The culinary lifestyle as art.
Chances are you are familiar with Denise Vivaldo’s work, even if you don’t realize it. She’s the behind the scenes cog that keeps that wheel of food going. Chef, caterer, spokesperson, teacher, consultant, producer, author, and now food stylist. She’s in IT, knows IT, and everyone that matters in food. I own several of Denise’s books . I suggest you order them as they are fonts of information. Continue reading “Coco Questionnaire 5 Questions with Denise Vivaldo”
I returned home last Saturday after a fun, enlightening , and a bit hectic week in one of my favorite cities in the world, Vienna Austria. Some of my readers may know of my decade long connection to this city. The purpose of this trip was twofold, to produce content for American Airlines Black Atlas and for familial reasons. My late uncle, Bob Curtis, friends were having an exhibition for his works. I have to so much to share, so stay tuned for videos and articles from the trip. Besides food , my other passion is travel and I hope to record more of what I see as I explore the world.
So after along flight with connections a delays, there really is nothing like a home cooked meal. Chicago was cold , raining and bleak. My freezer was bare and Certain Someone was prepping to fly out later that evening.With turkey legs in the freezer , I decided to make us something satisfying and comforting as I decompressed and shaked off the jet lag and CS launched into his work week. My inspiration for this came from a New York Times article. I changed up my techniques and ingredients. In Vienna this past week I noticed a huge Asian influence from the diverse population. I have had some dubious Asian style style cuisines in my European travels, but everything I ate in Vienna was top rate. Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese, etc. Fresh chilies added liberally to my dishes gave a great sinus clearing and metabolism inducing kick. The Viennese embrace the exotic.
In life you can have many types of friends that each fit into a type of box. I met The Alchemist ten years ago at a French Wine tasting class.The class was composed of five women, who to this day are still in contact, even though we are scattered geographically and politically. I wouldn’t say any of us are best friends, but we are there for each other and always bond over a bottle or two of wine and great food , which is what brought us together in the first place. Out of all the women, The Alchemist is the one I’m closer to and encourages my culinary dreams, when I cant see the potential inside myself. I get so so busy that I sometimes just need to accept an offer of something creative and unique.
“Wanna make some Mead?”, the Alchemist said.
My first thought was , that was the stuff she goes on about at the Renaissance Festivals. And then I started to think of the whole hippy dippy culture that converges onto the annual Renaissance Festival at the border of Wisconsin. I remember tasting the honey based fermented wine once on an extremely hot day with her, and don’t remember being wowed by it.Exaggerated images of her drinking Mead in Renaissance garb popped into my head. It’s hard for me to commit to a lot of things socially , but I blocked off October 31st in my calendar. I really didn’t give a thought to the date having any significance. As the Alchemist has more disposable income than myself, she invested in the wine making equipment. The first Mead was going to be a Pumpkin Pie Mead an I was going to bring the spices of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg along with some label designs. The Alchemist had piles of noted from conversations with Mead experts.Mead making is an exact science with no room for bacterial contamination or error. All of the ingredients were laid out on her granite counter.On her counter sat fifteen pounds of cloudy Wisconsin honey from her mentors own apiary, waiting to be clarified.Earlier The Alchemist had filled cases of old wine bottles, which we would recycle to bottle with water from her parents spring fed lake.We proceeded to boil and sterilize the water, then filter .While clarifying the honey , and heating, and filtering the water, we plotted out a flavor profile and I suggested a few black peppercorns to blend out the flavor.
“Come here”, she beckoned as she stood over the steaming hot water we were about to filter. “It smells like the lake”, she enthused. “It smells like the earth”, I acknowledged.
Mossy and flinty, I understood at that very moment what Terroir in wine making is all about. The flavors of the land infused in your wine. We pondered if filtering would erase that scent that wafted through our nostrils and the sweet pumpkin, honey, and spicy herbs will all converge.
“I will pitch the yeast at the strike of 11:11 “, she said as she sprinkled bee pollen and golden raisins to our Must, the combination of heated water and honey.
The pumpkin would be added later on in the process. She then measured the density of the solution. Still warm from the hot honey, we had to wait for it to reach the proper level. I had noticed she mentioned pitching the yeast at eleven before. But like many things she says I really didn’t gather the significance. The Alchemist then went on to explain the significance of the Samhain or the the date and auspicious Grand Trine timing of the pitching of the yeast. It was all about the Autumnal equinox and this was to be her first series based on the midpoint season of the year. So it wasn’t about cutesy pumpkins on Halloween , but more about paying tribute to our local harvests, resources and respecting the cycle of nature. I took my last appreciative swig of an Apple Mead we drank while working. At the end of the end of day I had new found appreciation for the for the process and the beauty of Mead, the drink of the Gods, and glad I could share a unique moment with my brilliant , scientific, if not quirky friend. I could not wait for the fermenting to succeed and for us to rack our beautiful golden liquid , which be ready by the New Year. We ended up doing a total of three rackings and finally bottled it January 31st to make way for The Alchemist’s new red Mead project. The wine is still young, and a bit dry. By Fall it should be ready to consume befitting it’s theme of Pumpkin Pie. The cycle of nature truly at work. Take a look at the slide show and video for more on the three month process.
My regular readers will know postings have been pretty sparse since the new year began. The reason being there was a lot of change going on and to sum it up, I was just exhausted. My longtime boss and mentor had resigned after over 40 years and in entered a new one. As with such things they have their own agenda and all one can do is their best, even if they haven’t been given the tools they needed for a long time to do it. So you plug along in a job essentially set up for failure and do your best to placate and partner with the angry loyal clients who have been given the short end of the proverbial stick along with you.
Yesterday was my last day of working for a much beloved company. You always wonder and fear when it will happen , and one day it does.As I faced the cold new boss and the HR manager , who seems to be doing this chore more and more these days, I felt nothing but cold emptiness. I didn’t say a word and just took the manila envelope proffered to me , held my head high and walked out of there forever. All I cared about was the pictures of my mother , Certain Someone, and my scrap books and photos of my dear colleagues , many who are gone, that worked and toiled along with me to make my accounts successful and viable. Current friends and colleagues were shocked with disbelief as they let three of us go that afternoon. I have never felt more loved than I did yesterday afternoon and evening. When you are made to feel invisible and worthless by management, its nice to know others appreciated and valued you, as I valued and loved them. Even the security guard was visibly upset who greeted me every day since 1998.
A few weeks ago a colleague and friend of Certain Someone asked him why I blog, cook, and dabble in all sorts of things. Certain Someone explained how I had a job that treated me and my accounts like crap, but I stayed on to pay the bills and believed things would get better. My release came at night when I could explore my creativity through my cooking and writing, and now soap making. It was in these areas I found value , worth, happiness , and most important MYSELF. Don’t get me wrong. I admire and respect the company that took a chance on me many years ago. It was an honor to work for legends in Black America. I have learned so much there. The negative change really didn’t occur until a major management shake up years ago. From then things were never the same for all of us, as with the rest of corporate America, along with the challenges of reviving a brand that was dated and lacking innovation.
So now I sit here typing this with sadness, but a sense of relief. As Certain Someone pointed out I haven’t been happy for a long time with my treatment, and they underpaid and used me. Its time to find something I love and will be paid my worth. I can now focus on the things that I couldn’t working a 9 to 5. I will still seek that 9 to 5 , but one that values me and recognizes my worth. My mother always said throughout her short life that there was no greater feeling than being your own boss. I see the young professionals now moving on to a new company every few years. One no longer stays and makes a career or really create anything of lasting value. Loyalty to employees and employers is dying trait. If it’s one thing I learned is this:
I have crossed a milestone. My work is in print! Be sure to check out my article entitled When in Rome…Life is Abbondanza . I had the pleasure of interviewing several African American expats, including NYC Caribbean Ragazza, and paying tribute to late uncle who called the Eternal City home for many years. Support Coco Cooks and traditional print and be sure to pick up a copy of the February issue of Ebony Magazine. There are three covers to chose from celebrating the Hottest couples of 2011.
