Dream Guest Work. With Just Showing Up. Welcome to a very special episode! Back in February 2015 when I started this podcast, I spent a great deal of time figuring out my core values. Face-to-face interviews? Check. Community focus? Check. Dream guest? That one was easy. Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune in NYC is #1 on my laminated list, both for her otherworldly food but even more so for her panache with food writing. Ever since I devoured her Mind of a Chef episodes and her memoir, Blood, Bones, & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef, I've been praying to the podcast gods to somehow, some way talk with this woman who writes likes I want to write and cooks the food I want to eat.
In this episode, I traveled to Merroir in Topping, Virginia to record her event with Chef Dylan Fultineer of Rappahannock in Richmond - a lunch completely foraged in and around the restaurant. Oysters, rockfish, trout, and greens. Softshell crab and sweet potatoes. Hyperlocal and cooked simply over a grill. With minimal ingredients, so the main one shines through. Around 50 people attended this event as part of Richmond's 4th Annual Fire, Flour, & Fork festival which is quickly becoming one of my favorite food gatherings of the year. Listen and you'll see why. Picture a perfect 80-degree sunny day, no humidity or wind, with only the seagulls, lapping water, and crunching oyster shells underfoot and the happy smiles of other diners as your companions. Gaze at the pictures in my Facebook album as you listen. It's almost as if you are there. Speaking with Chef Hamilton was a dream come true, a major career highlight. Great things happen when you choose to show up for your life.
In the second half of the episode, hear Chef Hamilton speak with Kerry Diamond of Cherry Bombe as part of Gabrielle's keynote address at Fire, Flour, & Fork. Topics include women in the kitchen, the challenges of being a chef, mentoring and what that means, and Gabrielle's new book, a memoir. Pictures are on my Facebook profile. It's charming and funny and thoughtful and only cemented my belief that Gabrielle Hamilton is the ballsiest, most badass chef and writer around. Enjoy!