Orangette | The Dinner Special podcast

133: Danielle: Gardening and Feasting from the Seasons

July 27, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Rooting The Sun

Danielle is always dreaming up ways to feast from the season and celebrate the garden. A Virginian turned Californian turned Midwesterner, her blog, Rooting The Sun, is where Danielle shares her approach to cooking, food, and gardening.

I am so happy to have Danielle of Rooting The Sun on the show today.

(*All photos below are Danielle’s.)

On Discovering Her Passion for Gardening and Growing Food:

I started growing food about four years ago. My mother had always experimented with vegetable gardens. One year, I actually just thought to myself, “Man, I really love eggplants — and I still do — but wouldn’t it be cool to just do it myself?” So I did. I just got my hands dirty. And that year, the deer ate all of it. We did not get any eggplant.

But that was pretty much the beginning. From there, the gardens have gotten bigger and bigger. I’ve been in and out of some commercial gardening aspects here and there. But mostly we do personal cultivation on a large scale. I just call it the yard farm.

Gardening has really helped me define food in a light I feel really treasured to be able to see it in. We’ve been able to use it as a definition of the seasons, where food at its peak always tastes the freshest. So it’s great to incorporate what we have into what we eat. We’re not doing it for survival, but it’s been a great and delicious learning experience.

On Crops That are Easier for Beginners:

I would definitely say that if you like to eat salad, then go ahead and grow it. Leaf lettuce is super easy to grow, and you can benefit from that all season long. Also, I think zucchini comes to mind. Once you get a zucchini plant started, it doesn’t stop. It’s a plant that your neighbors will benefit from, too. Also, radishes, tomatoes, and herbs, they’re all good choices as well.

On Crops Beginners May Want to Avoid:

If you’re just beginning, I would probably stay away from both artichokes and asparagus. Artichokes are not impossible. We’ve actually done them a few different seasons in a couple of different places, but they have a very specific growing need that can be hard to fulfill depending on where you are. And then asparagus as well, if you’ve been nomadic like I have, then it can take up to three years to yield a crop. So you have to stay put to get asparagus. It’s a waiting game, but once they get started, you’ll be able to benefit from it for years.

On Gardening for City Dwellers:

This is really good, because currently, our setup is an urban area. And it always feels really amazing to exchange conversation with our neighbors, just to actually reiterate that you really don’t need a lot of space to be able to grow your own food. Even in a large city, you could potentially do a garden completely in containers, and get really good results. And almost anything can be cultivated in a pot. But standouts are probably tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, peas. And you can even do root crops like carrots. I’ve done beets before. It was kind of crazy, but it worked.

On Some Resources for Gardening and Growing Your Own Food:

As far as books go, there is definitely a wealth of very informed literature, like bible-esque books on gardening and vegetable gardening. I thrifted a book entitled, Crockett’s Victory Garden recently. It’s from the 1970s. I think he was actually a PBS show. But he goes month by month in his book as far as what vegetables to do each month of the year. I really like books that are laid out like that. As far as online, I really like Gayla’s blog You Grow Girl. She has an amazing source of knowledge on her website. And I also like Andrea’s blog Dishing Up the Dirt. She is a huge inspiration.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I don’t really watch many cooking shows, but I’ve been watching a lot of Jacques Pepin on PBS.

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

For food blogs, I really love Orangette, I love The Yellow House, I love Lottie + Doof, 101 Cookbooks, Kale & Caramel, Chocolate + Marrow, Will Frolic for Food. Of those, they’re all very awesome for reading as well. It’s really hard to pick because I love everyone so much, but I really adore the recipes on With Food + Love and Heartbeet Kitchen as well.

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

On Instagram, I love following Brooklyn Supper. Her food is really great. I love Dolly and Oatmeal. I also love Sasha from Tending the Table, she has the prettiest photography.

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

I’ll probably go with treasured and that would be a spice rack that I gained from my grandmother. I love it because it makes me think of her cooking but also because I love spices. I think they’re everything.

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

Onions, which is actually, I think, a story of revenge because I use them every day and constantly. And I think that I might actually be more allergic to them than most people. I’m timed out for, like, at least 20 minutes after I’ve cut onions.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

As far as a few cookbooks, I love Local Flavors by Deborah Madison. I think it has really awesome seasonal recipes and she uses vegetables in a really unique way. I also love The Art of Simple Food I and II, by Alice Waters.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I don’t think I have a particular song or album in mind, but recently, I have a really big soft spot for Steely Dan. And pretty much every other kind of music and song in the universe. I really love music.

On Keeping Posted with Danielle:

I think that the best way would probably be Instagram. I use that social media platform the most out of all of them.

106: Edlyn D’Souza: An Introduction to Goan Cuisine

January 20, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Egeedee

Edlyn restarted her blog when she moved from Goa, India, to the U.S. in 2012. She is greatly influenced by the way her family approaches food and the way they cook. And though she is not a professional cook, she likes believing that she is.

I am so psyched to have Edlyn D’Souza of Egeedee with me on the show today.

(*All photos below are Edlyn’s.)

On Her Blog:

It was about so many random things. I was really young. So picture that, picture like a young person’s journal with, “Oh, look. Look what I did today.” So it was kind of like Instagram but on a blog.

I think the fact that I had that space, not doing anything with it, when I moved here, I couldn’t work for, I think, a year almost, because I was getting my paperwork done and everything. So I was spending so much time at home, and I was getting kind of depressed even. I just needed to channel that energy into something creative, because that’s what I knew how to do.

Also, I was really hungry a lot, so first, I have to make breakfast. Now, what do I do? Okay. Then I make lunch. I used to go online and look for more American things, because I was afraid I wouldn’t find ingredients that I was used to back home. So I started reading The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I really enjoyed her writing style. My eating habits have changed a lot, so I don’t really cook from her blog, but I still really enjoy reading her writing. And then I figured it out from there.

If you read my blog, I try not to write too much about food when I do the writing part of it. I try to keep that still as a journal. That helps me keep in touch with my family back home, because I’m not really an open person. I find it hard to express myself just talking to people. So writing is that outlet for me and that’s the way I get to communicate with people like, “This is how I’m feeling right now. Leave me alone.”

On Growing Up in Goa, India and the Role of Food:

Oh, it played a huge role. I was listening to a podcast, I think your podcast, and the lady was saying how food was something people cooked every day, and eating out is like a luxury almost, it’s like for special occasions. That’s exactly how it was. I don’t think we really missed eating out as much. It was a huge task for my parents to do, cook every day. But now that I’m grown up, I kind of understand how much work it took and it makes me appreciate that. So, yeah, food is huge there.

On Her Curiosity Around Cooking:

My dad is the primary cook in our family. My mother likes cooking, but my dad is much quicker and I think he enjoys the process more than she does. For her, it’s like, “Oh, it’s a chore sometimes,” but he loves it. But he also doesn’t like having other people interrupt. He’d always yell at us, “Go away.” So we watched. We would just watch and try and help but.

I wasn’t really interested because of that. I always thought it was something negative maybe. But I also enjoy watching, smelling everything. But I only started doing it myself once I moved here.

On Learning How to Cook:

I don’t think I’ve ever cooked anything with their direction, but just watching them and kind of seeing how things looked. As a kid, I’m just watching the onions brown and exactly when you add the tomatoes after and all those spices that you add one after the other. I kind of put those smells together more than anything else, I guess.

Like I was saying, I only started once I moved here. So it was just me feeding myself and my husband, that’s why I moved here. He’s a good cook too, but a lot of his dishes are pretty standard. He likes making a good steak or a good burger and I can’t eat like that. I need different elements on my plate sometimes. So, I encourage myself to add more flavors to our meals. That’s basically what motivates me.

On the Food Culture in Goa:

Things changed once the Indian economy opened up and more foreign products and packaged foods started coming in. So things kind of changed a bit, it became easier to cook at home. And people also wanted to experiment more with other cuisines and that’s where restaurants came in.

So growing up, yes. I don’t think we used to go out. Maybe one birthday or just for fun. But it’s changed a lot now. People go out more as, “Oh, we’re bored. Let’s do something.” And that would mean going out.

On a Traditional Goan Meal:

The staple in Goa is fish curry and rice. That’s one of the staples that you have to try. So the first thing you would need is coconut, because that’s what most of our curries are based, kind of like Thai cooking. But we use fresh coconut and other spices that have a very orange color. So turmeric, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, tamarind, and just whatever fish is fresh that day.

I would say fish curry or shrimp curry. They basically use whatever fish or seafood is fresh or whatever they want to add to it. But, yeah, that would be the first thing I would recommend, fish curry rice.

On Some Good Resources for learning about Goan Cuisine:

I don’t know if you’ve heard of A Brown Table, Nik. He does a lot of Goan-influenced food. It’s really delicious. So if you do want to learn a little bit more about Goan food, because I think he’s half-Goan and half-North Indian, I think, but he makes really good recipes with Goan food. And other more traditional recipes, there are a lot of home cooks and food bloggers that aren’t as popular as bloggers that we read every day, and they may not have the best photography, but they still have really good recipes. So if you just type “Goan food,” (in Google) the top three websites will always pop up.

On How Her Cooking Has Changed Since Moving to the US:

I think it has changed more so because in the beginning, I used to get really swayed by, “Oh, look at these healthy food bloggers, they eat so well.” And I kind of got pulled in that direction, like that was the only way to do things. But over the past few years since I’ve moved here, I realized that that’s an unhealthy way sometimes to cook if you don’t lead that lifestyle.

So over time, I started cooking more food that makes me happy and nourishes me as well. So I won’t shy away from making mac and cheese just because I like it. So what’s wrong with eating it? So my thinking has changed in that way and I’m happy about that.

On Goan Food in the US:

Pretty much everything is not the same, but Goan food is really hard to find in this part of the country, I think. I never get to eat anything from home unless I make it myself. But the North Indian foods and the South Indian foods, the dosa and the chicken tandoori, that’s really popular here. And I think the restaurants do a good job, but I can’t say for sure, because I don’t live in those parts, so.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Lately, I’ve been watching, it’s a PBS show called, Mind Of A Chef, and it’s all on my Netflix that I have.

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

If I had to pick a few, my first one would be Hungry and Excited and she needs to get her blog back up. Hi, Revati, do it. Okay. And my other favorites are, which I do enjoy for the writing, is Orangette. Also, I like Oh, Ladycakes, just because she swears a lot and she writes really good recipes. I like that, I like her honesty. And a blog that I can always immediately cook from is Sprouted Kitchen. She always uses ingredients that I know I always have. Those are my basics that I like a lot.

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

Instagram I like following Cats of Instagram. I like looking at cat pictures. They’re so funny. I do follow a lot of food people on Instagram too, but I enjoy looking more at animals — cats, dogs. Another one is, I think it’s called This Wild Idea, where he takes his dog and he puts her on random surfaces. I don’t know if you’ve seen that one.

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

My most treasured item would be my tea strainer. I’ve been wanting to own a tea strainer for the longest time, because when I make tea, I like to make it of loose leaf tea. So, yes, that is my most treasured item. And unusual would be a coconut scraper that it’s not a traditional scraper and sometimes I feel like I’m gonna scrape my palm off when I use it, but yeah, maybe that.

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

I used to really hate cardamom a lot, because whenever we would eat it in food in India, it would always be in a rice dish and it would be the whole cardamom. So when you’re eating it, you bite into it and it used to be a very unsavory taste. But now, I know that you can grind it into dust and use it in baking dishes. I like it a lot more now.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I don’t really read a lot of cookbooks, sadly. I do have a few that I own that I go back to every now and then. I like The Baking Bible, and the new Sprouted Kitchen cookbook is one of my favorites that I keep going back to every time I need to look up something or just look at beautiful photographs. Her husband takes really beautiful photographs.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Lately I’ve been listening to M.I.A. I thinks it’s her Kala album.

On Keeping Posted with Edlyn:

The best way is through the blog that I post on and other favorite social media platforms that I like are Instagram.

075: Jeannette Ordas: Creating Delicious Meals from Making Do

September 9, 2015 by Gabriel

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Everybody Likes Sandwiches

Jeannette’s blog, Everybody Likes Sandwiches, is about the joy in preparing fresh food simply. She has fun creating delicious dishes from making do, and wants to let us know that eating and living simply and beautifully doesn’t have to be complicated.

I am so thrilled to have Jeannette Ordas of Everybody Likes Sandwiches, joining me here on the show today.

(*All photos below are Jeannette’s.)

On Publishing Her Own Pop Culture Magazine:

I think at the time I was working at a record store and I just finished university and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I had studied film in school so I wanted some sort of creative outlet and I loved drawing and I just thought, “Oh, I’m gonna start a ‘zine.”

I had seen them being in record stores or in little magazine shops, so I thought, “Oh, I’m gonna start one.” It was just folded, I did cut and paste. This was before Photoshop probably or before I had access to Photoshop. And it was just Xerox, staple, folded, copied at Staples and it was a good way for me to write about music. I originally started it just so I could get free CD’s from record labels.

Then I started having a food column called “Faster Pussycat Eat Eat.” I always wrote a little recipe in every issue and it was fun coming up with recipes. At the time I don’t think there were blogs so it was a good way to combine all my interests. Music, movies, food, so it was fun, and it was a creative endeavor that’s self controlled. I was the boss, I didn’t have anyone telling me what to do so that was a very fun creative project to work on.

On Her Blog:

I think just before I started, I came across a blog called, Chocolate and Zucchini, Clotilde, I think she’s from Paris. And so that was the first one I had ever seen and I was like “Wow, people are writing about food and sharing recipes.” And I really liked that, I liked documenting my food somehow.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted Everybody Likes Sandwiches to be, so I think I initially just opened up blogger. I couldn’t think of a name and I picked probably the worst name, because it’s so long. It’s so hard to type into a browser bar, and it’s not about sandwiches so, I don’t know. But I think it fits, ‘cuz sandwiches are simple, easy, and I think a lot of the recipes I choose to make are like a sandwich, very simple, easy.

That was my start, and I remember it was late at night and I just started my first post. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t even have a camera back then. It took a few months, but I remember I started getting people commenting, and it just kind of freaked me out. I didn’t think people were reading it. And, yeah, it was kind of fun, because I realized there was actually like-minded people, and they would link to their blogs so then I realized there’s actually a whole little community out there.

On Blogs She’s Followed Since Starting Her Blog in 2005:

Molly from Orangette. I think she was probably my second commenter. And she’s super successful, she has her amazing podcast which I listen to all the time, Spilled Milk. Yeah, so that is probably the one I remember best that’s still around.

All of a sudden a lot of people had food blogs. There’s still plenty I think from around that time, not 2005, but maybe end of 2006, 2007 maybe. That’s when I think people like, Tea and Cookies blog, I think she started probably around then too.

On Her Passion for Cooking and Food:

I think it comes from my mom. When I was little my mom would always have a ton of cookbooks and she had this big recipe folder that, I don’t even know what it was, a case, a giant plastic case that she used as a file folder. She’d always be clipping recipes from newspapers and magazines, and my mom loved baking, my mom loved cooking, so food always was going on in the kitchen.

We helped out, me and my brother helped out but I really loved helping my mom stir cake batter and then when my mom started working full-time again, she would always leave a little note, “There’s chicken legs in the fridge, Jeannette. Can you make dinner?” So I would have to look up a recipe, figure out what I wanted to make with that. Sometimes she’d leave me a recipe, I think, initially, but then it was just like, “Oh there’s chicken legs, use those up.” So, yeah, I think it was just something to help out the family, it wasn’t a chore exactly, I really liked doing it and, I think, I would get all kinds of ooh’s and ah’s from my parents, so that was very encouraging.

I think there’s a certain point I became a vegetarian and my family was not vegetarian. And I think I was a vegetarian for 10 years, probably in my late teens, early twenties. That I think really helped me love cooking. It was something unusual that I didn’t become a vegetarian for any sort of reason other than to sort of piss off my parents, maybe? It was just a little rebellious kind of move to become a vegetarian. That was just something I sort of figured out on my own, like cooking with beans and cooking with lentils and just using vegetables and tofu.

I think still most of our meals that I cook now are probably 70% vegetarian anyways, so I love vegetarian food.

On Make-Do Cooking:

I think it comes from maybe not having a lot of money. When I moved to Vancouver I worked at a record store, so I didn’t make a lot of money. And as a creative I’ve always been sort of struggling. So yeah, I hate wasting food and then I tend to postpone cooking dinner sometimes. It will be late so stores are closed or I don’t wanna run out to the store and buy anything, so I have to scramble and look, what’s in my cupboard or here’s some celery and some lentils. It just comes from our grandmother’s type of cooking where, yeah, they didn’t go to the grocery store and buy the best cuts of meat. They couldn’t buy whatever they wanted, because they had a strict budget. So I think that’s how my style of cooking developed, part laziness, part that I didn’t have a lot of money, so I think it all comes from a little quirkiness.

I remember once just having, this was years ago, and I was having a friend over for dinner when I realized I have no money. So I bought a little bit of Parmesan cheese and I had celery and pasta and onion and so I made this pasta dish that was basically sautéed celery and onions with some hot peppers topped with celery and then little bread crumbs. And I was just like, “Wow, this is very delicious.” It’s probably not what you want to serve someone coming over for dinner necessarily, but the person I was with probably was in a similar situation, and they were happy to have a free meal.

I think it’s probably good to have some good herbs on hand, dried is totally fine, fresh is better. I love having rosemary on hand or like Herbes de Provence, which is this herb mix that has lavender and thyme and rosemary. I think generally you should be playing with recipes. Like I don’t have a lot of things sometimes, and I hate bananas so most smoothie recipes always call for bananas so I use pineapple instead. But yeah, I have lentils. You should have aromatics like onions and garlic on hand. I think you can do a lot if you have an onion and some garlic.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I do watch TV and I would have to say we just started watching The Great British Bakeoff. I only started watching the newest season and it’s perfect. Everyone is so polite, everyone is so kind and gentle, there’s no ego and there’s lots of luscious cakes and baked goods, so that’s pretty great. And then we also started watching, my husband and I, it’s a Netflix show, I think it’s called Chef’s Table. And it’s by the director of Jiro Dreams of Sushi, so each episode is a new chef, one-hour documentary about a certain chef, and it’s probably the most inspiring television I have seen in a long time. Not even if you’re interested in cooking, but I think obviously that helps, my husband who could care less about cooking finds it very inspiring. I think if you’re a creative person it’s really great hearing from people who are creative and have passion for what they do and do well.

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

I think Dinner Was Delicious. I really like that one. Good photography, but it’s the writing that’s kind of snappy, sassy and fun. Kitchen Culinaire. She’s a local Vancouver blogger. I’ve been to her kitchen and pretty much the blog features her beautiful kitchen and her beautiful recipes that are quite simple but very beautiful.

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

I would say Kitchen Culinaire is really good on Instagram. I look at Instagram a lot. Wit and Vinegar is another food blogger who has a great Instagram. Coco Cake Land, another Vancouver blogger, beautiful, fun, photographs of tasty cakes.

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

It would probably be a split between, I have this old cast iron frying pan that was given to us by my husband Cornelius’s grandmother when she passed away, and it’s an old workhorse. I feel like it’s just something that I’ll never get rid of, and I use it all the time. I just made eggs for breakfast in it this morning. I use it for baking salmon, I’ve baked cakes in it, it’s really amazing. I also am very partial to my pistachio colored KitchenAid mixer, which I got as a wedding present so, I love that.

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

I have a lot of dislikes for being a food blogger and someone who supposedly loves food, but I think cucumber is one that I never really liked, and I still don’t really like when people flavor water with cucumber. That’s not very refreshing for me. But now, like last night, we had sandwiches and I had cucumber in the sandwich. I make cucumber salads all the time. I just find it really refreshing, especially during the summer.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Well, I think one of the first cookbooks that I really loved when I started cooking, when I became a vegetarian, was The Moosewood Cookbook. It has no photos and that doesn’t bother me and I just really loved it. It was hippy-ish, but it really sort of explained vegetarian cooking for me, so I really think that cookbook deserves the prime spot on my shelf and I’ll never get rid of it.

There’s a whole series of those books from I think it’s a restaurant in upstate New York, vegetarian restaurant, and all the recipes are really great.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Probably an album by the Kinks called Village Green Preservation Society. Very retro, it’s from the ’60s so it’s retro, but it’s just very pleasant sounding poppy. It would be a perfect cooking album, but if I really am feeling tired and I need a little something, I would probably throw on Robyn, something really fun to get in the kitchen.

On Keeping Posted with Jeannette:

I would say on Instagram. My handle is kickpleat so that would be the best way.

042: Valeria Necchio: How Following Food Seasonality Leads to Tastier Eating

May 29, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Life Love Food

Valeria grew up in the Venetian countryside, and grew up eating local seasonal food most of which was home grown. She has a Masters Degree in Food Culture and Communications, and her recipes on Life Love Food are simple, wholesome, and inspired by her Italian roots.

Currently living in London, she chooses healthier ingredients and enjoys eating a balanced diet that just so happens to be naturally plant-based, and the recipes on her blog reflect this.

I am so excited to have Valeria Necchio of Life Love Food here on the show today.

On the Food Culture in Italy When She Was Growing Up:

I was born in Venice, in the city, but really quickly, we moved in the countryside as my father found a job. He’s a teacher, so he found a job in a school in the Venetian countryside. And my grandmother happened to be there and my grandparents as well. They had a really, really beautiful vegetable garden, and that was definitely not an issue for that generation. Everybody was, to some extent – especially when living in the countryside – just growing their own food, mainly vegetables. Sometimes they would have some livestock.

So for me, that proximity to that vegetable garden, just the proximity to my grandparents, has had a really, really big influence in regards to my way of cooking and eating. And the way they were growing the vegetables, the way they were bringing the vegetables to the kitchen, how they were transforming that and creating meals out of those. Somehow, growing up, I absorbed this concept of seasonality.

Everything was really bountiful. I learned the skill of preserving from them, because they obviously embraced modernity, and indeed had refrigerators, freezers, and things like this. But still, that kind of culture of preserving was really strong. And coming from the past, it was just something that they’ve always done and they kept doing.

For example, lots of tomato preserves and really classic Italian tomato sauce. That was definitely the first food experience for me and what really had a big impact on my way of cooking and eating.

Now it’s definitely this cycle of seasons and respecting the natural growth of vegetables that are brought to the table, and are really so fresh because they have been grown in their right season. And also, this concept of trying to preserve it for the months to come simply because tomatoes, they were not available in the winter, but then they’re really not that tasty in the winter.

So try to enjoy what summer has brought to you in such abundance and just carry on with that. Definitely seasonality is a crucial point for me, and also the fact that we’ve been eating out of this vegetable garden for so long. It has brought so many cheerful meals to our family.

For me, eating mainly vegetables, having vegetables as the core of my meals is just a really natural way of eating. It comes really effortless for me.

On the Seasonality of Food:

That’s a really really important factor, the awaiting for the ripe strawberries, especially things like strawberries that you find available year-round and most of the time are so tasteless. And not only do you miss that feeling of saying, “Okay, it’s May, June, the strawberries are ripe, so great. You just go and pick them,” but also the fact that they really don’t taste very good at all. So yeah, it’s a double miss.

On How Food Culture in Italy Has Changed:

I think it has changed a lot. Not very many people grow their food anymore.

My generation doesn’t have access to their own vegetable garden. Maybe they still have relatives that do that, but more and more, that kind of skill has been lost.

And definitely, obviously, like modern life, everything is much faster.

There is the culture of the supermarket everywhere, a lot of convenient food. People still tend to have some sort of basic knowledge about food. Somehow Italians, because of osmosis or I don’t know what, they absorb some sort of skill that helps them navigate the kitchen, the food world, and try to prepare some decent meals for themselves.

At the same time, not very many people do tomato sauce from scratch anymore. You just open the bottle and just pour it on your pasta and that’s how it goes.

On When She Realized that Food is Her Passion:

I think it happened when I left home to go and study at my university and I started to cook for myself mostly. Because before, really, I was fed rather than cook, so really lucky.

I started to experiment in the kitchen more and more, and share meals with people that were not my family, so my roommates, friends, really different types of mechanisms that go beyond the classic family meal.

For me, it started to become quite interesting to see the different dynamics that happen around the table and how food really brings people together. There were people from different nationalities at that point. So anything can trigger a conversation about food memories or traditions from other countries.

I had really started to become quite passionate about how food can play a different role, yet a really, really crucial one in all different cultures, and so I wanted to dig deeper for sure.

On a Simple Dish that is Very Traditional Italian:

Risotto is, again, a really obvious answer, but it might sound very intimidating to most because they say, “Oh, it’s so complicated. I don’t know how to make it as an Italian makes it.” But in reality, you just need to nail the basic steps and then it really comes together very easily.

Starting from the onion fried in oil. Then you toast the rice and add in the wine. And then you put your ingredients, then you keep cooking it really slowly. You keep stirring it until it comes together into a smooth cream, but the rice is not mushy. And the risotto is not too solid. It needs to be really running still. That’s it.

On Food Culture in London, UK Versus Italy:

London is a really, really exciting place for food in general. In terms of the food scene, it’s extremely diverse, so it’s really hard to categorize it. But in terms of daily cooking and daily living, I think families rely a lot more than Italians on convenience and just prepared dishes.

I also think that there’s generally less of a knowledge about basic cooking skills. You just notice it from the type of offering that you find in supermarkets in general.

Other big difference is I noticed, as soon as I came here, that most of the fruit and vegetables that you buy at supermarkets is all prepackaged, which is really strange because in Italy, even supermarkets, you just pick up your lettuce or your carrots and it’s all loose. And then I think also in terms of seasonality, there is not a lot of culture related to that. And it’s just a different way of conceiving a meal.

For Italians, vegetables are very much part of a dish, whereas here, for example, vegetables are conceived as a side. You have the protein, and then it’s like a “meat and three veg” type of culture most of the time. This a huge generalization, of course. But just in terms of feeling of how meals are constructed, I think it is pretty much how it works.

On a Food She Was Introduced to in London that She Now Cannot Live Without:

It’s definitely brassicas. We don’t use them very much in Italy just because they grow better in colder climates.

Going to the markets and finding this huge variety of brassicas, for me has been really eye-opening. You can find various types of kales, a lot of different cabbages, little sprouts and all these brassic-y things that make at least the winter a bit more colorful. It’s just not potatoes and beetroots, so there is at least something else.

It’s quite nice and I really grew fond of them besides kale, obviously, which is the big thing. But also other things, as I said, like savoy cabbage, just really, really nice ingredients to cook with and quite versatile.

On Her Blog:

I started the blog in 2010 in spring time, so it’s almost five years. It was just after I knew that I was accepted for this Masters in Food Culture.

I wanted to start sharing recipes from my family, or just recipes that I really enjoyed from Venice, from the region, as well as my experience throughout the Masters of just moving to a different town, living this experience, one year with this really international group of students and the trips that I was doing. And so it just all went from there.

After the end of the Masters, I just realized that I really enjoyed doing it and I just wanted to keep doing it. And so I just kept going.

It has been good thus far. But now it’s just hard to find the time, because London is quite busy too. It’s something that there’s no way I’m going to give up. I just cut some corners and find some time for it.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I watch No Reservations, obviously, which now became Parts Unknown.

Here in the UK, I don’t have a TV, so I don’t really watch very many shows anymore.

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

I love Orangette for the food writing. It’s absolutely stunning. And one called Rachel Eats. She’s an English woman based in Rome. Her writing is stunning. Her recipes are absolutely fantastic.

One blog I always always read is written by an amazing lady and friend – Emiko Davies.

And probably one called Hortus Cuisine, for the really, really lovely photography and also because she portrays the Italian countryside in a really romantic way, which is always nice to see.

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

On Pinterest, I follow Local Milk. She is quite an inspiration for things like interiors and things. And I think her eye is really interesting. I don’t know if she makes me happy, but she makes me inspired.

On Twitter, that makes me happy, Bruce Bourdain is quite interesting, and also whoever has created the account for Queen Elizabeth is quite hilarious as well.

And on Facebook, there’s an Italian satire website called Spinoza, who has always quite a sharp pen in regards to news and things. It’s quite fun.

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

Unusual, I have a really old mill that you use to mash basically anything, mash boiled vegetables and potatoes. Or you can mash grapes and make a grape pudding. I have that.

And then the most treasured, I treasure my food processor quite a lot. It helps save my arm and it just does the meringue better than I could ever do myself.

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

Cilantro. Italians really don’t have a palate for cilantro. It’s not an ingredient that we ever, ever use or you’ll ever find in an Italian kitchen.

The first time that I was invited to dinner by my Thai friend back during Masters times, I thought everything was tasting quite soapy. But then, I definitely developed a palate for it. So much so that now I really enjoy salads that are basically made just of cilantro and something else.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Jane Grigson’s, The Vegetable Book. It’s a bible and it’s absolutely fantastic for tips on how to choose vegetables, how to clean them, and just simple ways to prepare them.

I have been using Heidi Swanson’s book quite a lot, the blogger behind 101 Cookbooks. Her book, Super Natural Everyday, is just something that we pull out very, very often for a quick week night meal or just simply inspiration.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Lately, I’ve been listening to The National quite a lot. I know they’re quite obscure, but I really like them. They have a good mixture of relaxing and cheerful that gives it a good rhythm in the kitchen.

Keep Posted with Valeria:

Definitely Instagram. It’s where I share things that I cook that I don’t have the time to blog about, and where definitely I spend most of my time when it comes to social media. Because it’s really visual and it’s just really fun. So Instagram, @valerianecchio.

032: Luisa Weiss: How Travel Has Shaped Her Food Journey

April 29, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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The Wednesday Chef, Food Blog

Luisa is an author, a food columnist for Harper’s Bazaar Germany, teacher of both writing and cooking and leads food tours in Berlin where she lives with her husband and son Hugo.

I am so thrilled to have Luisa Weiss of The Wednesday Chef here on the show today.

On How Her Travels Have Shaped Her Food Journey:

I grew up in an international home. My dad’s American, my mom is Italian and I was born and partially raised in Berlin.

My parents split up so I moved to Boston with my dad but kept coming back to Germany and Italy to see my mother. I’ve had lots of different food cultures in my life from the very beginning and moving to Boston for college was interesting in a way because I came from high school in Berlin and then college food, the dorm room, the freshman 15, all that was totally new to me. And then Paris…

Paris, the food education. Paris was obviously really wonderful. I don’t think I’ve had as much of an epiphany as a normal American would have just because Italy’s culture is similar in that they really revere ingredients.

Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve definitely picked up something and taken it with me.

Italian food is what I’m really comfortable with and familiar with. I know exactly what it’s supposed to taste like and I have a lot of confidence in that.

But over the past 10 years of blogging, I’ve become so much better at cooking all kinds of different things. Now I feel like I say Italian but then I also want to say that I am really good at cooking Indian food at home now, and American food, and baking, and all kinds of other things.

So it’s still Italian but definitely there’s lots more going on now.

On How Her Blog Started:

I was working in book publishing and I had discovered food blogs a couple years before. I loved them. And it just dawned on me one day like, “I love reading food blogs. I love to cook and I love to write. Why aren’t I writing a food blog?”

At the time there were many food blogs already and I assumed if I threw my hat in the ring, that nobody would care or pay attention because I’d be the last one to the party. So I just did it on a whim and I thought it was going to be writing practice more than anything else.

I majored in English in college and I wanted to go to graduate school for writing. A professor of mine was like, “Don’t do it. If you’re going to write, you’ll do it out of your own accord.” But I didn’t and so finally the blog was meant to be a practice and then it turned into so much more.

I’ve been a passionate cook and baker my whole life really, but I got into this rut when I was living in New York, my early years in New York but also in Paris. I made the same things over and over again.

It’s not that I didn’t want to make anything else, it’s just that nothing occurred to me. What else would I cook other than these three things? But I was really obsessive about clipping recipes and so I have binders and binders full of recipes from the newspaper food sections. So when the time came to come up with a concept for the blog, like some kind of a focus, right away I was like, “Okay, well I guess I’ll just cook my way through the newspaper recipes.” Then I could never cook a recipe twice because I always had the blog to think about. So in the past 10 years the blog has been my culinary education.

On Cooking for Hugo:

When Hugo was born or when he started eating solid foods, I was coming up with silly little ideas that I thought other people might be interested in. It was also meant to be a journal of what I was feeding him, too. Like, “This was a good idea. Let me write it down so that I remember it next time,” there’s nothing in it that’s earth shattering. There’s nothing totally new in it, but I thought I would have appreciated or I do appreciate when other mothers say, “Oh, this really worked for my kid,” because even though I’m such an omnivore and my husband too, we did not give birth to an omnivore. Everybody says, “Oh just feed the kid whatever you’re eating.” When we tried that, he just wouldn’t eat. He’s a little picky.

It’s getting better and he’s weirdly adventurous in certain moments. So we have a Sichuan restaurant that we’re obsessed with. Every once in a blue moon we go. He’ll end up eating half the things that we do. His mouth’s on fire. He’s got tears streaming down his face and he’s asking for more. But then other days, he refuses to eat a meat sauce with his pasta. The pasta has to be unadorned and plain, nothing.

So whenever somebody says, “This really worked for my nine month old, or a 10 month old, or two and a half year old,” I think, “I want to pass that information on,” and the same for me. I had a couple inspiration moments and I just found recipes that he ended up liking. I thought, “Might as well share them.”

I hated hearing this when I was pregnant, the mother of a newborn and all this but now that I’m a little older I understand why people say, “Enjoy it,” because actually the stages are all so short that while you’re in them, especially for the first time, you have no idea. You’re like, “Oh my God. My kid’s going to be eating pureed carrots for the next 10 years,” but subconsciously you think that they’re not even going to be eating pureed carrots for a month. So just live in the moment and then move on. Be flexible.

On Her Book, “My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story With Recipes”:

The book is a collection of stories in chronological order that tell the rough outline, and in some cases not that rough, of sort of the strange path from Germany to the States, back to Germany, back to the States, to France and then ultimately back to Germany again.

Each chapter has a recipe at the end so it’s a lot about food but also about family, about what it’s like to grow up in several different cultures. All the alienation and difficulty that that can present even though it’s in a sense a nice problem to have, but it does have a lot of its own emotional baggage.

Then the love story with the city of Berlin that I’ve had my whole life.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I used to watch, like literally 13 years ago, Nigella and Jamie and Two Fat Ladies, but now I don’t watch any.

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

Dinner: A Love Story which is about cooking for your family, specifically older children once they’re three years and up, how you get family dinner on the table.

Orangette which is a beautiful food blog with lovely recipes and writing and photos and just wonderful.

Bon Appetempt, which is a humorous take on cooking recipes from magazines but it’s also about life and things.

Lottie and Doof. Tim’s writing is so amazing and his food is too but now that I think about it, I haven’t actually cooked that many things from it but I just love his take on the world and I just feel his site is a little blast of joy.

There are so many others. Those are the ones off the top of my head.

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

Okay, Abbey Nova from Design Scouting which is the other blog I was going to say that I love, but it’s not a food blog. Follow her on Pinterest. Love her.

And on Facebook, Humans of New York. Best account ever. Literally every post is a gut punch in good and bad ways. It’s just wonderful.

Instagram. My friend, Rachel Roddy, in Rome. She always posts pictures of her sink with all of the beautiful things that she’s bought at the market that day and it’s just her sink. My mother’s from Rome and my mother lived in Rome when I was in college, and there’s just something about the light. When I look at those pictures, there’s something very deep going on inside of me. They make me happy.

Her blog is Rachel Eats and that’s the other blog I was thinking of. Beautiful, provocative, gorgeous writing about living in Italy but being English. It’s incredible and her Instagram.

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

Canned tomatoes, salt, olive oil.

I feel like I can’t live without canned tomatoes. That’s breakfast, lunch and dinner right there.

Name one ingredient you cannot live without.

Yeah, canned tomatoes without a doubt.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Fuchsia Dunlop’s Every Grain of Rice, which is Chinese home cooking demystified.

The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater. I love it. It’s more of a journal of food but it’s very inspiring for when you’re feeling like, “I don’t feel like cooking anymore. What should I do?” I go to him and he always gets me going again.

Diana Henry’s A Change of Appetite, so Diana Henry is an Irish food writer in London and she’s incredibly prolific. She publishes a book a year or something and they’re all incredible. I don’t understand how she does it. I mean really they’re all incredible and they’re all so different. Her most recent book that’s available now is called A Change of Appetite and it’s ostensively of being like a lighter eating book but it’s just great. It’s full of incredibly delicious, lush, interesting recipes.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I actually am not really into music when I’m cooking although I guess something cheerful like Ella Fitzgerald.

Keep Posted on Luisa:

Well I’m pretty good whenever I have a blog post up, I ping the three big ones: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter so any of those is fine. I love Instagram most. It’s definitely the most fun I have while doing social media. It doesn’t feel like work.

020: Ileana Morales Valentine: Grow Closer by Cooking and Eating Together

April 1, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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A Little Saffron

On her blog, Ileana documents the food journey of her and her fiancé (now husband), Danny, and all the stories behind their meals. Besides writing for A Little Saffron, Ileana pens a column for the Tampa Bay Times called In Our Kitchen, which is based on the blog, and she’s also written for the Associated Press and the Miami Herald.

I am so delighted to have Ileana Morales Valentine of A Little Saffron joining me on the show today.

On The Idea Behind Her Blog:

I think it was brewing for a long time. In college, I was studying, you could say, studying food blogs, just obsessively looking at them. Then, I moved to Tampa and met Danny and I think it took me a year just to settle on the name. It was easier to start cooking more regularly when you have someone else to cook for, so it just started from there. He was really encouraging and I just started one day.

On Being a Writer and Her Inspirations:

Growing up as a kid, I always loved to read. I was a bookworm. When I was really little it was Roald Dahl, stuff like that, and then I got into teen stuff. I’m trying to think of one writer. I’m so terrible at picking favorites, but if I focus on food writers, one person I really love is Molly of Orangette.

I think she has an incredible knack for writing about such everyday things, but it’s from her perspective and it’s so interesting. I’ll read anything she writes.

The focus on food came in the last few years. I’ve always been someone who loves to eat. I think maybe that’s where it comes from. I was a chubby middle schooler. I’ve always loved food. Then when I went to college I had to start cooking for myself. I was a vegetarian too so I really had to pay attention to what I was doing, go do groceries, and it sort of started from there.

On Her Passion for Food:

The women in my family take pride in what they cook for sure, but they have their staples that they stick to. They don’t have a ton of cookbooks the way I have. They don’t have a cookbook problem at all. They just have their tried and true recipes, which is great too because then I can request that when I go home. I could ask my grandma, “Can you make arroz aguado,” or one of the other things she makes. It’s great.

I always loved to eat but growing up we mostly stuck to Nicaraguan Latin food. I grew up in Miami so that was pretty much what we stuck to, but once I left for college, I was in Gainesville, such a vegetarian-friendly town, I tried things like tempeh and tofu. It was a whole new world.

On What Cooking Means to Her:

My mom cooked, especially when I was growing up–I’m the oldest–she cooked all the time and there was always a homemade meal on the table. It wasn’t a dinner unless it had rice. It’s not a full meal without rice.

Food was important. My mom has a ton of plates and utensils because there are constantly people over at the house and it’s constantly around the food. It’s just a ridiculous amount of food.

When Danny came to my parents’ house the first couple of times, they just overwhelmed him with food. That’s how they show their love and to show you’re welcome here.

For Danny, who grew up in Iowa City, Iowa, his dad has a garden and seems to be kind of into food. He has a little cooking journal. His mom is very focused on working out, a high protein diet, but he grew up eating things like meatloaf and stuff that to me is very foreign, but very American classics like that.

I think we both are very good eaters and are so excited about trying new things. I think the interesting balance is that he’s such a stickler for the recipe and I try to tell him all the time, “A recipe is a guideline. You can improvise. If it calls for a scallion, you can use another kind of onion-y thing,” but he just wants to stick to whatever the recipe says.

On a Kitchen Disaster:

One of the kitchen disasters that comes to mind is–this was in our first apartment together–he was making some kind of spicy pork. We had been up late. The movie There Will be Blood is tied to this because we were watching it. It’s such an intense movie. At some point, Danny just took over the meal. I was like, “Okay. I’m tired. You’re going to exactly follow the recipe. Fine.”

It’s after midnight and the thing is still not done.

We finally sit down to eat it and it’s painfully spicy. You cannot even eat it, so I think I ate a cracker and went to bed.

Turns out he should’ve bought the Guajillo chilis. He got the only ones that were available at the store, these tiny little red ones. If it’s a tiny little red pepper, that’s your first clue. Don’t put the whole thing in there.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Definitely Ina Garten, Extra Virgin, Bitchin’ Kitchen, probably some others but those come to mind.

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

Definitely Food 52. I think it’s beautiful and smart and has so much great content on there.

Orangette. Molly Yeh. She’s just incredibly creative. She had a gummy bear sangria on there the other day. She’s just insane in a very good way. Two Red Bowls, I really like. She has beautiful photography and some very cool recipes from her background, her perspective, which is interesting. Local Milk has really beautiful photos and recipes as well.

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

On Instagram I follow Food 52, Jillian Guyette–she has a food blog. She has a really beautiful aesthetic. It’s very minimalist, and she cooks a lot with her fiancé, so I kind of relate to that. I like her stuff a lot.

On Twitter, I really like Naturally Ella. She’s funny. Who else? Kristen Bell–not food related–but since Veronica Mars, I’m forever a fan girl, and her husband Dax Shepard.

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

Canned beans. For me, I grew up eating beans and rice. That’s my comfort food. While I love beans made from scratch, I don’t always have the time to do it, and if you have a can of beans you can make dinner.

Name one ingredient you cannot live without?

Garlic.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

One that I got recently that is excellent is from my friend Molly Gilbert. She blogs at Dunk and Crumble and the book is Sheet Pan Suppers, which is a really brilliant idea. I love the oven, just to throw it in there and let the oven do most of the work.

She has a lot of really smart recipes in there. There’s one where you’re using the polenta that comes in a tube, which I don’t usually buy but I got for the recipe, and you put sausage and bursted grapes in there and thyme and it’s so good and it’s on one sheet pan.

So that’s definitely one, for sure. It’s so great. Then anything Ottolenghi. His book Plenty is constantly inspiring. I don’t necessarily make all that stuff, especially not on a weeknight, but it’s a lot of inspiration in the book.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I actually love cooking to Brazilian music, like samba and stuff like that. Brazilian music is great background noise.

Keep Posted on Ileana:

Instagram and on the blog, ALittleSaffron.com.

On Discovering Her Passion for Gardening and Growing Food:

On Crops That are Easier for Beginners:

On Crops Beginners May Want to Avoid:

On Gardening for City Dwellers:

On Some Resources for Gardening and Growing Your Own Food:

The Pressure Cooker:

On Keeping Posted with Danielle:

On Her Blog:

On Growing Up in Goa, India and the Role of Food:

On Her Curiosity Around Cooking:

On Learning How to Cook:

On the Food Culture in Goa:

On a Traditional Goan Meal:

On Some Good Resources for learning about Goan Cuisine:

On How Her Cooking Has Changed Since Moving to the US:

On Goan Food in the US:

The Pressure Cooker:

On Keeping Posted with Edlyn:

On Publishing Her Own Pop Culture Magazine:

On Her Blog:

On Blogs She’s Followed Since Starting Her Blog in 2005:

On Her Passion for Cooking and Food:

On Make-Do Cooking:

The Pressure Cooker:

On Keeping Posted with Jeannette:

On the Food Culture in Italy When She Was Growing Up:

On the Seasonality of Food:

On How Food Culture in Italy Has Changed:

On When She Realized that Food is Her Passion:

On a Simple Dish that is Very Traditional Italian:

On Food Culture in London, UK Versus Italy:

On a Food She Was Introduced to in London that She Now Cannot Live Without:

On Her Blog:

The Pressure Cooker:

Keep Posted with Valeria:

On How Her Travels Have Shaped Her Food Journey:

On How Her Blog Started:

On Cooking for Hugo:

On Her Book, “My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story With Recipes”:

The Pressure Cooker:

Keep Posted on Luisa:

On The Idea Behind Her Blog:

On Being a Writer and Her Inspirations:

On Her Passion for Food:

On What Cooking Means to Her:

On a Kitchen Disaster:

The Pressure Cooker:

Keep Posted on Ileana:

Have Ileana's Special Dish Recipe Sent to You Now: