The Storied Recipe

This is a week of transition for my family, so I'm bringing back one of the most loved, listened to, and commented on episodes ever - "I am Piotr's Granddaughter"⁠ with guest Lydia Cottrell⁠ ⁠ In this powerful episode, Lydia embarks on a search to find her long-lost family in a tiny Ukranian village. Impossibly, she finds them and says, "They immediately knew that I belonged to them. ⁠ As Lydia is...

Welcome to a short but packed bonus episode with Michelin-starred pastry chef, Monique Chan. Monique turns the tables and begins interviewing ME about my experiences and struggles with creativity and productivity as a mother, the passion I felt for wedding photography, and even my perceptions of myself. Then Monique goes on to share her own definition of what it means to be an artist and discusses...

Ever wonder what it’s like to work inside the finest restaurants in the world? I have! Today, Michelin-starred pastry chef Monique Chan is giving us a firsthand look inside two famous restaurants completely across the globe from one another. At the The French Laundry in California, which was called “The best restaurant in the world, period” by Anthony Bourdain. Monique was tasked with the all-impo...

So grateful to welcome Diana Silva to the podcast today with a set of stories that will challenge and inspire us to live with more love. Diana is a YouTuber, podcaster, and author of the book Molé Mama: A Memoir of Love, Cooking, and Loss. The book begins when Diana’s mother, Rose, was given 3 days to live. It chronicles the 13 months that she outlived that diagnosis - the 2nd time in her life tha...

/*! elementor - v3.11.1 - 15-02-2023 */ .elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=".svg"]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image img{vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block} Welcome! I’m very honored to introduce you to Danielle Ellis. Danielle is an Ambassador for the Real Bread Campaign and Judge for the World Bread...

Helen Au is a natural born storyteller. Those who follow her on Instagram constantly share her content, not only for the beautiful imagery, but for the intimate, detailed memories of her childhood that she shares in every post. Sometimes sad, sometimes funny, and always poignant, Helen's words usually feature her parents, first generation immigrants from Vietnam, and the sacrifices they made for t...

A question for you - What did your heritage give you? How does the legacy of your parents - your grandparents keep you afloat through life’s struggles? For today’s guest, the answer was immediate: Dorina’s parents and grandparents taught her the value of hospitality. Over a decade ago, Dorina Gilmore-Young wrote Cora Cooks Pancit - a celebration of heritage, Filipino culture, the dinner table and...

Can you imagine the freedom of living fearlessly? It’s my pleasure to introduce you to Kimberly Espinel, a London-based food photographer, educator, and very recently author of the book Creative Food Photography . Kimberly hosts the popular and informative food blogging podcast titled Eat Capture Share . She also hosts the seasonal food photography challenge over on Instagram by the same title, Ea...

Welcome back, readers, and thank you for coming by again today! I’m bursting with excitement to introduce to you Father Leo, the priest who beat Bobby Flay!  Rather than serving in a parish, Father Leo ministers by cooking – cooking for groups small and large, Catholic and non-Catholic, and even on his own television show. And while this may be unusual, Father Leo contends that when he feeds...

Welcome and Happy New Year to you, my dear readers! It’s wonderful to connect with you again - thank you for being here. I’m looking forward to a 2021 full of stories that feed our curiosity and nourish our empathy.  Have you ever tried something new and loved it so much you wanted to tell everyone about it? When Eleni’s mother introduced her to a slow cooker , Eleni didn’t just tell her frie...

I don’t know about you, but as we come to the end of 2020, it feels a little bit like I’m making a crash landing in the mountains - I’m a little dazed and confused, a little worse for the wear. And I think what we all need is a good laugh. That’s why, for the first time ever, I’m re-releasing an episode. This way, even if you don’t follow me on instagram or receive my newsletter, but if you’ve sub...

Such a warm welcome today to Hermine, GBBO 2020 Semifinalist (Season 11). From the first episode of this season, I wanted to sit down for a chat with Hermine, to bask in the glow of her cheerful personality and matter-of-fact wisdom, and to hear a little more about her story. As soon as I followed Hermine on Instagram, I saw that she really stood for something and wanted to use her platform to ins...

A huge welcome today to Eartha Lowe, the creator and editor of Cooking Green Goodness magazine, the first black-owned Vegan magazine in Canada. Eartha was born and raised in Jamaica and named after her father, one of the originators of the Roots Reggae musical movement in the 1960’s and 70’s. While Eartha’s love of cooking was born in her mother’s kitchen, her journey to Veganism was born from bot...

I'm thrilled to introduce you today to Nadia, a Muslim-American who blogs over at Journey to Table . Nadia eloquently describes herself as a "wanderer through life and a lover of spice." As she tells us today, the journey to her table, and the food she sets on it, goes back generations. It travels from pre-partition Pakistan to Nairobi, Kenya, through Great Britain, and finally to New York City. B...

Welcome and Happy Thanksgiving!!! This is a very special episode of The Storied Recipe podcast! Rather than diving deep into one story, we’re diving deep into one holiday - telling the story of Thanksgiving from the perspective of almost 30 families. I want to personally thank every single contributor for taking their time to make this episode for us. These vignettes, sometimes funny, often poigna...

Welcome today to Ify Ogbue, a nutritionist by profession and food blogger by passion, sharing a classic - well, I think we could even say THE classic Nigerian dish - Jollof Rice. (PS - Please allow me to just wave the white flag here and say I’m not in the middle of any national debates over Jollof recipes! I’m just a woman following a recipe from my good friend and podcast guest, Ify.) Anyhow, If...

One of my first questions for Letitia Clark, author of the stunning book “Bitter Honey” was this: How should I classify your book? It is, of course, a cookbook. Letitia has filled the book to the brim with recipes.  After working as a professional chef in many London kitchens, Letitia moved to the remote island off the coast of Italy named Sardinia. These are the unpretentious, “unbossy”, sim...

When I launched the podcast just over a year ago, I included in the launch lineup a short bonus episode where I interviewed my kids about their food preferences and our time together in the kitchen. Throughout the year, including this month, I received messages from people that recently found the podcast and out of 50 available episodes, loved the one with my kids the most. It’s well established t...

Several weeks ago, Juan welcomed me into his chic, beautiful coffee shop, La Coop Coffee in Northwest DC. (I was there to take photos for the episode with Andy Anderson , curator of the hugely popular accounts @humansofcoffee and @manmakecoffee on Instagram.) Juan invited me back to the roasting room, and as he taught me how to tell a lightly roasted bean from a dark simply by listening to the bea...

Lenka is not one to shy away from BIG changes. After spending over a decade earning a PhD (with highest honors) in neuroscience, Lenka decided to pursue a career centered around her love of food. But this wasn't the first time Lenka calmly made a big change. After high school, Lenka left her home country of Germany for Barcelona, just to try something new and maybe to enjoy living near beaches for...

Between when Haniyeh and I chatted in July and today's release date (October 6th), she has moved with her husband and small daughter to Berlin, Germany. When she left Iran a decade ago, she thought she was going abroad for a year. The plan was to earn a Masters in Photography in Strasburg, France, then to return to her homeland. Instead, she fell in love, married, and moved 6 times over the follow...

All together, the Instagram accounts curated by Andy Anderson boast an audience of well over a quarter-million followers. As a food photographer, I was introduced to his most popular accounts @manmakecoffee and @humansofcoffee via the account @foodfluffer , whose bio quite simply states: “the most beautiful food in the world”. I happen to agree with Andy’s assessment of his curation and have looke...

As many of you know, I lost my Facebook and Instagram accounts two months ago, in July 2020. They have not been recovered. You can hear all about that hack in this episode: The ISIS Flag Hack . Shortly after that episode, I started to question the words that I was using to describe the hack: "I lost everything. I had to start over." Considering the community that rallied around me, I certainly had...

Today, I’m so pleased to introduce you to Karishma, an Indian-born woman who relocated to Australia when she married, 2 years ago. Today, Karishma is teaching us about halva, a Indian sweet served at celebration times, made from whole wheat flour, ghee, and simple sugar water. Although the ingredients are simple, the process is not, but Karishma’s grandmother, who cooked many years for a household...

"You never know until you try.” These are the words Britney’s grandmother used to coax Britney into eating her veggies. And after hearing Britney’s story I wonder - did Nanny know that these words would change her life, that they would become her mantra? I’m not sure. But “Just try” has lead Britney to many of her best experiences - learning piano, then bassoon, finally adding in the cello. Britne...