“The table is where we catch up with each other, where we share and where we meet, whatever happens”

I have a culture that straddles two continents. From an American mother and a French father, who separated when I was very young, I was born and raised in Los Angeles with my mother. My father lived in New York, but when I was 14 I moved to France, where I lived alone in Paris. I went to boarding school in the 6^e arrondissement: I was supposed to stay for a year, for my second, but I liked it so much that I never left again. I had the impression of having a real Parisian life, even if I was in boarding school.

After high school, I studied law at Assas, then business studies at Edhec. Cooking has always been in me. My family is very gourmet, everyone cooks, and we really like to spend time at the table. For my mother, meeting around the meal is essential, in a country where family members generally eat in their corner, in front of a screen. I have a brother who lives in London and two half-brothers who are still teenagers on my mother’s side: when I return to California, it is important to us to get together for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The table is where we catch up with each other, where we share and where we meet, no matter what.

During my high school years, I went back to Los Angeles every summer, and I had a small job as an assistant teacher in a cooking school. As a student, I worked for a cooking and wine magazine, Wine in Style, for which I did all the translations. I worked on different books and publishing interested me a lot, but I also had in mind to go to a cooking school, and I almost gave up my business studies to devote myself to it.

Widen the gaze beyond the plate

For a year and a half, I was an intern in the editorial department of the New York restaurant of Lyon chef Daniel Boulud. In the end, it was the career choice that prevailed: culinary publishing rather than cooking strictly speaking. This internship allowed me to realize that to continue to fully appreciate cooking, it might be better not to be in the kitchen. On my return to France, I applied for all sorts of specialized publications. Necessarily, Fooding was at the top of my list. Alexandre Cammas [le fondateur du Fooding] hired me in communications in 2015, then I moved on to editorial coordination.

Today, the team, younger and more feminine, has grown. I take care of everything we produce: the guide, the events, the content… We evolve, but we always try to tell much more than what’s on the plate. Because the dishes are also the expression of an era, of a feeling. I cook sometimes, when I have time, usually in winter, once the guide is finished. I’m not big on desserts, but these “snowballs,” or “snowballs,” that my family always made for Christmas, are so much more than just pecan shortbread. They are the symbol of my entire childhood, the thread that connects me to my American lineage.