ariana lambert smeraldo, Bottega Veneta, floral design, lily lodge, murano glass, parrot tulips
In Design on February 8, 2010 at 4:25 pm
garden roses in a 1950's h & co. heinrich bavarian porcelain vase © lily lodge
We are less than a week out from Valentine’s Day, a holiday I hated until I met my husband. This year my friend Alex and I are cooking a Japanese-themed menu for 10 of us, and our Tokyo expat neighbors are bringing the sake. I’m so excited—Alex and I are shopping in Little Tokyo later this week for plates and bowls—we’re going all out.
In the meantime, I’m thinking about flowers for the table for Saturday night’s dinner. Mr Foodinista has exquisite floral taste, and I’m hoping that it leads him to Lily Lodge—a spectacular organic florist on Robertson run by the very chic Ariana Lambert Smeraldo, whose daughter is in music class with Tiny G! She used to work in fashion and it shows (we first met when she was at Bottega Veneta). Ariana hand selects beautiful vases ranging from 1940s Murano to Qing Dynasty Peking Glass, and the flowers are every bit as stunning….Parrot tulips, Dutch hydrangeas, New Zealand peonies and anemones are just a few of the offerings.
parrot tulips © lily lodge
breakfast, caviar, grilling, petrossian, pressed caviar
In Food on February 8, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Friday’s lunch was quite decadent as was dinner, thanks to some pressed caviar I purchased at Petrossian in West Hollywood. While pressed caviar is traditionally made from the “dregs” or leftovers, Christopher Klapp, GM at Petrossian, says “we use the same high quality caviar that we would sell jarred/canned…so we are using 100% Transmontanus caviar with a new Petrossian recipe so we do not need to use the leftovers. We would never want people to accept us giving them anything but the best caviar products possible!”
It’s pretty dreamy stuff, and Petrossian’s chef Ben Bailly likes to toss with pasta, which sounds incredible. In reading my email this morning, I discovered that both Christopher and I had the same dinner on Friday night—grilled steaks smothered with pressed caviar! We both agree that the steaks were good, but chef Ben Bailly did one better and made a light red wine sauce to go over theirs. Here are the grilled ribeyes (sans sauce) that Mr Foodinista and I enjoyed with a glass of Nicholas Feuillatte brut rosé. Talk about surf and turf!
It was a fun, if pricey, experiment but I’m not sure that I would repeat it as the flavors were perhaps a little lost in the fatty richness of the ribeye. I would, however, gladly repeat my breakfast experiment the following morning – every day of the week if money allowed! I mixed in some of this super concentrated pressed caviar with scrambled eggs and topped with a little cracked pepper and a dollop of sour cream. Whoa, was this good—little salty surprises in each bite and the intensity of flavor simply sublime. Now if only I could win the lottery…
AKA APPROVED, ashley koff rd, Glamour, health, InStyle
In Food on February 7, 2010 at 12:06 pm
The other day, a reader posted the following comment: Are you fat, Foodinista? I suppose the answer is in the eye of the beholder. If you are asking a fashionista, then yes. I’m 5′8″ and a size six or medium, which is arguably “large” in the fashion world. If you ask a foodie, the answer is likely a kinder, gentler no. I eat what I like, and yes, I run about 15 miles a week and that’s not including chasing after Tiny G. But the honest truth is that when you eat/drink for a living, portion control is way more important than exercise when it comes to keeping off the lbs. And after Tiny G was born, I definitely needed to shed a good 20 lbs. Later this week, I’ll tell you how I did it—and it was all thanks to my friend Ashley Koff RD, a superstar nutritionist AND foodie who is featured in this month’s Glamour and had a great spread in the December issue of InStyle (above). Ashley adds, Being a “foodie” is one of the healthiest approaches to food. When we consume real food, we get satisfying taste and nutrients which tend to fill us up and provide the right balance of energy. What is that “right” balance? Aim for a serving of carb, protein, and healthy fat + unlimited veggies about every 3 hours – see the AKA menu worksheet in the client resources section at www.ashleykoffapproved.com.
So, Ash, is a pig in a blanket a “healthy fat” if I eat it with carrot sticks?
