I love food and I love cooking+ I have done a lot of it professionally since the 70’s.
Next on the docket is some food blogging, and yep- a cookbook. Stay Tuned
My food blog is Called A Mermaid’s Lunch
click here to see it and follow my blog ! I plan on spending time on this project this year.
Queen of Sheba Salad
White Chocolate, Almond, Dried Mango & Cherries with Sea Salt Bark!
I’ve been a chef for over 30 years, and have enjoyed some pretty amazing experiences cooking for a wide variety of people.
I have worked on sailboats in the Caribbean, cooked for a Women’s Buddhist Retreat on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i, done catering and baking for the Grateful Dead in Inverness, California (at the legendary Foggy Mountain Bakery), done Global Dining at Cafe DiCocoa in Maine…Worked at some of the best restaurants in New York City (One Fifth, Capsuoto Freres, Quilted Giraffe, Coastal), and World Yacht Enterprises. I was the first female waiter at Brennan’s in the New Orleans French Quarter…It’s all been quite a colorful and amusing ride for sure.
Being a visual artist, I enjoy creating evocative and luscious meal presentations, and consider cooking a truly expressive art form.
I also like to cook with abandon and creativity, trying new arrangements and combinations of flavors. Influences range from the movie Like Water for Chocolate, the books Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado, and the wonderful memoir by NYC restaurateur and owner of Prune, Gabrielle Hamilton’s Blood, Bones and Butter.
I enjoy cooking for retreats of all kinds, and am proficient in gluten free and vegan menus, vegetarian haute cuisine to down home N’Awlins gumbos and sassy Brazilian~Bahian dishes, which constitute my favorite go-to regional cuisines.
My love and appreciation for cooking grows out of my gratitude for the abundance of the natural world.
I am an avid gardener and enjoy growing lots of food. I educate people how to incorporate fresh food into their daily diets, and am active in the development of our local community gardens.
I’m passionate about helping people in poverty, elders, and folks with disabilities develop more connection to fresh food, to each other, and to the wider community.
I love growing food and flowers and then making things out of them such as flower essences, herbal tinctures, vinegars, hot sauces, and chutneys.
La Moquequa:: an amazing creamy coconut saffron infused seafood stew ~ always a show stopper.
