IT'S ABOUT SOUL WITH CHEF TODD RICHARDS

We're always excited to be introduced to a number of creatives across verticals here at Athleisure Mag. A few weeks ago, we got an advanced copy of Soul: A Chef's Culinary Evolution in 150 Recipes and from the selected dishes, colorful imagery and the voice of Chef Todd Richards, we had to interview him for this month's issue. He brings to life what soul food means as a genre and how it can be interpreted within its classic dishes as well as being utilized in other dishes that are not commonly thought to align with this category. Chef Richards is self-taught, passionate about educating others about the food and bringing the love and community that surrounds it.

ATHLEISURE MAG: How did you know that you wanted to be a chef and what was your journey to getting there?

TODD RICHARDS: I really knew that I wanted to be a chef when my first job was being a butcher at Kroger in Atlanta and people at the meat counter would ask me questions about how to prepare things. I figured that I needed to know how to prepare those items that I was serving so I started studying and I thought, "this is really cool." There was someone across the street that needed someone to grill so I thought, if I can cut the meat, then I should be able to grill. So I started working there and then I never really looked back. The creative process of learning how to butcher and preparing meat satisfied that creative need that I had.

AM: You've been on Iron Chef and have 2 James Beard Nominations for Best Chef in the Southeast, what do these accolades mean to you and what was it like being on the show and receiving these honors?

TR: It's such a great honor to be on Iron Chef and to be a James Beard Award Nominee but it doesn't just stop there it really fuels me to be even better, and I think that that has always been the catalyst that I got from my parents. What happens right now is great, but you always have to keep striving regardless of how many awards that you may win.

AM: Tell us about Richards' Southern Fried at Krog Street Market in Atlanta.

TR: Well Richards' Southern Fried is a chicken walkup. I really wanted to do Fried Chicken because mainly at the Ritz Carlton, it was one of the most popular dishes that we served - imagine that you're at the Ritz, one of the most luxurious hotels and that's what people are eating! We put that on the menu and people went crazy!

We also entered that recipe into a couple of Fried Chicken competitions and we won those as well. I knew that we had something really good going on, and it was like, we need to do this because people always ask about it. That's how Southern Fried started.

AM: How do you define Soul food and why is that an area you decided to focus on as a chef?

TR: Well the first thing is that soul food is only defined by 1950's/1960's just in that genre of food. It was only in that time period that there was an African American contribution in that area not before and then not after. Really it's a misnomer of the technically driven cuisine that soul food is. Most people do not understand it that way, but if you think about it, how in the hell do you make chitlins taste good - you have to have skill to make them good and to make something like collard greens taste good. Those things are all technically skilled recipes and I believe that soul food has the same place as French cuisine or Japanese cuisine.

AM: With your cookbook being available, what was the thought behind creating Soul?

TR: I wanted readers to know that soul food is always progressing. Soul food, especially in African American culture, is not just one straight society and there are a lot of different variations in our culture and in our food that we're known for. If you take the ingredients and explore them, in different manners and in understanding the technique, there are different ways that we are talking about in true American cuisine that have techniques from all around the world, but is distinctly, African American cooking in taste.

AM: When we flipped through your cookbook, we were struck with the Collard Green Pesto as we're fans of pesto - looking through the offered recipes there are classics, twists on a classic as it pertains to soul food as well as taking dishes that are not in this area of food and adding soul to it - how do you go about doing that?

TR: When you think about collard greens that our grandmothers put on the stove - the way that they approached it with the onions and braising the pork and things like that - it was always a technical cuisine. So when you look at other cuisines around the world, it's always starting with the simplest of ingredients and how we just do them correctly without destroying the integrity of them.

When you look at collard greens and why it makes sense for a pesto, it stands up well to oil, it loves vinegar, creams and stuff like that. So it makes sense that as a leafy vegetable that it would work in a dish like that.

AM: If you had to choose 3 meals that you would cook over a weekend, what would they be that are in your book?

TR: Well, fortunately, we grow a lot of food in our home so right now we're growing a lot of tomatoes - so definitely tomatoes! Sliced tomatoes with a little vinaigrette and all the flowers that we still have held over from the winter - like brussel sprout flowers. The next thing would be my mom's Fried Catfish because I don't think that there is anything better than dipping it in your own hot sauce. The way that she always prepared the catfish, it was crispy and you just dipped the catfish in the hot sauce and all this vinegar, pepper and using garlic and onions in there as well which has really great sensibility. And because I love to have a cocktail, strawberries are in season right now - the Strawberry Rum Cooler is a great way to use strawberries. Don't get those really pretty ones, get the ugly ones that are kind of soft and when you bite into them the juice just runs down your chin. Those are the strawberries that you want for a Strawberry Rum Cooler!

AM: What are your 3 favorite meals that are in this book?

TR: It is so hard because the book is divided by ingredients. In this period of time right now, onions, spring lamb is available - I use that as a reference because my answers today will be different then when it is in the fall when there are collard greens. Seafood is universal so you can enjoy that any time. But just to understand that we are at the end of collard green season so having the Collard Green Pesto with Poached Oysters might be at the end of that season but pairing it with tomatoes - it will make it make more sense.

AM: What's on your playlist when you're cooking?

TR: The great thing is that in the back of the book, there actually is a playlist and on Spotify there is a soul food playlist as well that we put up. And growing up with my parents, we were the hospitality center of our entire family - every birthday, holiday, Christmas party - I think that we even had a bah mitzvah at our house. It didn't matter we loved any reason to celebrate and food and music were intertwined together. They had the same exact place. When we were talking about soul as a cultural reference, that's one thing that African Americans - that we do. We want everything to look good visually, to taste good and to hear our passion in cooking. That to me is why I put the soundtrack in the back of the book.

AM: We love the trend where cookbooks have transcended to being lifestyle cookbooks. It feels like we're literally hearing you share your personal life as you talk about mentors and your method - was that a conscious choice?

TR: As a chef who probably has hundreds of cookbooks - I know where they all are. I still read Larousse Gastronomique - one of the bibles of cookbooks that has over 10,000 recipes. But for a consumer, we have to make cookbooks relevant so that people can continue cooking and do it with their kids. Today they are so phone sensitive and are connected to their devices. I wanted to make sure that people can always connect to the cookbook. It's as easy as when you put that song on and someone says, "man remember when you came to the house and we started smoking some ribs and we played that song from the book," or visually, you see some ugly tomatoes at the store and everyone is walking past and I know that I can make the best dish with those tomatoes. Those are the reasons why I wanted to put all those things in the book.

This is the gift that my parents gave me - being prideful and our culture which is the other sense that they gave me. Reading is so important to understanding us as a people and we have to produce things that people visually want to understand so that they can get out of their own stereotypical kind of minds and to just indulge themselves into delicious food.

AM: When you're not cooking in Atlanta, where can we find you grabbing drinks/dinner, where do you shop and what do you do in your personal time?

TR: People ask me that question all the time and it is a really difficult question to answer in the sense that I work so damn much - I like to go home! But there are a lot of good chefs that I just gravitate to and a number of them are good friends of mine. In Athens, Jerry Slater just opened The Expat. Jerry and I have had a long history in working together off and on. I look at Guy Wong who's another great friend of mine who has Ton Ton and Miso Izakaya. I look at Hector Santiago with El Super Pan. Anne Quatrano who is the matriarch of Atlanta dining scene. Every time I go to Bacchanalia I'm blown away and I feel like I just sat in my own living room having the most delicious meal. Then I go to the godfather of fine dining in Atlanta with Gerry Klaskala's Aria who everytime I see him he gives me the biggest damn hug ever! And he's only like 5'2" haha.

AM: Are you involved in any charities or how do you give of your time?

TR: Yes I am on the board of Wholesome Wave which is really important to me because we support Snap Benefits which means that dollar for dollar we match with EBT so people can go to Farmer's Markets and to get fresh food. That one is always dear to me and Lupus Foundation. Lupus affects African Americans especially African American women more then any other people in the country. It is an under served disease that affects a lot of people.

AM: Is there anything that you want to share with our readers that we can keep an eye out for?

TR: Well, the Soul Tour is traveing from NYC to the West Coast with many stops in between. Over the next month we will hit Nashville, Chicago, New Orleans, Charlotte and then back to NYC and of course many many places in Atlanta. Anyone can find me on Social Media - if you're in Atlanta, I want to know where you are and if you buy the book, I'm glad that people are posting but I want used cookbook posted - get into the kitchen and utilize it. I want to see wine stains, hot sauce stain - some boil that popped over on the book! It's great to be on the coffee table, but it's better to be in the kitchen!

PHOTO COURTESY | Excerpted from Soul by Todd Richards. Copyright © 2018 Oxmoor House. Reprinted with permission from Time Inc. Books, a division of Meredith Corporation. New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Read more from the May Issue and see It's About Soul with Chef Todd Richards in Athleisure Mag.

KITCHEN CREATIVE WITH CLAIRE THOMAS

Food has been a large portion of this month's issue especially as it pertains to keeping things fresh as we are in the beginning stages of enjoying all that is Spring. We've been fans of Claire Thomas' Kitchy Kitchen for awhile and chatted with the new mom about Farmer's Markets, her latest cookbook Sweet Laurel and how she stays creative with meals for her family includings pets, Mochi and Buster.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Can you tell us about your journey in the culinary world as in researching you, we realized that you have been involved in a number of areas!

CLAIRE THOMAS: Thank you so much! I started the blog The Kitchy Kitchen 10 years ago and my focus was on ingredient driven, simple food that was delicious and easy to prepare. Now that I am a new mom, that is more important than ever! It needs to be delicious but it needs to be done. I need to be able to put it together pretty easily.

Because of my background in photography as well, the food needs to be really beautiful as well. I do think that the cliché is true, we eat with our eyes first.

AM: The Kitchy Kitchen, what was the thought behind coming up with that?

CT: I grew up in a food family, my mom was a great cook. I grew up in Southern California where I was surrounded by a lot of great produce. I’m so lucky to have the great home that I have. I honestly was just inspired by the food world around me. I am also a huge Food History nerd so that was a part of it. But it was really about creating recipes that I was passionate about and that made people’s meal times a little easier to get inspiration for your home cooking. I love home cooking, I myself am a home cook and I think that it can be just as good as restaurant food.

AM: As you’re such an aficionado on this topic, here in the East Coast, we keep getting teased with the notion of Spring which doesn’t quite get here. What are 3 easy to make dishes that we can make at home that get us to this season even in the midst of the flip-flopping weather?

CT: One of my favorite things ever is a tartine which is just a fancy way of saying, an open faced sandwich. I’m from L.A., the land of avocado toast and I’m sure that this is familiar to everybody! For me, the idea of creating new recipes and trying something new can be a bit stressful for people. You have a new recipe and you’re thinking, “oh gosh, what if this doesn’t work – I don’t know?” I like the idea of taking something that you’re really confident with or familiar with and just adapting it a little bit. In my case, the tartine or open faced sandwich, I took ingredients I know like cream cheese – that full fat, it’s so delicious and then smoked salmon which is so beautiful and such a classic combo and then I add things like fresh lemon zest and fresh herbs chopped into the cream cheese. All of a sudden, it’s a completely different flavor profile. It’s elegant, it’s elevated, but it literally took 30 seconds. I do that with my food, my family’s food and even my pet’s food. I really think that whole delicious ingredients is so important for everybody.

AM: I love the tartines – do you have 2 other quick and easy items that can be made?

CT: I am also a big fan of scrambled eggs and being a mom I basically have 5 minutes to whip things together. Eggs are just a really brilliant canvas. So I’ll do things with scrambled eggs where for instance, if I have cheese left over from a cheese board – so fancy cheese, you can grate that in or melt it into the eggs and all of a sudden it has a completely different flavour, it's really delicious, it's also beautiful topped with things like fresh pro, it's really delicious, it's also beautiful topped with things like fresh prosciutto – and honestly, I’ve done ones where I have added a little bit of orange juice which is kind of an unique idea but my aunt from Australia showed me that and it adds a really beautiful brightness. So that’s one of my easy breakfast moments.

For dinner, I love pasta but my husband is paleo, so I had to come up with a few options there. I know everybody knows about zoodles doing zucchini noodles and sweet potato noodles.
I really love doing sweet potatoes that have been sliced thinly, but in sheets so that you can make lasagna with it. I love doing a nut milk cheese if you are trying to go dairy free as well. It’s really easy to put together as well. I have my second cookbook that just came out that I co-wrote with my dear friend, Laurel Gallucchi, it’s called Sweet Laurel. It’s all grain free, refined sugar free and dairy free baking recipes and you can find our recipe for our own Nut Milk Cheese, Everything Bagel Bread, pies, cakes, but they are all completely paleo and grain free. So I have been using that a lot for my husband’s meal.

AM: That’s fantastic, when it comes to your home, because we spend so much time running around so when we want people to come over and to have your friends and family with you, what should people have on hand whether you’re watching a game at home, brunch or a girl’s night in?

CT: I love that and it’s such a good point. For me, I’m so bad and my brother will come over and open my fridge and will say, “you have no snacks,” and I will say, “I know, I have a million ingredients though, so let’s make something.” One of my favorite things that I like to call my Lazy Hostess Recipes because you get to look very fancy and put together, but it takes about 10 seconds.

My favorite thing for movie nights, because I love Movie Nights, is I take out my air popper and, I let people pop popcorn as they need but then I set up my table where I basically clean out my pantry. I have all those flavored salts, different types of olive oil, brown butter, melted butter, truffle oil – all those things so that people can make their own DIY popcorn and it’s fun because all I have to do is put things out and I don’t have to do anything! So that’s the trick! So I’m actually not even making anything!

That same idea of flexibility and versatility is so important to me in the kitchen whether
it’s for friends, for family or my cat Mochi.

AM: How do you juggle your schedule and keeping meals creative?

CT: Dinner time is getting kind of hectic as we have our 8 month year old son now in the mix, we have our 2 pets and everybody eats at the same time - pets included. For me, I saw that I had eaten my 1,000th bowl of cereal and I was getting kind of bored with what I was eating and then looked over and saw Mochi eating out of her bowl  and then I thought, "well my goodness," she eats the same thing everyday too. So, I was really excited when I came across the Purely Fanciful Feast Filets because they are a whole ingredient snack which is beautiful compliment to Mochi’s meals. Now that I am a mom, I literally read the nutrition menu to see what’s in it. I was really blown away by how simple the filets were. They were beautiful for my cat and Mochi was my first pet so she’s my fur baby so I want to make sure that she still feels like she is getting love and attention. So, the filets are a really great way to do that. So, I just flake them off, sprinkle it on top of her regular food and all of a sudden it’s new and exciting OR I just let her snack on it like a whole filet – while she likes it like that.

So, I kind of take a similar vibe with what I am doing with my own food. I use recipes that I am already confident with that I know how to make and then I just do a little adjustment – let’s add some new ingredients to the mix, what herb can I do that’s different then what I’ve had before? Things like that are small tweaks that take 30 seconds to do but all of a sudden it tastes really different and it’s not the same old same old.

AM: Being someone that is so creative, how do you maintain your creativity to bring it across the range of projects that you have going on?

CT: For me, it’s about finding inspiration in the world around me. For me that means, if I’m in a rut, I go to the Farmer’s Market and it’s spring time. Here in L.A., it’s 85 degrees and I know that in the rest of the country, it’s like Spring is eventually coming. When it finally arrives, it’s Farmer’s Market season! It’s across the country and they’re popping up everywhere. I love going because the best kept secret is that farmers actually know how to prepare their food better then anyone. If you talk to a farmer and you say, “what do you do with these carrots?” They’ll tell you and it’s usually something super simple and it’s usually different then what you would expect. They may shave it really thinly and put it in a salad because that specific kind of carrot has a really fabulous crunch and is already very sweet.

So I love going to the Farmer’s Market, and I love eating which sounds silly but to be a good cook you have to be a great eater. So if you’re in a rut, go ahead and eat, try something new, a cuisine you haven’t had before, try an ingredient, be adventurous that way, I think you can inform the food you make at home. Because adding a sprinkle of something or sometimes just reshuffling the deck in terms of how you incorporate the ingredients, that can make a huge difference. I feel that way about the food that I make for myself, but then also for Mochi and Buster, my dog’s food as well. I want to make sure that they are eating whole ingredients that makes them feel great because they are part of my family too.

AM: Do you have 3 favorite veggies as I had to ask!

CT: Well right now, it’s so fun as I have the veggies that I eat all the time because of my husband being paleo. So it’s like sweet potatoes is literally 90% of what we eat right now. Other than that, I’d say that in the season, right now everything is so fresh, bright and green. English peas is probably one of my favorite things in the world – I love doing a smashed pea tartine as they are the new avocado toast as that’s what I have heard. It’s so delicious, fresh and sweet. Zucchini blossoms are coming in so stuffing those with different types of fillings like a veggie quinoa filling, a nut cheese if you are trying to keep things a little lighter. Another veggie that I am really loving is Romensco, which looks kind of like a psychedelic cauliflower if you look at it very closely. But it’s beautiful with bright colors and when you roast it, it’s like candy. So that’s one of my favorite things to serve as a side with meals.

AM: Fantastic, where can we find out more about you and everything that you have going on?

CT: Absolutely, please check out TheKitchyKitchen.com for more information on my recipes, my DIY’s, my family content and then to find out more about Mochi’s new favorite snack, please check out FancyFeast.com/FiletYourWay.

Read more from the April Issue and see Kitchen Creative with Claire Thomas in mag.

THE KITCHENSCAPE

We love a lifestyle cookbook and one that really takes what we do in the kitchen to other centers in our day to day. We talked with Melissa Coleman about her new cookbook, Minimalist Kitchen, hyggelig and how she solves problems as a maker.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Tell us about your background and how you came from being a graphic designer, to a food blogger to now releasing your first cookbook as an author!

MELISSA COLEMAN: It’s my first book and maybe my only haha. I said before that I could not make a book unless it would pour out of me. I never thought that I would make a book until they called me and I was like yes! A little bit about my background, from the earliest days of my life, I have always been a maker. I like to make things and my medium has changed over the years, but I also came out loving food.

My mom would say that I would sit at the breakfast table and would ask what was for lunch or for dinner for the day. She would always say, “Well, Melissa eat to live – don’t live to eat and I am still living to eat." I love food! So, I painted in high school and then I studied graphic design and became a graphic designer.

About a year after becoming a graphic designer, I started my blog about 10 years ago as everyone had a blog. It was probably the second post that it turned into a food blog as it documented my recipes. I cooked a lot in high school as I liked to bake and I used to love watching Martha Stewart. It’s not a joke, but I used to workout to Martha Stewart!

AM: Wait what!?!

MC: Yeah! That was the early days when I was in college I used to record it. So, I would record her and then I got home from work, I would workout to Martha Stewart. So that’s where I learned to cook and bake in a lot of ways. I wanted to know how to do everything.

I like to make things and at my core, I am a creator. With food, I felt that as a designer, designers try to solve problems beautifully and with food, I needed recipes that were simple and wholesome and I tried a number of diets over the years. By the time I finished college, I landed on a whole foods diet. I like to eat whole foods and a vegetable forward meal. The vegetable forward part came into the blog later. As a designer who likes to solve problems, I created recipes of things that I wanted to eat.

AM: What is a Minimalist Kitchen?

MC: A minimalist kitchen is a paired down kitchen or a kitchen equipped with the essentials. Everything from the ingredients, to the cooking tools to the pantry – which is always the biggest trouble maker in the home as well as the techniques. I wanted to use efficient and even repetitive techniques. I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel as I cooked. I want to be really good at what I am doing especially at 5pm on a Tuesday at night. It’s pairing down to the very best things for the essentials.

AM: Is this throughout your lifestyle?

MC: I do. It’s funny, in the book I say, “Where minimalism starts and stops in your life, let it be”. Because, I found success in the kitchen by just getting rid – I mean I have kind of always been a reductionist. When I painted and you looked at my style at the end of my painting career, it was very minimal. Then you look at my graphic design style – I’m a reductionist who likes the essentials. I don’t like to do things for the sake of doing things. That naturally flowed over to my life and part of that as an adult, and it wasn’t true as a child – I wanted to be responsible for less and when I keep less around, I am responsible for that and it gives me time to do the things that I want to do or that brings me joy. It extends to my closet, I kind of have a uniform and my friends know that I wear the same thing all the time and we laugh about it and I don’t care!

I like to pay attention to my habits and partly because I have always had a designer brain and that’s partly because as a kid, I would get frustrated about things and I remember my dad looking at me one time saying, “Do you want me to take you to this person to help you fix it?” And I was like, “No I will fix it”. And that’s kind of how I go about life. When I looked at my drawers, I would look at my clothes that would stay folded most of the season, the jeans on the floor that I would wear every single day and that was happening in the kitchen too!

I would have one spatula that I would always use and so I started to pay attention to that stuff and I started to get rid of stuff that was just collecting stuff and taking up space.

AM: Your book reminds us of our interview with Meik Wiking about hygge.

MC: YES!

AM: And when thinking about that, it brings up notions of comfort and cozy things – how does this lifestyle and minimalism come together within this concept?

MC: Well minimalism can be seen as a stodgy, cold and austere word. But I don’t describe my approach as that. I say, that as a designer, I am a cozy minimalist. That’s kind of where hygge is – it brings the cozy in. Aesthetically, I try to bring visual warmth. Hygge is like the practical warmth. It’s sitting in front of the fire, playing a game and signing off from the rest of the world. It’s saying no to things or just being. Even for me, it’s a 2pm break in the afternoon because I need it and I am giving myself what I need and it goes back to responsibility. I wanted to be responsible for less so I deleted a lot of things that were in my life so I could do those things that I find most fulfilling. In those gaps and blank spaces, and there are plenty of those in our lives, which can be uncomfortable sometimes, we fill them with hygge moments. Just being, embracing the simplicity. Impotent is such a bad word but my fear is that I would become impotent of getting lost in the flicker of a flame or that I wouldn’t be able to taste the sweetness of an almond. That I would just overload my life with everything that I couldn’t see things for what they were.

AM: What drew us to the concept of this cookbook is that over the last few years, cookbooks have grown from including a recipe and an image to showcasing a lifestyle. We love that this book showcases a methodology in organization and are believers in creating that sense of placement in one part of your life, allows you to do so in other areas and to obtain clarity whether physically or mentally. How did you decide that this was the way that your pantry should be, these are the items that will be slimmed down to x, what you considered essential agreements and how you basically can be a coach to people’s kitchens to conquer the madness that is in there!

MC: RIGHT! For me, I learned to cook with a ton of time on my hands, I was fresh out of college and I didn’t have anything begging for my attention on the weekends. But when I became a working mom, it was so inefficient and I used to be a web designer that created blogs and we talked a lot about user experience and creating a good one. And I recognized that I was having the poorest user experience in my kitchen. So much so that I looked at my husband one day not too long after my daughter was born, and I said, “I’m quitting the kitchen or I am going to fix this place.” So the Minimalist Kitchen is the culmination of that big problem and over the years, I wrote about this but in one week, I stabbed myself twice in my catch all kitchen drawer with tools that I never used. But you know, you stick your hand in there because the spatula flips up and you can’t get it open and then you stab yourself. I was like, “why am I doing this to myself?” So I slowly started pairing down and it’s kind of an expensive process – or maybe I would say that it’s an investment to do this. We did it because my husband was in graduate school and I supported us on my design salary. So I just did it little by little. In the book I say, “that once you clean the front of the drawer, you notice the back of the drawer is very similar.”

It feels weird to publish this book as this process is never finished for me and I am constantly thinking of reworking space especially in the kitchen. I like that idea too because it frees it up for people and it doesn’t have to happen over night. Life is organic and changing and good things take time. That’s the truth of this system, it takes a little time.

AM: When it comes to the kitchen there are so many gadgets. We love our Breville Tea Maker, a number of items that we enjoy eating necessitate various products to make them versus having one tool that can do five things – so we’re always trying things out. So for you, when new things come to market and you feel that it works, do you do a mental checklist, where bringing in an item makes you remove something you have?

MC: EXACTLY! I’m always doing a mental checklist and I am able to do that because I have so much less on my checklist. I am probably the slowest adopter when it comes to buying things. I don’t have an Instant Pot and I’m not sure if I will because I have all of the other tools that I need and it would be a huge learning curve for me and I’m not sure if I would do something like that in my everyday. But I am so careful as I picture myself at the back door of our house saying (even my husband is a much bigger shopper then me), “woah, woah, woah what are you bringing in here?” It’s going to require work, we’re going to have to reorganize and we will have to get rid of something. Why spend time doing something that we don’t need to spend time doing?

AM: How did you go about organizing the cookbook and what would you say that someone should expect to read when they are going into it?

MC: When I am cooking in general, I mentally lump my recipes into weekend cooking, weekday cooking and make ahead – and as we started on the book, I said can we create tags so that people know exactly where to put the recipes in their life? I mean, I know where to put them, but people don’t know what to do with my recipes. So we separated them like that so that people could have it and I wanted to set them up with the most success possible. I feel like overwhelmingly that people are frustrated with their kitchens – which was true for me. How many expletives come out when you’re opening the Tupperware drawer? There are things in the kitchen that are expletively producing haha.

AM: So true and we get annoyed, stuff everything back in and then think we should do something about it!

MC: Yes!

AM: It’s like the Groundhogs Day, Kitchen Edition!

MC: Yes that would happen to me to! I remembered that my mom would deal with these things to. I used to think that she was so nutty and then I found myself doing the same things in my kitchen too!! I was like, “I can fix this.” I do think that it’s crazy and I want to acknowledge that I got the chance to really spend time on making my kitchen work and then to write about it! That’s a very rare opportunity and many don’t have time to do something like that because our lives are so busy – even a paired down one! I think that this book has done the work for people so that it will make them feel more successful in doing this and even down to where the recipe should go in their week.

AM: I agree it’s good for them to figure out when they should prep, where in the week they should go to the grocery store, it’s a nice map to follow! Especially when you live in a place like NYC where even the simplest task of going to the grocery store can be quite a journey. You know that you can only carry so much and that there is an option for convenience, but do you want someone else picking out your produce? Logistically, someone sending your food to you is great but syncing up the times and for those that don’t have a doorman – this is a problem. It’s nice to have order.

MC: True – even the shopping techniques, I shop a lot like a city dweller. I live in a large city but not like NYC – but I walk to the grocery store and I carry back everything that we eat for the week. I carry them on my shoulders like you do and I have enough fresh produce for what we eat that week and the pantry is stocked by way of Costco or other types of bulk shopping so I am only doing maintenance shopping or minor shopping. I hate grocery shopping with a child.

AM: The anxiety of walking up and down the aisles everytime you get to the grocery store can be a bit much.

MC: Absolutely and with my book, I wanted to get rid of that feeling of, “oh this is what I do on my Saturday, I shop every store – can’t I be doing something better with my life?”

AM: You know that you have to eat, you can’t do takeout all the time even if it’s healthy. But sometimes you get to the store and you hear all the sounds and other stimulations and you kind of need a plan to tackle it! So what are your 3 favorite meals from the book and what music do you play along when making those dishes?

MC: Ok so I realized that my 3 meals are all weekend meals. I don’t want to take away from the deliciousness of the weekday meals. When I sit down to a meal that took 15-20 minutes it’s still so satisfying, but weekends are celebratory around here as it is in every home. So on Friday night we kick it off with the Crispy Pizza with the caramelized onions or a cheese pizza with the base recipe. Anytime it’s pizza night, we listen to the Mamba Italiano Radio on Pandora – it always feels like we’re at an Italian restaurant. Or we make these Summer Veggie Fajitas – we love those. They are a Stonehenge in our lives. We used to eat them out all the time and then we started making them our whole married life. On that night, we listen to Spanish Guitar Radio on Pandora. Then on Saturday or Sunday morning, it’s a flow brunchy type of thing so we make, the Dutch Baby because my 4 year old picks it. It’s magical because it just blows up in the oven and we listen to Early Jazz Radio on Pandora and it sounds like you’re sitting in a French or European café. Early jazz radio is so good!

PHOTOS COURTESY | MINIMAL KITCHEN/MEREDITH BOOKS

Read more from the April Issue and see The Kitchenscape in mag.

DOLCE & GABBANA AND A MEAL

This fall, your kitchens will receive the gift of style when Dolce & Gabbana releases their second collab with SMEG (they teamed up last Spring for their high fashion refrigerators). "Sicily is My Love" includes toasters, citrus juicers, coffee machines, kettles, blenders, stand mixers, and slow juicers. The designs embody Souther Italian and Sicilian folklore - lemons, prickly pears, bright cherries and floral patterns that embrace D&G's runway designs. Check out more from this collection.

GET WEEKEND READY | BAR MOGA

The days are longer, the weather is better and now you need to have the next bar on your list for upcoming happy hour, after work drinks and beyond. We suggest Bar Moga, which opens officially today! Moga is the Japanese version of flappers here in America. These stylish women were known to follow western fashion and lifestyles that existed in the 1920's. Much like in the states, they were sexually liberated as well as financially and emotionally independent women who loved jazz!

Across from Miss Lily's (if you have not gone here, then you need to add this Jamaican spot to your list) this east meets west bar as paintings inspired by moga, parchment screens, copper ceilings and ample seating. Drink wise, beverages are handled by a former Milk and Honey employee and a SakaMai chef has the kitchen covered.

While consuming, you can rest easy knowing that the Fempire is real here. The beverage director and head bartender are bot women. The wine list is sourced from all-female winemakers and a portion of the proceeds from one drink are donated to the ACLU.

Get ready for long nights here!

PHOTO COURTESY | Oleg March

BINGELY BOOKS

MINCEMEAT: THE EDUCATION OF AN ITALIAN CHEF
Leonardo Lucarelli
Other Press

BOOK COVER ART | A Mincemeat: The Education of An Italian Chef/Other Press

Italian chef Leonardo Lucarelli’s daring and honest memoir MINCEMEAT: The Education of an Italian Chef relays the sordid details of working in fifteen different restaurants across Italy—rising from the bottom of the food chain to head chef.
 
This book is filled with hilarious, heartbreaking, and gritty tales of immigrant kitchenhands, relationships with waitresses, drugs, and problems with law enforcement. An honest take on the inner workings of a fast-paced, brave, and heartless industry. It is a story about fighting tooth and nail to achieve your dreams and finding comforts in delicious food along the way. 

A PORTRAIT OF EMILY PRICE
Katherine Reay
Harper Collins

BOOK COVER ART | A Portrait of Emily Price/Harper Collins

A Portrait of Emily Price centers on fix-it girl extraordinaire and would-be artist Emily Price, an art restorer who has never encountered anything she can’t fix – until she meets Ben, an Italian chef who seems just right. When, after a whirlwind romance and marriage, Emily joins her new husband on a trip home to Italy, she learns that his family, is another matter.

Upon landing in Rome, she is enchanted with Italy. But instead of allowing the land, culture and people to transform her, Emily imposes her will upon everyone and everything around her, alienating Ben’s tightly knit family. When she unearths family secrets, Emily wonders if she really fits into Ben’s world. 

WELL FED WEEKNIGHTS
Melissa Joulwan
Greenleaf Book Group Press

BOOK COVER ART | Well Fed Weeknights/Greenleaf Book Group Press

Melissa Joulwan’s third cookbook in the Well Fed series, Well Fed Weeknights: Complete Paleo Meals in 45 Minutes or Less, features a collection of weeknight dishes inspired by takeout classics, food trucks, and cuisines from around the world. All of the recipes in Well Fed Weeknights are completely free of grain, dairy, legumes, and soy. Each dish is thoroughly tested and easy to make with affordable ingredients that can be found at a regular grocery store.
 
Debuting in Well Fed Weeknights are fun and flexible “Food Court Recipes;” in-depth blueprints for how to create customized, themed dinners (Meat and Potatoes, Burger Night, Velvet Stir-Fry, The Ultimate Salad Bar, and more), and tips for navigating the grocery story, the best kitchen tools for fast cooking, how to cook quickly and eat slowly and more.

Top Beverage Flavor Trends For 2017 | Turmeric, Coconut and Spice

As we close one year, we look towards the next for trends that we can expect to see in our lifestyle. Every category has something worth noting and Flavorman, a known beverage architect firm has generated their forecast for this year. Last year, Ginger, Orange and Lime were top flavors. The flavor forecast for 2017 includes healthy and clean spices that are old favorites and exotic. Turmeric, a herb and kitchen staple known for both its distinctive flavor that is mildly aromatic with a sense of orange and ginger and health benefits is the top trending flavor for 2017.

Known as the "new" ginger, Turmeric has a sharp taste with powerful benefits that include reducing cholesterol to controlling diabetes. In addition, it has antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. You can find this in teas and smoothies as it fights colds, the flu and is great for a cleanse.

Coconut continues to be on trend as it is a tropical flavor and is the "tree of life". It's known for its subtle sweetness, and hints of butterscotch and caramel. It is known as a nutritious source of meat, juice, milk and oil. Its benefits are vast but include treating asthma, kidney stones and tumors.  

Spices in general have been a mainstay in the flavor scene and are popping up in non-traditional ways including, distillers using it within their line extensions of classic spirits. You'll find spicy rum, bourbon and whiskey to find its way to your stores. 

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | Flavorman