My Bio
My passion for good food, for simple food, began at an early age, on a boulder by the side of a creek as I caught my trout for breakfast. I grew up on the same land my great-grandfather owned and worked. This place is called Tulipwood, and there my great-aunt could name every species of plant; my grandmother made meatloaf, balsamic vinaigrette and egg dip with an intoxicating savoir-faire; and my father raised honeybees and quince trees with the care typically devoted to a newborn. This connection to the land and the deep satisfaction one gets from manual labor stayed with me through college and even during the years that I strayed onto the path of least resistance and into the world of finance.
After a bit of soul searching I decided to leave the cubicle world behind and enrolled in culinary school (French Culinary Institute). I soon began to work in farm to table restaurants in the U.S. (Gramercy Tavern and Blue Hill at Stone Barns) and France (La Chassagnette), driving heavy farm equipment, and harvesting both meat and plants for dinner. I found that I was most interested in the foragers and fig collectors and salami makers that arrived to the restaurants with their goods, and soon befriended them and went on journeys with them, through the woods, into curing rooms, and over the rolling hills of olive oil vineyards. My first book “Food Heroes,” tells the story of sixteen culinary artisans across the world, who are fighting to preserve their food traditions.
It was during all this that I decided it was time to really get at the heart of where our food comes from and head to the source—Mother Nature. I bought a shotgun and set my sites on the cutting edge of culinary creativity intent on pushing the boundaries of American gastronomy. The result of these adventures is my new book “Girl Hunter: Revolutionizing the way we eat, one hunt at a time.” It’s been named a Best Book of the Month by Amazon and lauded by the Wall Street Journal. You can read more about the book media here.
I currently roam the world hunting and gathering, tasting good food, and meeting the good people who make it. In any given city, on any given day, you can find me posted up in a café with my shotgun and a glass of rosé.
You can also follow my adventures on Twitter or my Facebook Page!