Just a little journey

Follow along as I travel to some cool places, checking out the history, culture and, of course, food systems.

Feb 7, 2024

I just, delightfully, ordered a replacement set of Foods of the World, the  27 Time-Life books I grew up with. The books profile cuisines from around the globe and, unbeknownst to me as a youth, feature some of the greatest food writers of that time: MK Fisher, James Beard, and Julia Child, among others. They came with accompanying spiral-bound recipe books that I experimented with (mixed results) and provided a very young me with a fundamental introduction to what would become two of my life’s passions — food and travel. 

The books were acquired by my mother, who hailed from the islands of Bermuda and chose food as her primary form of cultural interaction. Her time stationed with my father (Air Force) in France before I was born looms large in my upbringing with tales of failed souffles and her resulting lifelong love of butter — so much so that every time I have a nab of dairy fat on the edge of my knife, I think about how pleased she would be.

When I was a young teen, my brother Brian and I convinced my mother that we needed to make many recipes from the Chinese Cooking Time-Life Book. We wanted to put on a feast, just for us. In hindsight, I think Brian and I recognized that my mum was struggling to keep it all together and this idea (brilliant — probably Brian’s) was a way to thank her for just feeding us day in and day out. 

This was project cooking: we pored over the recipes; we searched for ingredients; we cooked for hours. What resulted was a several-course meal that I will never forget. I can still see Brian introducing every single dish with pride, even if we improvised our way through it and made countless missteps. Egg drop soup (Tan-hua t’ang) is still one of my go-to recipes from that night.

For me, beyond honoring my mum, it was a way to scratch my intensifying desire to travel. For one night, we went somewhere. We were IN IT, and through sourcing, trying, failing, and succeeding, we learned about a place we had never been.

My mother and my extended family in Bermuda were (and are) all place-explorers, perhaps because a country that is 20 or so square miles forces a collective foraging of other cultures. So, it’s no surprise I developed an obsession with travel and living abroad. 

I elbowed my way into a foreign exchange program (American Fielding Service ) when I was 15, ending up with a wonderful Swiss family, the Lehmanns, who kept bars (bars!) of mouth-watering chocolate in their fridge just to have whenever you wanted. They also gave me my first experience of an entire dinner made only of cheese. I spent a year studying in South Australia as a college student near the ‘Napa Valley’ of Australia, where the no doubt decent wines were wasted on my young and far too eager palette. I have been seeking out places and cuisines ever since.

Now – soon! — I will be taking a three-month sabbatical from my role as President of Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming. I will be traveling to some of the countries whose cuisines I have surely enjoyed, but have barely or never experienced in situ. Along with my amazing partner, Mark Bittman, we will travel through Japan, India, Morocco, and maybe Greece and another place or two; we’re keeping it somewhat open-ended to allow our hearts (and stomachs) to guide us.

With so much gratitude, I am thrilled to be able to experience firsthand the tastes of some of those parts of the world I’ve enjoyed from afar. I’m eager to learn about the treasures and challenges of other agricultural regions to inspire our work here at Glynwood. I am deeply grateful for the support of my incredible Board in understanding the value of travel in our work and my team , who will help keep the fires burning while I wander, explore, and learn.

 PS - The Time-Life Books mentioned in this blurb will be featured at Glynwood’s new food-focused free lending library at our farm store. Take one home and do some project cooking with the amazing regional food available at the store. The Food of China will be be up for grabs first. Have fun.