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I grew up in a very food centric home. We would visit my grandma almost every Sunday for big family meals, and my mom was always cooking new things and loved trying new recipes. She always had some sort of food magazine subscription coming in the mail every month, and one of my fondest memories was flipping through them together and deciding what fun new recipes we were gonna make. She is also an avid gardener so I was constantly eating different vegetables and trying new things. Food was all around all the time and I loved it. I loved seeing how food could bring people together and make people happy. By the time I was in my early teens, I knew I wanted to be a chef. I attended culinary school right out of high school and then went on to work in restaurants there after.
My cookbook, By Heart, is a collection of homey, cozy and seasonal recipes that tell the story of my life in food and those who have inspired me along the way. From falling in love with cooking and eating at home with my family, to culinary school, and then on to restaurants. All the recipes are very home cook friendly but also have fun twists and techniques added from my professional cooking career to hopefully help make you a better home cook. From salads, to breads, to pastas, to proteins, and sweets, there’s something for every day of the week, any event or occasion. The chapters are also laid out to easily plan a fun dinner party menu from the apps to the sweets.
My favorite part of the New York culinary community is the excitement and willingness to collaborate with each other and the immense creativity that’s all around. Planning my cookbook tour has been such a dream. When reaching out to book stores and restaurants to work with for the tour, everyone has been so receptive and have had such fun and creative ideas for us to partner. It's so fun to get to work with people you have looked up to for so long!
Thank you so much! People often ask me what inspires my recipes or how I get new ideas. My answer is almost always seasonality and what I have access to locally. It's really important to me to promote using seasonal and local ingredients through the recipes I share and what time of year I share them. One of my favorite things to do to spark creativity is to meander through a local market and get inspired by not only the products themselves, but also by the people who are behind them.
Ahh such a hard question, but one of my favorite dishes in general is a lovely roast chicken. The one in my book is so, so delicious and simple, but also a bit unique. I create a flavorful spice mix using porcini mushroom powder that adds such a great depth of flavor and also helps the chicken skin caramelize quite nicely. I spatchcock the chicken, season it with that rub and let it sit overnight uncovered in the fridge if time allows. Then, I roast it in a cast iron pan with a bunch of shallots that end up becoming utterly tender and soak in up all those yummy chicken drippings. I finish the dish by making a really quick red wine vinegar and honey pan sauce to pour over everything. It’s a really good chicken.