Credit: Rachel Sherwood
www.impressionsathome.com
Namaste everybody! Welcome to today’s show from Namaste Nutritionist, where we explore designing a fulfilling life – nutrition, food, spirituality, fitness, and creating a life you love and a whole lot more. I’m Frances, founder of Namaste Nutritionist. I’m a registered dietitian and a long-time yoga instructor.
Today’s interview is with Rachel Sherwood, and she is a real whippersnapper. She’s very smart as a professional food stylist.
Frances: Rachel, you have a very interesting philosophy which is what intrigued me and made me want to connect with you. I love your philosophy around food, entertaining, and culture. And so can you share with us more about your passion and your philosophy?
R: Well, what I think is so interesting about food is that it’s one of the most basic things that we have, and through it we can learn, not only about how to nourish our bodies, but also how we can learn about history, and art, science, culture, it’s, food plays a very large role in our lives, and through almost every aspect of society.
F: That is very, very true, and I think people sometimes really miss out on just how much food is a part of our history, and our culture, especially now a days when we’re moving so quickly in the world, and we’re more and more removed from our food processes, because food is really a very convenient commodity, and it’s become that way so that it can kind of fit into our very busy lives, and I think when we adopt a very busy lifestyle, and a quick food culture, we really lose out on the joy that food can bring us beyond just tasting good.
R: Yeah, I mean, food serves the role of filling a need, making us not be hungry, but it’s also, if you go to parties, I mean, pay attention, where do most people gather and entertain? Even though you have entertainment someplace else in the house, usually people are always in the kitchen, regardless of what’s going on, that becomes the gathering place, that’s where people for centuries have always come to share their stories, and their knowledge, and their laughter, it’s the building blocks of relationships.
F: Absolutely true. One of the things that I have noticed is that there aren’t as many recipes getting passed down as I think that there used to be and I think that that effects people’s confidence in the kitchen because we don’t learn from our families about how to cook as much, I know I didn’t. My parents definitely can cook, but they just, they were working parents, and they really didn’t have time to cook for us the way that I’m sure they wanted to, and fortunately my siblings and I all learned how to cook, but I think that a lot of us really miss out because we don’t get that hands-on time with our families in the kitchen and we don’t learn the hands-on processes and family recipes. So, tell us a little bit more about how you help people in the kitchen, and if you want, you can kind of weave in your background as a professional, because you have this really cool background around food styling. So, tell us.
R: I’d love to share a little bit more about me. So I’ve grown up, my family is very strong German/Italian heritage, so my parents were always entertaining, there’s always been people at our house, there was never a shortage of good food or good wine in the family, and so, it was just something that I naturally grew up with, and I found that I have a natural skill to the, to share, and so, as I was getting older, my career is as a food stylist, I make food look pretty for pictures, for magazines, cookbooks, frozen food packaging, basically there’s a reason that the picture on the box never looks as good as what you get when you’re at home. But what happened for me, as I was working with a lot of these clients, is that I was getting paid to help sell a product I didn’t necessarily believe in, and that’s where Impressions at Home really starts to come in, is that I can inspire people to make beautiful foods for the people that they care about most, and that, they can make spaghetti and meatballs, or pizza, or chicken and rice casserole look like it came from a five-star kitchen.
F: Wow. I have to say, that’s really, really enticing.
R: Well, it’s exciting, and what I really enjoy about it is that food presentation is often the most disregarded aspect of home cooking, you know, so often we’re very busy in our lives, and it’s hard enough just to learn a recipe and to get that right, let alone make it look pretty on the plate, but if you’re trying to introduce new foods, or eat healthy, or try a new recipe, and it doesn’t look good, the chances are that someone is going to eat it is very slim. People eat first with their eyes, and it’s so often just put on the back burner, as it’s not important, but, when you walk into a kitchen and it smells of onions and garlic, or baked cinnamon rolls, all of a sudden, you want to eat it, even though you may not be hungry. The same thing works with your eyes, it’s a subconscious thing, so it’s quite important that we remember that aspect and tie it into the foods that we are cooking and prepareing for the ones that we love.
F: I think that that’s really such and good point, and I know that I have strokes of luck where sometimes I can make a dish look really good, and then other times, it just tastes good. And then sometimes, it’s just sort of mediocre across the board, and I’m just happy to have food.
R: That happens, trust me I mean, even me, I cook all that time, but there’s always those moments where something just doesn’t land right, you know, either it’s a little bit dry or the flavor’s not there, or, you know, somethings just aren’t pretty goods, and that’s okay. And, I remember just, it was just two weeks ago, I tried this brand-new recipe, it’s not very often that I go and find recipes and cook from them, but I tried them, and it cooked, it took an hour and forty-five minutes to make this recipe, and I was so devastated, because after all this time, this recipe not only didn’t taste good, but didn’t look good either, and so it just, what I’m doing is just so important that, as someone like myself who has a background in food and does cook quite often, I make something like this, I can’t imagine someone who doesn’t cook very often, how discouraging that can be. So, when I’m coming up with my recipes, which I call multitasking recipes, I always keep that in mind, make sure that they’re tested and they’re appropriate, and they’re going to work and not only taste good and be delicious, but they’re going to be colorful and beautiful, too.
F: Wow. I like the sound of the multitasking recipes, and I’m really interested in that, so, will you tell us more?
R: They’re quite exciting, and so, this is a relatively new concept for me, and I’m developing them in series, sets of series, but the concept behind them is that it’s one basic recipe, but you can interchange just one or two ingredients, it it becomes something else. So, the one that I just completed is for appetizers, so a basic smoked salmon recipe can also become tuna fish, or crab salad, or a dill dip, or a gluten-free pea spread, or maybe even a white bean dip.
F: Wow.
R: So, very basic concepts, but you’re just switching one or two things and it can appeal to different tastes or different dietary needs.
F: I really like the sound of that, and I think at one point, you and I kind of talked about that I related to it in the sense that I’ll take hummus, and, you know, I’ll make it our I’ll buy it, and then in a few days, I’m using it maybe on toast, or I’m using it as a base in a soup, or I’ve even used it as the base for like my pizza crust, so if I’m making a pizza instead of using a tomato sauce, I’ll just use hummus, and so, I’ve really connect with your idea of multitasking, and I think a lot of people don’t realize that that is so available, to be able to just utilize the same thing in totally different ways.
R: Yeah, what I feel is that it’s just that our food hasn’t quite evolved with us, we live very busy, very multitasking, in essence, lives, yet our food system, the way it’s been able to keep up is providing us convenience foods, which don’t always taste good and don’t always provide the nutrition that we need. They’re simple, they fill a need, they work well for many aspects, but, is there something else? And I think that’s where the multitasking recipes come in as the something else.
F: So, I’m really interested, because what comes to mind is that a lot of people lack confidence and courage in the kitchen, and I think that just becomes, that’s because of a lack of experience, and, how do you help people develop a sense of courage to where they’re willing to try something in a way that they never thought it would work before, they’ve never seen it done before, and create their own new multitasking experience?
R: From my experience with this, is my friends and family have asked me, “Now, how do you make this look so pretty, how do all of your recipes taste good, and does this always seem so easy for you?” And I’m like, “Well, it’s really not that hard.” So, I would spend some times just afternoon, or a couple hours with them, and get to know how they’re working in their kitchen, and help set their kitchen up so that it really serves them well. And then we walk through a recipe, and this is where I get most inspired, because it’s these stories of success afterwards that really fill my heart with joy. So, it’s like sharing with my brother how to make Alfredo sauce, and he then takes it to the next level, he learns the basics with me, and then takes it to the next level and makes it his own. He, from my recipe for quiche, he has dubbed what he calls “man pie”, and it is a favorite among many. Or my dear friend who was trying to entertain her very picky in-laws, and made the most stunning, beautiful cheese plate, and called me up the next day so excited that they approved of her.
F: Wow.
R: Just with allowing her the tools of, let’s try this, let’s put this in a different light, and saying, “just breathe”, because it’ll be okay, and to know that, you know, sometimes, things do go wrong, but also sometimes, the best foods that have gone wrong, like french fries, and donuts, and pineapple upside down cake, came from mistakes. And to know that that’s okay.
F: So, french fries, were actually originally a mistake?
R: A mistake!
F: Wow. That’s a, I think that’s a mistake that most people applaud. That’s pretty exciting. Yeah, and so, that’s, I think that that’s good, for reminding us how mistakes can actually turn into the next brilliant invention.
R: Well, and it actually just happened to me this summer, when my mother and I were preparing for a gathering with the family, and somehow I misread the directions on a box recipe, okay? And instead of putting it in a 9 x 13 pan, which we just assumed that it was a 9 x 13 pan, it was actually supposed to be baked in an 8 x 8 pan. So that left us with three pans of very flat lemon bars, but we were able to reinvent them and make something new, and it turned into a really fancy gourmet treat, just by looking at it and saying, “Okay, what can we do next?”
F: Yeah, yeah, and I mean, you can even turn, I mean, some of those mistakes, like a really dry cookie dough crust or cookie dough, you can actually end up turning something like that into a crust for a pie, or something like that.
R: Exactly…
F: Yeah, or at least baking it up for the dog and turning into really sweet dog biscuits. So one thing I’ve really noticed with some of the folks that I work with, is that getting into the kitchen is just simply overwhelming, and it might be because of time, it might be because of lack of experience, it might be because of lack of interest in doing it, I think lack of confidence is probably the biggest one, with one population I work with, and then another group I work with, it’s lack of time, so it seems like it’s either one or the other, the two top issues. Why do you think it’s so difficult for people like this to just get into the kitchen, and create something appetizing, do you have suggestions for folks in these situations?
R: Well, I do. So, from my research, the reason that most people don’t get into the kitchen usually boils down to, like you said, time, they don’t have enough time, they lead busy times, or it comes down to money, like staying in our homes and entertaining costs more, or I need to buy new equipment, or I need to decorate my house a certain way, or, like you said as well, the knowledge, how do I possibly get everything done all at one time, or know the recipes to cook, or cook something that people are going to actually enjoy eating. And so, yes, I’ve come up with several tips and anecdotes of how to repurpose thing in your life, so not only the multitasking recipes, but ways to use unique things in your home, like candle holders differently, or egg cartons differently, to really support yourself in creating a fun environment without having to go out and purchase new things. When it comes to cooking, my first advice is to always keep it simple. So often, I see people that want to throw a grandiose dinner party, but they’ve never cooked the recipes before, my advice would be not to try something new with your dinner guests, save those for your family or other, as I call them, guinea pigs. People are usually very happy to be my guinea pigs. But keep it simple, if you have a family favorite, or a recipe that you know always works, or the recipe that all your friends, or the people at church, or book club, are always asking you for, that’s your dish. Use that and make that the star. And so, with my tips of The Pretty Plate, my book that’s coming out, that can help you make it become this dish from a five-star restaurant, and then you can go out and buy some artisan breads, or buy some soup, or buy dessert to add in. You don’t need to cook everything yourself. Keep it simple, and focus on the one or two things that you do really well, and make them shine.
F: I love that. That sounds really practical to implement. I really like that, so just one or two star dishes that you know that you can handle and people respond to it really well, and then you can just fill in the rest.
R: One or two things, and once you’re comfortable with that, then go on. You don’t need to make homemade bread and homemade soup all the time.
F: You know, one of the things that I’ve noticed is that when I go to potlucks, it’s really difficult to get a beautiful dish to a potluck without it looking kind of messed up once it gets there. I can do a salad and make it look nice, you know, but soup, that’s really hard to travel with for one thing, but a lot of them just get, it’s just like, you know, once you wrap say a dessert, a cake or something like that, it’s just hard to keep it really pretty. Do you have any quick suggestions about potlucks?
R: Well, for dessert I always say just to not only cut them into square bars, try cutting them in different shapes, try triangles or diamonds, or maybe even rounds, or mixing a round cookie with a square bar. Just adding simple color, shape, and texture, I think, is a great way to add a variety to your plate. Bean dishes, tips for those, I would just say, again, the main concepts are to keep to know that it’s color shape and texture, and keep those running throughout your dish.
F: I really, I would have never thought of that. To me it’s all just square in my brain, it’s either square like a brownie, or it’s triangle like a piece of pie, or round like a cookie, so thank you for that.
R: Yeah, try thinking outside of the box and adding new shapes.
F: Okay, that sounds simple enough. So we kind of touched on this a little bit, about, you know, the culture around food, and I think the food culture is shifting all the time, I mean there’s so many influences, and especially as we get introduced to new foods from around the world, and, you know, depending on how much we decide to expand our own culinary skills, we might learn some things about French cooking, or German cooking, or Italian or something, what is something, why don’t you just give us like your favorite cultural artifact, like, you know, one or two or three, so that we can just appreciate something about our ordinary foods.
R: Well, what I find so interesting about food is, like I mentioned when we started the conversation, is that you can learn about art, history, math, science, all of these different things through basic cooking, and what’s really been prevalent for me lately is that I’m recently engaged to a Polish boy, and I’ve never really learned much about the Polish culture or the Polish foods, and now I’ve been diving in and learning how to make pierogies and borscht and cabbage rolls, things that never even occurred to my very German and Italian side. And learning not only why these foods were important to them, but learning when they were celebrated and the history behind them, and why poppy seeds are so prevalent over there, and why cabbage is so prevalent, and why they love potatoes so much, those histories and those stories, those are all passed down through the foods that we eat, and also shaped the culture and society that happened at that time.
F: Well first of all, congratulations…
R: Oh thank you! I’m very excited!
F: I hadn’t heard that. And so now you get to expand into Polish cooking traditions, it sounds like.
R: Yes, I actually won the Twin Cities Polish Festival, their bake-off this year. Took first place for their Makowiec, which is a very traditional Polish poppy seed bread.
F: Ooooh. Congratulations on that too. I think I saw that on your blog a while back.
R: Yes, it is there along with the recipe and pictures if people are interested.
F: That’s awesome. So do you create your own recipes, or are you working from, I mean, you’ve been a chef for a long time, so.
R: Yes, I work primarily as a food stylist, but I have a full culinary background, so I do oftentimes get asked to create recipes, or recipe test things that most of my recipes are all my own. If they’re not my own, they’ve been passed down through my family and my grandmother, and those family now.
F: I think that’s really impressive because in my experience cooking is really easy, you can correct a mistake pretty easily with, you know, making a soup, I tend to be the goddess of soup because any mistake I make I can quickly adjust it, and it often turns out wonderful, but when it comes to baking there is so much chemistry that I don’t dare make my own recipes. I’ll do a no-bake cookie from my head because there’s no chemistry involved in a no-bake cookie. So I applaud you, I don’t know if you have any suggestions for creating your own baking recipes, or is that dangerous territory to start talking about?
R: Well, that comes into the science aspect, so yes, I do definitely encourage people to take a recipe and make it your own. But when you’re staring to play with the baking things, you might want to think twice. The tend to be a little bit harder when you start to double recipes, and making sure you have the correct leavening agents, and what butter, and what flour, and what margarine to use in recipes. Oftentimes some substitutes don’t work because that’s how the recipe gets its leavening agents, and why some things are crispy and why some things are cakey all has to do with the salts and the flour, and the baking soda, and the baking powder, all those different chemicals to say. So yeah, you might want to start experimenting more with pasta dishes, or salads, or things like that. Get your feet wet there before you start recipe testing and creating your own baking items.
F: I have a really quick story that I can’t resist telling. When I lived, my girlfriend Sarah, she is like the baking queen and every night that was one way that she really stressed, was to come home and cook, and she never followed, well, rarely followed a recipe, so she was really good at kind of just winging it, but one time she got into this sugar alcohol, and I think it was xylitol, and she was making Rice Krispies, or brownies with it, and it was amazing how the xylitol or whatever the chemical reaction was, completely cleaned our casserole dish, I mean you know how it gets stained with brown over time and it starts to, you know, change color. When it came out of the oven it was completely white. We didn’t even want to eat the dessert, we were like, “I’m not sure if that’s a good chemical reaction.”
R: Well, that’s very interesting, and I’ll share a story too about looks. One time I was recipe testing with, I wanted to figure out how to make these really good vegan tofu chocolate chip cookies that they had over at the local co-op. I said, “Oh it can’t be that hard,” I had the ingredients, and I’m going to go and try to figure it out. So one afternoon I made all these chocolate chip cookies and they were hard as rock and flavorless. And I left them out on the counter and my honey came home and he was like, “Why did you leave all these cookies out on the table? They were the most horrid cookies I’ve ever tasted.” And I said, “You should have know that they were horrible cookies. If they were good I would have hid them away in the Tupperware container and not left them out on the counter.” But it was one of those, again, food presentation things of, they looked so good that he just had to have a bite of one. Even though when he tasted it, he was like, “This is the most awful thing I’ve ever had.”
F: So, looks can only go so far.
R: Yes, but they will entice someone to pick something up and put it in their mouth when otherwise they may not would have.
F: That is so funny. So can you give us some tips, I want to go back to, you know, some of the things that you mentioned about like, salad. Can you give us some tips about making a really nice looking salad, and not one of those where you just chop up every little vegetable and throw them in, and they end up settling in the very bottom, but something that’s really appealing.
R: Yeah, what I would recommend instead of doing a tossed salad, like you said, where everything ends up falling to the bottom with nuts and cranberries and everything like that, try doing them in components, like you would a chopped salad. So you put the lettuce in the bottom of the bowl, and then you sprinkle on top your cranberries, or your nuts, or your diced chicken or whatever toppings you want to do. Another thing that I like to do too, this in in my Twenty Free Tips of How to Use a Plastic Bag to Make Your Life Easier in the Kitchen, you can find that at my website, it’s impressionsathome.com, but this is where you put your salad dressing, a smooth or creamy salad dressing inside a Ziploc bag, and you cut off the very tip of it, so like a little piping bag, and then you can drizzle that on top of your ingredients rather than tossing the salad in there, and you become a really pretty eye-catching salad.
F: That sounds really smart. And it sounds like something you could actually do with other things like, you know, what, frosting and pesto.
B: You can make boxed brownies look like a million bucks.
F: I like that. Okay, So we’ll make sure that we get this link in the show notes, but it’s twenty free tips that you give on, tell us a little bit more about that.
R: Okay so it’s twenty tips, I came up with twenty tips of how to use Ziploc bags, basic plastic baggies, things that most people already have in their kitchen, to make their lives easier, whether it’s saving them money, they’re not wasting food, it’s a time-saving thing, or even entertaining the kids. Like, frozen yogurt dots are so much fun to make, and they’re a healthy after-school treat.
F: I like the sound of that. Okay, so that’s awesome, and then you also have a book, so let’s just go ahead and jump into that since we’re talking about some of these cool things that you’re producing for people now.
R: Yes, the book will be out in just a few months, I’m actually shooting the photos for later this week. I’m very excited, it will have twelve recipes in it, and twelve full-color photos to go along with them. But it basically goes back to the same concept of how to make your food look pretty on the plate, so the book is called The Pretty Plate, it has five tips on how to make your food go from mediocre to magnificent, and then the twelve recipes that teach the techniques, and demonstrate them and explain why they work and how you can apply them to your everyday food. So the twelve recipes can the be used in certain meal plannings, you can create several meals from them, you can also use them in party planning menus as well.
F: Oh that’s nice. Okay so these are some of the elements of your book: Party planning menus, recipes, and then there are five tips.
R: Five tips as well, and there are full-color photos. So you can pre-order it right now if you’d like to, it will be out in the next couple of months, you can preorder it at impressionsathome.com.
F: When is your book coming out?
R: It will be out in the next few months, we’re just in the final editing processes right now, and I’m shooting the photos for it this Thursday and Friday, so, it will be out soon.
F: And I’ve seen your photos, they’re absolutely incredible and I guess that’s why you’re a professional food stylist, because you can make food look absolutely stunning.
R: Yes. I am professional food stylist, and food naturally is beautiful, so that’s why I think that this is a great fit for the everyday home cook, but what I use for some of my corporate clients, is making the foods that aren’t always so appealing look mouthwatering. Sometimes those canned meats, or the beef stew or regular frozen oatmeal, or whatever it may be, that’s not so appetizing and interesting, how do you create the appetite appeal for that, so that people want to buy these products that aren’t always so lovely and aren’t always so interesting, so that’s what I do in my professional career with my corporate clients.
F: So, I’m thinking as you’re talking about your holiday planning, and are you going to have any holiday parties?
R: I usually host New Year’s Eve and so yes, I’m quite excited, it’s usually a cocktail contest, so that way I don’t have to worry so much about what people are drinking, or knowing that everyone has something that they enjoy, and it’s also an activity for the party, and I’ll provide a moderately sized buffet and that’s also a recipe and a story that I share in my book about how do I do that party and I say that the theme to that story is have your party so that you don’t have to cry about it too.
F: So, will you give us an idea of a couple things that you, like a couple favorites that you put on your entertaining menu, and how you make things look mouthwatering, delicious.
R: Yes, so for my New Year’s Eve party, the mainstay of it is a mashed potato bar, and the main reason I do this is because it’s, mashed potatoes are relatively cheap, they’re easy to make, and they hold well, but in order to make it with the theme of the new year’s eve party, instead of serving them in little dishes, I actually serve them in martini glasses. People can go through and grab their mashed potatoes, fill up their martini glass, and then I have all sorts of little bowls on the table with different toppings, cheese, green onions, bacon, mushrooms, whatever they want. And it can be set out and people can help themselves and all I have to do is check on it once or twice throughout the evening, just to make sure the topping are fresh. And for dessert, I just create little chocolate shooters of chocolate mousse, things that can be done ahead of time so that I’m not rushing around right before my guests come.
F: That is so smart, and I can see why you are thin, I mean, people listening to this can’t see you, but you know, you don’t look like a traditional chef, you’ve got like, you know, a great physique and I have a feeling it’s because you’ve got this trick of doing portion control with mashed potatoes in martini glasses. So you’re not over-eating the mashed potatoes. So, that’s great. So, let’s see, how can we find you online?
R: Right now you can find me at impressionsathome.com, that also has links to my professional food styling site which is impressionsfoodstyling.com, so you can check me out there, there’s also links to my blog if you want to find out some new stories or recipes or just see what I’ve been up to lately.
F: Can we find out how to use egg cartons like you were talking about or repurpose candle holders, because I have a lot of egg cartons in my house.
R: Yes, the main thing that I use egg cartons for is buffet tables.
F: Okay.
R: They’re cheap, they’re sturdy and you can use them to add height to your different platters. So just put them on your table, cover them with a little extra fabric or may be a napkin that you have leftover, and that adds some elevation and interest to your buffet tables.
F: Wow, I’m totally going to use that this weekend, we have a health fair coming up and I’m doing some portion distortion stuff, and I have all these wonderful displays, and I’m like, “I’ve got to find some ways to get some height,” and now I know, thank you.
R: It’s my favorite buffet tip.
F: Do you have any other ones, because those are really handy.
R: Well, for candle holders, I use them in all sorts of different ways, it might not be just a candle holder, it could become a shot glass, it could become a flower vase, you can fill them with multicolored sand, or even food, popcorn, Skittles, jelly beans, or whatever the occasion might be, any glass container can really become a centerpiece or a decorative element.
F: Wow, that’s so smart, okay, so we can find these tips and more like in some of your many resources that you have at your website, hopefully, right?
R: Exactly, and more will be coming out, I’m working on shooting a video series here in the next couple months that will hopefully cover a few more basic and general things that will be available on the web and Youtube, so yes, definitely stay tuned because more things are coming your way.
F: Oh wow, okay, so you’ve go the book coming our way, and you’ve got the video series coming out, you’re a busy gal. Do you have anything else coming down the pipeline?
R: Well, and right now, definitely go to Impressions at Home and sign up for the free Twenty Tips for How to Use Plastic Bags to Make Your Life Easier, I think you’ll really enjoy it, and they’re things that you already have in your house.
F: Okay, super. I am wishing that we lived in the same town, because I would be trying to get an invitation over for dinner.
R: You can come to New Year’s if you’d like!
F: Thank you. So Rachel, do you have anything else that you want to leave us with before the end of the show? The floor is yours.
R: Well, my last tip would also just to be, to keep your cool, to know that regardless of whether you’re having a dinner party or you’re entertaining or you’re having people over, know that not always things are going to go as planned, more often than not, you know, something comes up, something last minute, and it might throw off your schedule a bit. My greatest tip would them be to just step back, keep your cool, and breathe, to know that in the end, everything will be fine. Have another sip of wine, and worse comes to worse, you can always order pizza, and open another bottle of wine.
F: I love that. So there’s always an out.
R: Yes, just don’t worry, it’s really not that big of a deal, just breathe, know that the people that you’re inviting into your home are usually your family and your friends and they love you anyways, and that if you happen to overcook the casserole, it’s still going to be good, and they’re still going to love you.
F: So, I see a second book coming: Zen Tips for the Kitchen. That’s wonderful. And you know, one thing that I advise my clients to do, especially people who are nervous about getting into the kitchen, is to set a mood for themselves, and so, you know, setting some really good music, and having some wine, and making it really fun to be in the kitchen. And if they have someone to cook with them, you know, giving themselves permission just to be really silly together, and dance, and sing, and you know, turn on their favorite music so they can totally feel comfortable to just belt out a really bad tune or a really good tune, or you know, have fun while they’re doing it.
R: Exactly, it should be fun. The whole concept behind it is just to bring the people that you love together, to share a moment with them, because I believe that that’s the richness of life, when we share, when we gather around food, that’s where we have the stories, and we have the laughter and those are the memories that last a lifetime. And even if something goes wrong, you know, laugh about it, because in ten years from now, you might remember that time when, “Remember when grandma did such and such?” Or “Mom forgot the casserole in the oven?” Those are things that you can laugh about later on in the years.
F: That’s so great. I actually do remember something like that where my grandmother came to our Thanksgiving dinner, and she has since passed, but we’ve always told this story about her, she’s my dad’s mom, and she, my parents had already divorced, and she was coming to my mom’s house for Thanksgiving, and my mom loves to do gourmet every now and then, and so she made this gorgeous, it was an oyster stuffing, and she put it in the bird and made this beautiful soup and you know, all the other traditional fixings, and the next day my grandmother decided to be really helpful, and she put every last bit into a blender and pureed it into a green soup.
R: Oh goodness!
F: And my mom, of course, was devastated. She didn’t, yeah my mom was pretty devastated. No one’s forgotten the story, I was the only one that actually enjoyed the soup. But you’re right, those stories do preserve, they preserve our culture, our family culture and tradition, and Rachel, I’m just so grateful for you because I think that you are going to, you’re revolutionizing our lives in the sense of what might be otherwise lost. You’re helping to bring people back to the kitchen, and confidence, and with joy, and with a sense of adventure, and I can’t think of a better time than now to have that opportunity to bring people together.
R: Well, I’m very excited to share, and I really appreciate you having me on and being able to give some tips and share some confidence so that people are excited to be in the kitchen, and it does become easy and fun, and not a chore of something that I have to do. If it’s not fun, don’t do it. If cooking’s too hard, invite your friends over and have a fondue party, put them to work, let them chop up the vegetables, and you can sit there.
F: That’s a great idea, and if you don’t like cooking, you could always do the cleaning.
R: Exactly, everybody has a place in the kitchen.
F: So, I’m going to make sure that we get all of these links into the show notes so people know how to follow up with you and I know that I’m going to be signing up for your Twenty Tips, because I’m always looking for ways to shortcut what I’m doing in the kitchen and to make things more attractive
R: I’m happy to share them, I hope that you enjoy them, and I hope they make your life easier.
F: Thank you so much. Well it’s been wonderful having you on, and I look forward to talking to you again, and the book comes out and you’re working on the second one, Zen Habits in the Kitchen, I’m naming it for you.
R: Thank you, I’m very excited
F: Okay, thanks Rachel, and take care.
R: Bye bye!
F: Bye!
