Interviews — Moonbeam Kitchen

interviews Lily Chait

Lily and I have been friends since birth! Our parents were friends before we were born and then we became friends. Lily is a private chef in the Bay Area and has cooked at places such as Chez Panisse, Post Ranch Inn, Esalen, Lucques and Mozza. It has been so special to watch my friend thrive in her culinary world in the Bay Area. Her approach to food and feeding others is all about nourishment - in the making of it and in the ingredients. Since leaving Chez after the pandemic, Eating with Lily, her catering and private chef business has flourished. She even got to cook on the road for Phoebe Bridgers and Boy Genius the last two summers.
Read my 16th interview ︎︎︎

interviews Moss

Like many of the people I interview for my site, I found Moss via Instagram. We have a handful of mutual friends but apart from that connection, I was mesmerized by her approach to food and cooking. Her interests in food, plants, sound, and scent are woven together in her project Moss Face. In one of her Instagram posts she introduces a bottle of her homemade mead: “This mead is all about love, unwrapping bandages and blowing kisses with strangers in kayaks.” She goes on to describe the herbs she used in the blend. It is one example of how food is used as a vehicle for exploration of a different realm. We had a lovely chat over the phone where I learned about her exploration into these different dimension as well as her newest life chapter – perfume school in Grasse, France! Read my 15th interview ︎︎︎

An oxymel of fig leaves and fruits (equal parts honey to apple cider vinegar infused with the plants over 3-4 weeks) reduced into viscous syrup and poured over pistachio baked brie.

interviews Martha Rose Shulman

Martha Rose Shulman is a name you’ll probably recognize. She used to be a recipe contributor to NYT Cooking and has a collection of 1,657 vegetarian recipes on NYT Cooking. I recently got to speak with her at her lovely home in LA about her work as a cookbook author for the last 50 years, her path to vegetarianism and thoughts about the veggie culture now, and her French, Tex-Mex, and California influences. Read my 14th interview ︎︎︎

Her Fennel, Beet and Orange Salad With Cumin Vinaigrette from NYT Cooking

interviews Michelle Boulos

Michelle Boulos is the baker and founder of No Good Cakes, a custom cake business in LA. She makes intergalactic looking, brightly colored, and floral flavored cakes. I’ve ordered two cakes from her and think her cakes are some of the most beautiful that I’ve seen in my life. We talked in her backyard recently about how she started baking cakes, her life long interest in food, and the value of making art inclusive, especially when it’s food! Read my 13th interview ︎︎︎

Vegan rosewater white cake + grapefruit blossom soak + passionfruit curd + rosewater buttercream + passionfruit jelly made for me!

interviews Tejal Rao

Tejal Rao is the California restaurant critic at The New York Times, a writer at The New York Times Magazine and the author of The Veggie newsletter. She has won two James Beard Foundation awards for her criticism, and her writing was included in the 2018 and 2019 editions of "The Best American Food Writing." I’ve been an admirer of her writing for a while now - she always seems to write about the people and food I’m already interested in. It was very exciting to get a quick response from her when I reached out to interview her. We spoke over the phone about her career, how covid has changed things for her a restaurant critic, and about all the amazing food in LA. Read my 12th interview ︎︎︎

interviews Saehee Cho

Saehee Cho is a chef, poet and creator of Soon Mini, a not for profit business that delivers direct to consumer local farm produce and specialty goods made by local producers to LA residents. Each week Saehee donates her profits to different social justice organizations. Right now she has several pantry items (including my pasta) that donate a percentage to AAJC (Asian Americans Advancing Justice). This venture grew out of a desire to take care of friends at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown and has grown into a community effort that encompasses the whole city! I met Saehee in her back yard to learn more about her vision for Soon Mini going forward, her time catering art critiques in grad school, and her favorite poets. Read my 11th interview ︎︎︎

interviews Nina Weithorn

Full disclosure, Nina Weithorn is one of my best friends so I am admittedly biased; she is amazing. Nina brings her spirit of curiosity, the desire to share, and an abundance of knowledge to everything she does. She is one of the Ninas behind Ziza Urban Farm. Her backyard in northeast Los Angeles is the farm where she and chef Nina Anakar source produce for preserved food products, medicinal herb blends, and educational resources to share. She is a cook, a natural dye wizard, a dabbler in herbalism, a knowledgeable teacher on gardening, and indigenous land management practices. Read my 10th interview ︎︎︎

Photo by Jessica Chappe

interviews Julie Wolfson

Julie Wolfson and I met while I was writing an LA Weekly article about a Now Serving event. I started seeing her at the Hollywood Farmers Market and remembered that she taught me in the Virginia Avenue Project acting program when I was young. This reconnection after many years has been meaningful. I admire the zeal she has for community, food, the stories she writes of her friends, for genuine human connection and adventure. Julie came to my house on a Sunday after the Hollywood Farmer’s market, we sat on my couch with cups of tea, and chatted about how she began food writing, her work, being a mom, and her favorite LA restaurants. Julie has written for LAist, Cool Hunting, and The LA Times, to name a few. Read my 9th interview ︎︎︎

interviews Anya Peters

I’d admired Anya Peters and her pop-up Kit an’Kin from afar for a while, so I finally reached out to her. We talked about how cooking with her family inspired her to start her cooking career. Learning the recipes of her Guyanese and Trinidadian heritage continues to inspire and influence the food she creates for her community. Read my 8th interview ︎︎︎

interviews Liz Prueitt

In 2017 I was the Associate Producer and Research Assistant on the Los Angeles Review of Books Radio Hour (LARB). During that time I had the special honor of cohosting a show where we talked with Liz Prueitt, co-founder of Tartine Bakery. Listen to my 7th interview ︎︎︎

Photo by Andria Lo

interviews Roni Ginach

Roni Ginach and I worked at Michael’s restaurant in 2018 and shared an “office.” I made all the pasta for the restaurant in the wine room. Roni, as the sommelier, was frequently in that space beside me. She shared many stories of her travels and her path to the wine life. While she was the sommelier at Michael’s, she simultaneously represented a few independent wine makers and then co-launched a wine import business, Super Glou. She came to my house in August 2018 to chat about what natural wine is, the nuances of being a queer woman in the wine world, and her business ventures.
Read my 6th interview ︎︎︎

interviews Jocelyn Ramirez

I first met Jocelyn Ramirez at a workshop she led at the LA Kitchen on decolonizing your diet. Her interaction with food through a historical and social justice lens excited me. Months later, we got together for this interview. Jocelyn is a yoga teacher who founded her plant based Todo Verde, and co-created Across Our Kitchen Tables, a skillshare event series for women of color in the food industry. Read my 5th interview ︎︎︎

interviews Jessica Wang

A chef friend connected me to Jess Wang, and we quickly became friends and fans of each other’s projects. She has many venues in which she expresses her passion for food and cooking. She’s the fermented pickle expert behind Picklé as well as the pastry chef behind PIQUE-NIQUE LA, she’s a vintage kitchen ware affionado, and a recipe tester. She also makes coconut hand pies with blue corn flour crust for LASA in Chinatown. Jess does it all! Read my 4th interview ︎︎︎

interviews Sana Javeri Kadri

Sana Javeri Kadri is an inspiration. She is a food photographer, a writer, a cook, a food-grower, and recently launched her own direct trade, single origin spice company called Diaspora Co.. She partners with small scale sustainable spice farms in India. Her first shipment of turmeric sold out in four days, orders and contracts for Diaspora Co. continue to roll in. Her stories are told through a perfect eye for detail. Whether it be a photo of California citrus, a story about her favorite food from her childhood in India or her turmeric yellow infused Instagram campaign for Diaspora Co., she is creating her own space in the food industry. Read my 3rd interview ︎︎︎

Photo by Jessica Chappe

interviews Julia Sherman

I talked to Julia Sherman, the salad enthused artist behind the blog Salad for President. She has interviewed creative people around the world and then collaborated with them on their own signature salad. She installed salad gardens at MoMA PS. 1 in New York City and at The Getty in Los Angeles. Her projects and interviews inspire by fusing the analytical with the culinary. Our interview addresses not only the beauty of a good salad, but how art and food collide. Read my 2nd interview ︎︎︎

interviews Sarah Suarez

Sarah Suarez co-owns and manages the restaurant Gaskins in Germantown, NY with her husband, head chef, Nick Suarez. After Sarah and I spoke I decided that Gaskins is my favorite restaurant in the Hudson Valley. Everything on the menu is simple and comforting and made with local ingredients. When I ate at Gaskins for dinner, the dish that I loved the most (and still think about) was an appetizer of fresh marinated heirloom and sungold tomatoes, basil, and peaches with crispy bits of chorizo. After conducting this interview, I ended working in the kitchen as Gaskins for nearly a year; it was my first job in a restaurant. Read my 1st interview ︎︎︎

Photo by Jessica Chappe

interviews for Good Food

In the summer of 2014 I worked with LA’s independent radio station KCRW and the team of their show Good Food on a series of interviews with bakers in LA about their food memories. With the help of Good Food producer Gillian Ferguson, I interviewed some of LA's most creative and talented bakers about childhood memories, smells and meals from the past that influence them today. I conducted these short three-question interviews weekly, which were then posted on the Good Food blog.