew her to starting a food blog.

My first blog was Globetrotter Diaries and to be honest, it was really just one day sitting around and kind of thinking I need a creative outlet. I love food. I love travel. I love food culture and I love exploring other peoples’ foods so it really just came out of, “Well, this is a creative outlet and so let me just start a blog for fun,” basically exploring different cultures and different foods.

On Her Global Curiosity Around Food:

Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her global curiosity about food.

I’m Chinese and so I grew up eating all kinds of food. I think at a young age my parents really prepped my palate for different flavors and different types of cuisines. I grew up in LA so it’s just a melting pot of all kinds of ethnic foods.

Anything you want you can get it, so obviously really great Chinese food, Japanese food, Korean food, even Pakistani food. One of my favorite restaurants is a Pakistani restaurant. So I’ve always, always had this love of just exploring different types of cuisines.

Not only that but I’ve also been lucky enough to travel a lot, so even just the traveling, like nearly half my plan of traveling is always, “What am I going to eat there?” So that definitely shaped my curiosity for that.

Mexico and Singapore – two very different places, but if I had to pick one I might say Mexico and Oaxaca in particular. Oaxacan cuisine because that was just… I think if you were a foodie it is the ultimate. Getting to explore all the markets and there are so many interesting ingredients, but that is the ultimate for me. My culinary heart lives in Mexico.

I live in California and so naturally there’s a big Mexican cuisine influence in California. I’ve gone myself to Mexico many times and I’m just such a fan of the culture.

On Starting HonestlyYUM:

Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about starting HonestlyYUM.

The reason I ended up stopping Globetrotter Diaries is because I went back to school. I went to Graduate School. I went to Law School actually, and so when I had started Globetrotter Diaries, I was already on that process to going back to school. It was really for fun for me and I just knew I wouldn’t be able to have the time to keep up with it.

So once I was in school, kind of doing that, my sister, she runs HonestlyWTF, which is a fashion and lifestyle blog and she said, “You know, we really want to add a new dimension to the HonestlyWTF family. We really want to do food and entertaining and cocktails and you’ve done Globetrotter Diaries, and I really want you to come on board.” I thought it’s a lot more feasible given my busy schedule at school because I have two other people I get to work with.

It’s not all resting on my shoulders. So I thought, yeah, this is something I can do with other people who are super talented and super driven. So that’s kind of what made me do the switch. It was not planned, I guess, but it was just an opportunity that I couldn’t say no to.

On Creating an Experience Rather Than Only Featuring Recipes:

Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about creating an experience rather than only recipes.

I would say it’s sort of all of our ideas, but probably primarily Erica because she’s just so creative when it comes to entertaining ideas. I mean all of us are entertainers. I love having friends over and so naturally you just kind of want to have an experience for your guests. I don’t really know where that comes from other than just we really love to create.

Part of it, too, is that it’s just so fun to do these tablescapes and parties. They’re faux parties because they’re only attended by us and our cameras, but it’s just so fun to kind of go over the top because there are very few times in the year where you do. It’s maybe Thanksgiving, maybe Christmas, and maybe a special occasion, but other than that you just, when you have a dinner party, you’re not going to be calling a florist.

This is a chance to just kind of go all out, over the top and have fun with it. I think Erica and I, especially, both really love that aspect of entertaining. It’s really creating an atmosphere and a theme, and what is the whole experience going to feel like, too.

On Her Passion for Food and Cooking:

Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her passion for cooking.

It’s so funny because my mom always looks at my sister and I and laughs and thinks, “I don’t know where they get it from,” because my mom is not a cook.

I did not grow up in a household where I started cooking cinnamon rolls with my mom from a very young age. She cooked but she didn’t enjoy it. It was just sort of like I come home, I cook for my kids, done. And so she’s just like, “I don’t know where you guys get it from,” and we both are obsessed with food, we’re both obsessed with cooking.

I would say my interest peaked or just started to kind of form in college and probably in high school, cooking for myself a snack or whatever. But my aunt, my father’s sister, she is a huge foodie and she’s actually my aunt who is in Singapore.

That’s probably why I love Singaporean food so much. She would take me to all the hawker stalls and try everything and it’s just so good. But she is a huge foodie and so I think she helped inspire me. She’s a great cook so she would always be the one, when I was younger, to kind of be like, “Oh, here’s your recipe. Try it.” I think it’s strange. Maybe it skipped a generation. I don’t know.

She’s always been on the other side of the globe but she follows the blog and obviously sees. We see what we cook in our respective countries over Facebook and social media and emails and stuff.

On Expanding a Non-Adventurous Eater’s Food Horizons Via a New Cuisine:

Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about expanding a non-adventurous eater's horizons.

I would say Vietnamese food. I think it still starts to incorporate some interesting flavors that you might not expect like, for example, lemongrass or fish sauce, which of course, if you just smell it you’re just like, “Whoah.” It’s kind of repulsive smelling but it adds a subtle flavor that when people are eating it in food, they wouldn’t be like, “Oh, there’s fish sauce in here,” and so that might help them think, “Well, if I want to make this at home, I could actually use this ingredient that I normally would never touch.”

I just think generally the flavors in Vietnamese food are very clean, light. There’s nothing incredibly aggressive about it but it’s so satisfying and it just hits a spot. I’m like a huge fan of Vietnamese, huge, huge, huge.

And even the basil’s different. I’m sure a lot of people are used to the sweet Italian basil versus the Thai basil, which has a very different flavor.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I actually watch Top Chef a lot. That’s one of my favorites.

What are some food blogs or websites that we have to know about?

One of my favorites is, I would say lately because of the New Year and because we’re trying to be healthy, it would be Green Kitchen Stories. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of it but their photography is just gorgeous and such wholesome healthy cooking.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter that make you happy?

I actually have recently discovered that all of the U.S. National Parks have their own Instagram accounts, for example, Yellowstone National Park.

It makes me so happy because it is, like the photography is just gorgeous, and they really post quite often and they’ll post these beautiful photos of the landscape and the Grand Teton Mountains and animals. I didn’t know that the U.S. Government was doing this and I just discovered a slew of Instagram accounts and I just follow them all.

When I’m sitting at my desk in the office and I’m just looking at how gorgeous some of these places are, it helps me escape and it just makes me very happy.

What is something all home cooks should have in their pantry?

Okay, a good, good flake sea salt like Maldon.

I would say Maldon sea salt because I use that for everything. It makes such a huge, huge difference in your cooking. I know it sounds kind of strange like salt is salt. I have kosher salt and I use that, for example, if you’re salting a pot of pasta water. I’m not going to use a big handful of Maldon salt in it, but it really does change subtly the flavor of your cooking. I would recommend that for everyone to get.

Name one ingredient you cannot live without?

This is hard. One ingredient, I would say eggs, couldn’t live without eggs. I love eggs.

I eat, sometimes, eggs for dinner. That’s how much I love them. They’re amazing in every form.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I would say anything by Nigel Slater because I just love his recipes. I mean, Jamie Oliver in the same kind of thread is like, they’re not precise, and with cooking especially, I mean with baking it’s a different story. But with cooking I think not having to literally measure out tablespoons of certain things, I think for beginners, yes, it’s probably necessary at that point, but being able to not be confined by those restrictions or those directions is good.

I know Jamie Oliver does like a glug of this and a dash of that and same with Nigel Slater. It’s sort of very loosely-based recipes. I think that’s a great way to start developing your own cooking skills because it helps you think outside the box. Like, “Okay, I’m going to rely on my own tasting.”

And cooking is so much about tasting as you go and really seeing what works and what doesn’t and experimenting. That helps you develop your own talent to be able to rely on your own judgment when it comes to measuring things, and how much to put of this, and how much to put of that, and why did we add this, and what does this contribute. I just really love Nigel Slater cookbooks.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I would say the band, Alabama Shakes, makes me want to cook because they are just so upbeat and live. I saw them live and I love them. It’s really fun music and that makes me want to cook because I just want to have fun.

Keep Posted on Karen:

Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with her.

Instagram and Pinterest (and HonestlyYUM.com).

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Alabama Shakes, Chinese food, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Food culture, Globetrotter Diaries, Grand Teton Mountains, Green Kitchen Stories, Hawker, HonestlyWTF, HonestlyYUM, Jamie Oliver, Karen Chan, Mexico, Nigel Slater, Pakistani food, Singapore, Top Chef, Travel, Vietnamese food, Yellowstone National Park

Hello! I'm Gabriel Soh, home cook, food enthusiast and your host of The Dinner Special podcast.
Everything here on The Dinner Special is an experiment, just like with cooking. Thank you for listening and being part of the adventure.

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