I have spent my whole life looking at the world through food. Food is sensual and heart based, emotional and passionate. It is at the heart of where you come from. When sharing food with people, you tell stories of how you came to know and love what you are sharing. You often go back to childhood to tell stories of how you came to love it, your unique way of preparing it or describe where to find the special ingredients you use to make it. You connect intimately with the people you are with.

I have always found strength and belonging through food. From giant crepe like pancakes that my grandmother would pour into the pan and imagine a tail or an eye out of the drips of batter, to one of the best connections I ever had with my dad when he re-invented a new cookie out of a dough that would’ve been wasted because I hadn’t followed the recipe. In college, my roommates and I would take turns cooking dinner weekly for each other, which resulted in everything from creamy chicken beneath a crispy roasted broccoli topping, gooey caramel chocolate brownies with big chunks of dark chocolate to sharing the stories of failing a test, nights out, failed dates, and finding our first jobs. I started supper clubs in Atlanta where I first began my career as a teacher, and with neighborhood friends when monthly we met and cooked together, each of taking turns picking a course and a theme. I raised my kids around the kitchen table and built relationship cooking and connecting over food.

For 11 years, we lived in Beijing. I learned to cook Chinese dishes in a hutong with a teacher who also had her heart in food. We’d begin by walking around the neighborhood where she would share secrets of the best meat vendor, what vegetables and fruits were in season and how to use all of the unique ingredients to be found in China and then we’d wind up around the table eating the food we cooked and sharing our stories. I hosted a Western cooking class for Chinese women. Here, I learned the passion China feels for food and those they love, as we sat around the table weekly, eating what we cooked and sharing our lives. I learned how to say everything from pepper (hei hu jiao) to olive oil (gan lan you) to cinnamon (gui pi fen) in Chinese, and important things like, how to pour salt on a burn and let it sit to kill the pain, and the necessity of putting slippers out to be a good host. These may seem like small things at first, but it is at the heart of trust, when you care enough to tell people the small things, so they feel more like they are at home.

After 11 years of traveling, cooking and eating through everywhere from Japan to Kenya, we moved back to Charlotte. Here, I work at Daveste Vineyards where I get to teach the excitement of growing grapes and making wine. Driving past the vines, to the people who have become like family, gives me a sense of belonging and passion for the beauty of tending carefully to grapes with the hope that your work will bring a beautiful wine to share. Wine has become like food for me, and at it’s best, it comes with stories that share the heart of the people connected to creating it and the food that goes alongside.

I am exploring Charlotte to find community, as always, through food and wine. I am excited to share the local cheeses, wine and chocolate being made here as well as the best sources for cooking food from around the world. As I explore, I am excited to find that it is all here; from the green curry paste I use to make Thai Green Curry, the Sichuan Peppercorns that are essential to Chinese dishes to the Israeli Tahini necessary for the best hummus. Here, I will share what I find and what finds me.