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064: Katrín Björk: Redefining the Term Housewife

August 3, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Katrin Bjork of Modern Wifestyle on The Dinner Special podcast
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Katrín Björk of Modern Wifestyle on The Dinner Special podcast talking about reinventing the term housewife and taking pride in the art of homemaking.

Modern Wifestyle

Katrín is originally from Iceland and has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, since 2002. Her blog Modern Wifestyle is filled with recipes from family style dinners to decadent desserts, but she also wants to focus on reinventing the word “housewife” to recognize that housewives come in all forms and shapes and to bring positivity to the art of being a home maker.

I am so happy to have Katrín Björk, of Modern Wifestyle joining me here today.

(*All images below are Katrín’s.)

On Her Definition of “Housewife”:

Katrin Bjork of Modern Wifestyle on The Dinner Special podcast on her definition of the word "housewife".

Housewife is someone who likes to take care of her family, her house, her home. Someone who likes to build up a life. It doesn’t necessarily mean only cooking and it definitely doesn’t mean someone telling you to cook or telling you to be in the kitchen. And for me to kind of . . . reinventing is a big word, but there’s a lot of negativity linked to the word housewife. I am proud to say that I am a housewife, but I’m also a photographer and I work full-time. And you can be both.

The world is changing and to me, to be a housewife, I’m also focused on to not be the type of a housewife my grandmother was. My grandmother, she worked a little bit but mainly she was taking care of the children, she was cooking, she was cleaning, and she didn’t necessarily like it. Now she’s living by herself after my grandpa passed and she doesn’t cook anymore. She eats take out and has her children to bring food and stuff like that, which I think is great but I also think it’s really sad that she now, at the age of 84, is realizing that you don’t have to cook and you don’t have to like it.

Here in Denmark where I live, Copenhagen, let’s just say that Danish men are really well-raised by their mothers. They all make bread. When I moved here from Iceland I was like, “What is going on?” It was like in a different world, you know, they all bake, they all vacuum and had really nice homes. It was so different and that was really inspiring to me.

On Taking Pride in Being a Homemaker:

Food has never been as popular as right now. Everybody’s cooking. Everybody has opinion on food now and people eat out a lot and I think there’s definitely a food revolution going on. I think the homemaker is within that as well. And then people are interested in cooking and then you get interested in throwing dinner parties. Then all these hostess-type of roles are coming back, which I think is great.

I see it as a hobby. I’m really interested in design, I’m really interested in architecture, and so I see it as a hobby. To create a beautiful space to live in, to create beautiful food for my family. It’s a hobby.

On Her Passion for Photography and Food:

Katrin Bjork of Modern Wifestyle on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her passion for photography and food.

Photography is my profession. That’s what I do for a living, that’s what I study, that’s my number one passion. And then as I said, food and homemaking is my hobby. So my blog is created around the images and it’s just a plus that I can cook and I can style.

Not always but a lot of the time, I do start with an idea of an image or a shape or a form and then I start thinking what type of food would fit into that, what type of food would fit with this table cloth that I really want to use.

When I started the blog I was doing photography and then I started blogging about food. Now it’s all kind of melted together and I’m basically only doing food photography now. I do a little lifestyle – big word – in between, but it’s mainly food and food photography that I do. I get a lot of jobs through the blog. If I create a recipe of pictures for a magazine I would put that in the blog later. So it’s changing a lot.

In the beginning it was all about starting fresh and I didn’t have any clients and I wasn’t really doing food photography. I was learning by doing. So it’s changing a lot now. But from an idea to a finished product, like a finished blog post or a finished article, it can vary. It can be a day. I can wake up in the morning and be like,” Yes, I want to cook a whole fish today,” and then I’ll just go out and get it and cook it and style and then photograph it and boom! It’s there. But other times I’ll go for days and think about, “What do I want to do? Should I do waffles or should I do pancakes? What is better?”

I have read a lot of cookbooks. I’m not a chef, I’m not a baker, I’m not a pastry chef, and I don’t pretend to be. I’m a home cook. So I’ve read a lot of books with technique and then I just practice, and then I figure it out. Now after so many years I’ve nailed down the basic techniques. It’s working out. But I test a lot. My recipes are definitely tested, I promise you that. Because you never know. But often, if I’m watching a cooking show on TV and they’re making something, I’ll go the next day and use what they did and do something similar. And often it turns out to be completely different.

On the Food Culture in Iceland:

Katrin Bjork of Modern Wifestyle on The Dinner Special podcast talking about the food culture in Iceland.

The food culture in Iceland is . . . it’s a little old fashioned. They’re getting there definitely, and more and more beautiful restaurants are opening and serving delicious food. Iceland is a country with amazing products and produce. They have the best lamb in the world, they have fresh fish. They have it all, but they’re still preparing it in the old fashioned way.

Luckily I have a lot of readers from Iceland that I can inspire with either Danish food and they’re American inspired too. But yeah, I mean traditionally Icelandic food is pretty gross. I’m pretty sure you would not want to taste that. We’re talking fermented everything. A lot of fermented fish and not really delicious. But they’re definitely getting there.

What I think is most special about Icelandic food is that all lambs are born in late April and May. And then they’re let go freely up to the mountains where they just go. They eat berries and plants and then the farmers will go up to the mountains in September on horses and gather them around again, bring them down from the mountain and then they’re slaughtered right away. So our lamb is super fresh, really young, and spiced from the inside.

On How Danes Approach Food:

Katrin Bjork of Modern Wifestyle on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how Danes approach food.

Danes are really into food and Danes have a great word that means cozy but it also means gather. It means basically everything that’s good. And they do that a lot with family. So they come together, they eat together for the holidays, every single day. And it doesn’t matter how old you are. If you’re 50 years old, you will still go to your mother’s house and have a feast with your whole family. It’s really impressive. They’re very family-oriented and big feast, big gatherings, they’re all for that.

Danes really love a dish that they call smørrebrød which is an open-faced sandwich that comes with various toppings. And they have rules about what they pair together and what goes on top and such. And these open sandwiches you can get almost everywhere. You can both go to traditional restaurants, both around the cities and in the countrysides, at bed and breakfasts and hotels. And then also in Copenhagen they are doing their modern take on this sandwich.

I think that is definitely something that people visiting Denmark and Copenhagen should try, because they’re delicious. They can have everything on them. Everything from pickled herring with apples, fried fish fillet with remoulade sauce on top and a little lemon and it’s delicious. It definitely contains mayonnaise, butter, and all these delicious things, so it’s not healthy but it’s definitely delicious.

You will definitely have ice cold beer with it, and probably a shot of Danish snaps. They have this snaps that taste a little bit like Caraway seeds. It’s super strong but yummy and kind of cleanses your palate, in between mayonnaise and butter.

This is it. It’s one piece of bread with either a thick layer of mayo or butter and then toppings on top. These can be super tall and they can fill out a whole plate with this one piece of bread. My husband and I will have smørrebrød for dinner on a lazy day. It’s like having a sandwich, just in a little fancier way.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I watch, religiously, MasterChef Australia. Not U.S., not Canada, not UK, Australia. It is amazing!

I think there are five shows, five episodes per week, and it’s all about the food. It’s not about the drama. They’re all super supportive with each other, and they’re cooking amazing food, and there’s a lot of focus on the food and focus on techniques.

I’ll watch an episode of that and then I’m out in my kitchen and trying it.

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

I’m going to say Two Red Bowls. Beautiful, I mean beautiful photography, amazing styling and delicious recipes. And I’m going to say My Name is Yeh, which is equally as amazing. Always with Butter. Chasing Delicious. Yeah, those four.

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

Oh, I follow everybody on Pinterest. I love Pinterest. But I also love Instagram, definitely. On Instagram I follow Nik Sharma. He is so talented and his images are great. So I follow him on Instagram and I’m really inspired by what he’s doing. I follow Molly Yeh from My name is Yeh. And I follow Ashley Marti from the Local Haven. She’s really good. She does a lot of cocktails, which is right up my alley.

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

You know when you open a bottle of wine and then you maybe just have a glass, and then you have to have an extra cork to put in it? Because if you pull out the cork, they don’t always fit in again? I have this cork from my grandfather that has this huge golden horse head on top. I mean it’s so weird and strange and so not in style with my Scandinavian home, but I think that is the greatest thing I have in my kitchen right now.

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

Cheese. I know, it’s so weird. I didn’t eat cheese as a kid. I wouldn’t touch it. I hated it. And when I grew up, it was embarrassing. It was embarrassing to go to parties, go to people’s houses, and be like, “Oh, I don’t eat cheese.” And being the type picking cheese off a pizza. I mean it was so weird. So I made an effort. I just said to myself, “This is a no go. You have to learn how to eat cheese.” So I did.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Definitely The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, definitely. I mean I’ve read it from one end to another, because it’s basic, but it’s so great, and it teaches you a lot. And then everything by Jamie Oliver. Huge fan of Jamie Oliver.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I listen to a lot of jazz when I cook. Nothing special in particular, just a playlist of jazz. Just go on, Spotify, and just jazz. And then just pick a random playlist and play it.

It sets a good mood you know? It’s different.

If I’m cooking for the blog and working, I might listen to something more upbeat-y and if I’m cooking for a dinner party, it’s definitely slow jazz, because then I’m also having wine, for sure.

On Keeping Posted with Katrín:

Katrin Bjork of Modern Wifestyle on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted with her.

Instagram for sure. If you’re interested in more than just food, if you’re interested in more of the homemaking aspect of me, Pinterest, definitely.

 

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Always with Butter, Ashley Marti, Chasing Delicious, Copenhagen, Danish Food, Denmark, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Homemaker, Housewife, Iceland, Icelandic Food, Jamie Oliver, Julia Child, Katrín Björk, Local Haven, MasterChef Australia, Modern Wifestyle, My Name is Yeh, Nik Sharma, Photographer, The Art of French Cooking, Two Red Bowls

041: Nik Sharma: Exploring the Culinary Arts and Food Photography

May 27, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Nik Sharma of A Brown Table on The Dinner Special podcast talking about starting his food blog.
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Nik Sharma of A Brown Table on The Dinner Special podcast talking about exploring the culinary arts and food photography

A Brown Table

Nik grew up in India and the United States. The non-traditional dishes on his blog represents this experience. He believes in using fresh, seasonal whole foods and knowing where his ingredients come from. A Brown Table was recognized by Better Homes and Garden in 2014 as a top ten healthy food blog. Nik recently gave up his job in the pharmaceutical industry to follow his dream of learning more about the culinary arts.

I am so happy to have Nik Sharma of A Brown Table here on the show today.

(UPDATE: Since recording this episode, A Brown Table was chosen as the winner of the International Association of Best Culinary Professionals – Best Photo Based Culinary Blog of 2015, and is a Finalist in the 2015 Saveur Blog Awards for Best Photography.)

On His Upbringing in India:

I come from a mixed background where my dad is from the north and he grew up Hindu and my mother is Goan who grew up Catholic. So it’s an infusion of cultures which is what I try to reflect in my food, but it’s also something that I grew up with where you eat everything.

That is something that my parents gave us, both me and my sister the opportunity to do that. We were very fortunate in that sense to try everything out at least once. But make up your mind about it and then you decide. That is something I strongly believe in. I think people should explore food. There’s a lot out there. And have fun with it more than anything.

On His Interest in Cooking:

Nik Sharma of A Brown Table on The Dinner Special podcast talking about exploring the culinary arts and food photography talking about his interest in cooking.

Growing up, both my parents had day jobs. I think Thursdays were my day off from school and I had to take care of my sister at a certain point. So she would come home from school and she hated my mother’s food.

My mother’s a good cook but I feel like my grandmother, her mother, was a better cook. We always lean through with my grandmother’s food. Anyway, I started learning how to cook at that age because neither of us wanted to eat what my mother cooked. It was good food. It just wasn’t something that we were interested in so I started exploring, going through my mother’s cookbooks and notes that she had collected before getting married, and I started exploring those recipes by myself.

A lot of them were desserts. I have a strong sweet tooth that shows up quite a bit on my blog. So that’s when I started to cook.

I also spend a lot of time with my grandmother where I’d watch her cooking and she would talk about how you need to cut all the vegetables to the right size, they should all be similar, and stuff like that.

On His Culinary Influences:

For me, it’s been more to explore and see what’s out there because my personal belief is that I do not want to get restricted to be in one genre. I’d like to learn as much as I can because there’s so much out there and you live once. Why stop yourself?

Definitely when I moved here, there was definitely that stage where I wanted to taste a lot, get an idea. Because in Indian food, I think the flavors are a little stronger and there’s definitely a mix of what doesn’t match can actually be mixed and brought together in Indian cooking.

Whereas in Western food, it’s a little more mellow and subtle; flavors are kept subtle. So over the years, I’ve definitely learned to strive to get close to a mixed balance between the two. I think I’ve become better at it. I don’t think I’m an expert in any sense. But I think with each recipe, I try and strive for that.

On Experimenting with Indian Flavors:

Nik Sharma of A Brown Table on The Dinner Special podcast talking about experimenting with Indian flavors.

I always say start basic and simple. That’s how I’ve learned. I think a lot of the Indian food, we use a lot of combinations. So there’s like the garam masala, then there’s like when you make chana masala, there’s a separate mix. It’s nice for me. My experience has been to go back to the spice mix because that’s the root of all the flavor. Go back, make it from scratch.

You may find that certain ingredients in there, you may not like them individually but they actually make the dish up as a whole. So I think it’s important to go back to the basics. Knock everything down piece-by-piece and that’s something you learn in science.

When I worked in science, one of the things we do is hypothesis testing. Go back to the basics and break everything down and then build it up again from scratch. I think that really applies to food as well. I think not only with Indian food but any cuisine.

On Starting His Blog:

Nik Sharma of A Brown Table on The Dinner Special podcast talking about starting his food blog.

So I was in the habit of entertaining a lot of friends at home for a while. It’s something that I enjoyed doing. Then a couple of them, and I think this sounds a stereotypical way of friends or family members tell that, “You should start a blog.” I said, “Okay, let me go ahead and do this thing.” and it sucked. It sucked. It was way too much work for me and I decided to scrap the whole thing. Because I couldn’t keep up with it. I just started school. I was working full time. I was about to start in school in the evenings and it just wasn’t happening. It wasn’t coming together.

So then, a couple of months later, we had gone to visit my now mother-in-law’s house. She said, “I think you should go back and give it a shot.” So I said, “Well, I think my photography sucks,” number one, and all the blogs out there that I’m drawn to are visually just stunning. I can spend hours just scrolling back through the pages and I don’t have it.

I said, “Well, maybe I should invest a little money in a simple camera and then give it a shot.” So I went ahead and I did that. I started practicing a little bit. And then I thought, “Maybe I also need a concept and I wanted it to be something more personal. It didn’t matter if it’s mainstream or not.”

That’s the other thing in blogging. You have mainstream and then you have off-site, probably just never does well. And that’s where I was coming from. I said, “Let me talk about the food that I make at home. That’s a fusion of cultures. Let’s do that. Lets infuse things and see what happens. If it works, it works; if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.”

So I tried it again.

I started finding my voice and personality which is when I started falling in love with it. I think the main thing for me there was I was talking from my heart. My food was coming from my heart. I think that’s important in anything that you do. Blogging or a job, it should come from your heart, and then you’ll enjoy. And that worked for me.

On Finding His Style of Photography:

Nik Sharma of A Brown Table on The Dinner Special podcast talking about mastering his style of photography.

I think it’s really important to find your own voice. It takes time.

When I started blogging, one of the things that a lot of food bloggers, we do as a community is you go and submit a photograph to photo curating sites, which is all good and done deal at the end of the day. It gives you traffic but also you have to remember why you’re blogging. For me, it was expressing myself through food and also getting to be creative which I wasn’t getting to do at work.

Photo curating sites are good to a certain point. Take the advice they give you with a grain of salt and move on. When I stepped away from all of that, I feel I grew as a photographer, as a cook. That helped me because I stopped caring about the numbers.

In blogging, we get really focused on numbers so much. As soon as I stopped focusing on that, I felt happier with my work. I’m not saying I’m perfect right now. I’m definitely not. I still see faults in everything I do. But as a person, I feel happier with my work now. I think that’s what people need to focus on. Just be happy with what you do.

Alot of the times, the style that I’m doing now is something that I’ve always wanted to do. When all these sites people come and tell, “Don’t do this because they don’t want this. This is not good.” For me, the biggest step was putting my hands out. You see my hands a lot with my photographs. I like to do a lot of process shots because I’m not very good at writing, so I like to visually tell people. If I’m making a recipe, I’d like them visually to see what’s going on.

For me, that’s an easier way to get that message across. So for me, that was something important but a lot of sites did not want that. I said, “Well, let me take a chance and see how this works out for a couple of months. So far, it’s been fortunate enough that people have been very receptive about it, so it’s good.

On Following His Passion for Food and Culinary Arts:

Nik Sharma of A Brown Table on The Dinner Special podcast talking about his passion for culinary arts.

My husband has been my number one supporter of everything that I’ve done. As a kid growing up, I wanted to go to chef school. My mother said, “Well, a lot of chefs, all they do is they sit in the kitchens. I’ve seen them because this is what happens at work. They are sitting in those walk-in freezers peeling onions and cutting their fingers. I don’t think it’s meant for you.”

So I went the traditional route as all Goan Indian families push you to do. It’s either engineering, medicine or something more stable. I went with that and there were still those nagging feelings that I enjoy being creative. And I love biochemistry. That’s one of my things. And a lot of foods is especially based in the pastry field. It’s all about chemistry, like knowing biochemistry and why stuff does what it does in food.

I started noticing that as I started applying those rules from school into my food, my baking skills improved quite a bit. So in that sense, I found that I wasn’t really going to step away from all the knowledge I had gained in school, so it wasn’t a waste but it’s helped me quite a bit.

I talked to my husband a couple of months. We had moved from DC to San Francisco. I said, “I feel now that I’m at this stage where I want to take the dive. And if I don’t do it now, I’ll always regret it. I want to have a professional angle to my work.” So he said, “Well, okay. Go ahead. See what’s out there.”

I called out every bakery that was close by. No one responded. I had almost given up and finally got a call from this lady who says, “So you had called up both of our bakeries. It sounds like you’re really interested. Would you be willing to come in and talk with me?” I said, “Sure.”

So I went in with no expectations. Because a lot of the people that actually called me back, a few of them that actually called me back said, “You don’t have a culinary degree, so we’re not gonna take you in.” But then again, to that end, I had read a lot of blogs who had said, “Go out there. Get the experience before you do decide to do anything professionally because it’s so different. It’s not at all a glamorous field. You’re on your feet all day.”

So I met this lady and she was really nice and kind to give me a chance. She said, “Come on in. It’s definitely a hard business, especially pastry because you’ll get up at 5:00. You are in sometimes at 5:00 and you’re on your feet all day long. So it’s a hard life, but let’s do a trial phase. And if you like it and if we like you, we’ll keep you on.” So I did that for a long time, for a month.

The trial was a month, and then I asked them. I said, “Do you want me to come back? What’s going on? Because I’m still working at the other job I attend during the week. I’ve gone part-time on everything.” I said, “I’m still working in my pharmaceutical job and then this at the side. I’d really like to just really give it all up and come here? Do you want me?” She said, “Yes, we would love you to come back. But just remember, it’s going to be tough.” So that’s when I said, “Okay.”

I spoke to my husband at home. He said, “Go for it,” and did it and I’m happy I made the decision. It helps having someone who supports you emotionally during the whole phase because it’s scary. I’m still scared about what’s going to happen tomorrow because it’s such a risky business.

It’s worth the risk. I feel like if you feel like it’s something you’re questioning, give it a shot if you can. I’m not saying everybody can do it. It’s a financial risk. It’s a stability risk, I feel. So go ahead. Give it a shot if you can. Go for it a little bit. If you don’t like it, okay. At least you tried it. Move on. I think that’s critical.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

It’s called The Great British Baking Show on PBS. That’s one of my favorites.

America’s Test Kitchen is another great show to learn from, and Lidia’s Italy. That’s another really good show to learn about food and culture and flavors. I guess all those are all PBS shows.

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

Gosh, there are so many good ones so calling any specific ones up will be hard.

I’m sure everyone is familiar with the best blogs out there, so go ahead and look those up. But when it comes to some of the more different ones, I would say, feel free to choose a great community to get involved in and learn from them. America’s Test Kitchen, again. They have a great resource on their website, and The Kitchn is another great resource to learn from.

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

Dogs of Instagram?

I have a dog. I obsess over my dog like a crazy person. Yeah, so Dogs of Instagram.

Pinterest, I follow a lot of food photographers and photographers in general. So it’s hard to pinpoint any one person, but anything that I find different from stuff that I do and that visually speaks to me.

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

My ice cream maker. I love ice cream. I love making ice cream at home.

If and when I go to culinary school, and if I get to open a restaurant or a little shop, ice cream would be a special section. So yeah, ice cream maker.

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

Radishes. I hated radishes as a kid. I thought they were the nastiest things that existed.

I still don’t like the large, white radishes. I still find the flavor a little disgusting. But radishes, the Easter egg radishes, I’ve come to appreciate that they look cute. They’re not that harsh in flavor, so I like those a lot.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I do collect a lot of pastry books. Some of the ones that I really find useful are the ones, again, by America’s Test Kitchen because there’s a lot of talk process.

I like the books by Thomas Keller from Bouchon and The French Laundry. Those are really good books to own.

Also, a lot of the culinary textbooks from the CIA. If you don’t want to buy a lot of cookbooks, those are some of the good resources to learn from, so I always have those stocked.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

As of now, I would say Taylor Swift’s new album. I love that CD.

On Keeping Posted on Nik:

Nik Sharma of A Brown Table on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted with Nik.

Instagram would be the best way. Then my second social media platform that I really use is Facebook. Those two are the two that I love.

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: 2105 Saveur Food Blog Awards, A Brown Table, America's Test Kitchen, Better Homes and Garden, Bouchon, CIA, Culinary Arts, Dogs of Instagram, Food Blog, Food Blogger, IACP Awards, India, Indian Food, International Association of Best Culinary Professionals, Lidia's Italy, Nik Sharma, PBS, Photographer, Taylor Swift, The French Laundry, The Great British Baking Show, The Kitchn, Thomas Keller

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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