Miriam David, New York City

Miriam David is a lino print artist and textile designer living in the top-floor apartment of a very old building in New York City. She loves filling her sun-soaked, wonky kitchen with flowers from the farmers market every Saturday, and making simple meals that provide comfort and remind her of home.

Where is your kitchen, and what does it look out onto?
Our kitchen is the first room you enter when you walk into our apartment, which is why we spend the most time there. It looks out onto a sea of leafy green trees that make us feel like we’re living in a tree house.

What’s the first thing you do when you walk into it?
Either my husband, Fred, or I will make a beeline for the coffee machine. We love a good coffee first thing!

What’s usually left out on the bench or always within reach?
At the moment, lemon verbena and a tonne of various fresh herbs. I make tea out of the lemon verbena every evening before bed, and we add parsley, coriander, dill or mint to almost every dish. Herbs make the world go round!

What do you make when you don’t feel like cooking, or find yourself making again and again?
My mum’s chickpea dip! I’ve been known to treat it as a whole meal when I really can’t be bothered to cook. It involves a lot of garlic, olive oil, salt, parsley and lemon, plus chickpeas of course, heated low on the stove and then roughly mashed to combine. Served with a bit of bread or crackers, it goes down a treat and reminds me of home.

Who or what taught you how to cook?
My mum taught me, if you can call what I do cooking (I’m more of a baker, which I taught myself). She’s very instinctual in the kitchen and actually trained as a chef when she was younger. I try my hardest to emulate the ease she has while cooking, but it never seems to work out quite so well.

Describe a meal that felt really good recently.
I had a pesky cold a few weeks ago and wasn’t feeling so flash, so instead of the salad we’d planned, we went down to the shops and bought a cooked chook, bone broth and pearl couscous. We combined it all in a pot on the stove, then blended a nub of Parmesan with every herb we could find in the fridge to make a pesto of sorts and stirred it through the broth. The couscous and chicken soaked up all the flavours. It was warm, nourishing and absolutely delicious.

Who do you most like cooking for or eating with?
Fred is the real cook between the two of us. Every now and then he needs a sous chef, and that’s me! I love cooking with him. His mum taught him, and she’s an incredible cook. I’m very lucky to live with someone who knows his way around a kitchen.

What’s a small food ritual or habit you have?
Fred’s scrambled eggs on a Saturday morning. Every Saturday I pop to the farmers market and always grab eggs, bread, butter and armfuls of herbs. Then Fred makes us scrambled eggs on fresh bread. Low and slow is his motto. They never fail, and they’re the fluffiest, most delicious way to start a weekend! I often add a fistful of parsley and a little bit of kimchi. He adds chilli in some form.

What’s something you love making or eating?
I mostly love to bake for my friends here. My signature is a pavlova, although our oven isn’t very good, so lately they’ve been deflating :( My peanut butter choc chip cookies are a little more failsafe. I use the recipe from the Towpath cookbook, from my favourite little cafe in London. When we lived there, I made these cookies every single Sunday. The recipe calls for muscovado sugar, which I could get easily at M&S in the UK. It’s trickier to find here, so I use dark brown sugar instead!

What do you like listening to in your kitchen?
All sorts of things! We have a tiny little portable speaker that plays anything from jazz to the Beatles. This past Saturday we listened to Gabby Pahinui while Fred made us eggs and I drew.

What’s something slightly imperfect in your kitchen that you still use or love?
The whole kitchen is wonky and imperfect, and I love it. Our landlord built the benchtop around the stove and boiler by hand. The cupboard he bought to go underneath was too short, so he filled the gap with planks of wood. We recently had to replace the boiler, which meant the whole benchtop had to come off temporarily (it took three people!). Ever since, I’ve been convinced a strong breeze could blow it to pieces. Everything else is on a slant, as the floorboards have bent and warped over time. Round objects often roll off the dining table or migrate slowly to the other side, and we’ve accidentally lost one or two good glasses to it.

The fridge is decades old but still going strong. The tenant before us painted the whole kitchen bright pink, and before we moved in, our landlord painted it back to white but left the fridge pink in memoriam.

Our beautiful, deep old sink is my favourite part of the kitchen. It has two basins, which is particularly useful as I’m a printmaker working with ink. One side is for dishes, the other is for cleaning ink off my tools.

What’s a meal or food memory that has stayed with you?
Sunday evenings at home in Sydney, sharing food, dessert and wine around the table with my family. We’d fight, laugh, cry: it all happened around that table. Sunday is my favourite day, and I miss that ritual of ending the week by coming together for a meal.

Follow Miriam on instagram here, and here website with her website and art work is here.

Every Saturday Miriam returns from the farmers market with fresh eggs, bread and herbs, and Fred makes his scrambled eggs. He likes to do it low and slow, with parsley and kimchi for Miriam and a little chilli for Fred. We love eggs most days too, and always grow herbs close to the kitchen because we use them so often. Here’s how I make mine…

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We’re already into term four at school and most days of the week I’m making three lunchboxes. Lately the kids have been asking for more food, so I started buying muesli bars before realising I should just be making my own, with less sugar and sweetener and more whole food ingredients.

I love these muesli bars. They don’t need baking and you can use whatever seeds or nut butter you like. I really love the addition of miso, which adds a savoury richness and balances out the sweetness.

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Grace O’Neill Dougherty, Los Angeles, California

This week I interview writer and actress Grace O’Neill Dougherty in Los Angeles. She lives in an old apartment with turquoise kitchen tiles (that I love), an old stove and a breakfast nook where she does the crossword. She loves Sunday mornings at the farmers market, cooking for friends and the little things that make a kitchen feel like home.

Where is your kitchen, and what does it look out onto?

My kitchen is in the North most part of the apartment, it faces another building next door, but not too close that it feels claustrophobic. In the evenings you can sometimes hear other people across the way in their apartments which I have liked these days. It makes me feel less alone.

What’s the first thing you do when you walk into it?

In the mornings I immediately make the coffee. It’s muscle memory at this point, I think I could do it with my eyes closed.

What’s usually left out on the bench or always within reach?

Usually some kind of fresh bread or a package of English muffins, bananas, and a bowl of fruit from the farmers market. Right now in the bowl are passion fruits, plums, peaches, lemons, early girl tomatoes, and lemons. I also love doing the New Yorker crossword and always have it nearby, likely in the breakfast nook.

What do you make when you don’t feel like cooking at all?

Usually some sort of pasta dish, buttered noodles with parmesan and some lemon and salt and pepper. I also have loved making a homemade sauce with sungold tomatoes, zucchini, capers, and fresh herbs. In the wintertime I always make a big batch of congee which is so easy and low lift with ginger, broth, sesame oil, green onions, and a bit of tamari on top.

Otherwise a spoonful of peanut butter, a bowl of cereal, some crackers, or a date with a square of dark chocolate.

What’s something you cook on repeat?

I love roasting salmon. I’ll get a handsome fillet from the fish monger and roast it either with miso or with lemon and salt and pepper. Usually I have it with a side of rice and a salad with whatever veggies are in season at the farmers market.

Who or what taught you how to cook?

I watched my dad and both of my grandmothers cook and bake all the time growing up. I took a liking to baking early on, helping my grandmother make breads, cookies, and cakes in her small but mighty kitchen in Potomac, Maryland. My dad would make us cream of wheat (I still love it, it’s best in winter with a pad of butter and brown sugar) for breakfast some mornings before school, pancakes on the weekends, and had signature dishes (sausage pasta, steak, barbecue chicken, etc) he’d make for dinner, but would always be excited to try a new recipe. I got my confidence in the kitchen from him, learning nothing is too precious and can usually be fixed.

Describe a meal that felt really good recently.

Last week I made these turkey meatballs, a recipe from NYT Cooking that I always come back to. When I have the time, I make it with this recipe for sauce, but if I’m feeling lazy I’ll pour a jar of Rao’s sauce from the grocery store in to save time. I served them with some capellini and had lots of leftovers for the next day.

Who do you most like cooking for (or eating with)?

I love cooking for and eating with my girlfriends, making meals for my family or baked goods to drop off to my community during the holidays. I love sharing what I make with others– I can’t eat it all! My favorite feeling is waking up the morning after a dinner party to dirty dishes and empty wine glasses in the kitchen. It reminds me that my life is so full.

What’s a small food ritual or habit you have?

Despite my acupuncturists’ wishes for me to have warming breakfasts, I love to have yogurt with passionfruit and granola in the mornings. And some nights if I am homesick I’ll have a small glass of milk before bed, something my dad used to give my brothers and I before bed as kids.

I also go to the farmers market in Hollywood every Sunday morning, it’s my favorite ritual.

What is something you love making/or eating?

A roast chicken stuffed with lemon, garlic, and fresh herbs. I’ll either roast the chicken over a bed of potatoes or I’ll serve over a pillow of rice (with the juices from the chicken- best part!) and a green salad. This meal is foolproof. The recipe I use is loosely based on Ina Garten’s Engagement Chicken. If I’m cooking for just me I love making Carter’s broccoli pasta. I have made this a million times and it’s always so nourishing and yummy. For something sweet, I’m always making the same olive oil cake on repeat.

Where do you eat your meals most of the time?

Mostly in the breakfast nook or at the dining table in the next room.

What do you like listening to in your kitchen?

Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Miles Davis. Usually I will put a mix of these on. Otherwise, I am listening to POOG Podcast with Jacqueline Novak and Kate Berlant. I don’t have a dishwasher so it’s always nice to listen to something while I scrub away. This morning I listened to SWV’s Right Here while I made my eggs.

What’s something slightly imperfect in your kitchen that you still use?

My building was built in 1917, so a lot of what’s imperfect gives it character and is what made me fall in love with it in the first place. The stove is a vintage O’Keefe and Merritt and one burner doesn’t ignite when I turn on the gas so I always light it manually with a match. Also, some of the cabinets don’t shut but I’ve gotten used to it, I think it’s charming! The knobs are hand-painted.

What’s your favourite thing about or in your kitchen?

The turquoise tile is my favorite, and the evening light that comes through the windows.

A meal or food moment that stays with you:

I remember the first time I tried a passionfruit when I moved to California almost 6 years ago, standing in our kitchen with my then roommate, now best friend, Devon, as I scooped the contents of the fruit onto a big spoon and crunched down on the seeds. It was so sour and sweet, I loved it. I’d never tasted something so resembling a place.

Links to my Substack are here and Instagram is here as well as my columns for Marie Claire here.

Grace loves having yoghurt with passionfruit and granola for breakfast, and so do I. I make this miso granola regularly, but lately I’ve also been saving the kids’ half-eaten apples and using whatever fruit needs eating to make a compote. Often it’s the last of the strawberries from the market before I go and get fresh ones for the week. It’s such a nice way to use up leftover fruit, and it’s delicious on top of yoghurt with granola, or just on top of yoghurt.

Here’s how I make it...

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I’ve been really enjoying cooking lamb recently. Lamb isn’t as common where we live as it is back home in New Zealand, but there’s a breed of sheep farmed locally called Dorper, which are self-shedding sheep. We buy the lamb from our local farmers market, and the kids love it too.

This recipe is easy to make, and I like that it doesn’t use tomatoes for a change. The fennel adds a lovely sweetness to the dish.

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Tedi Stoyanova, Amsterdam

Kitchen at Carmen is a café in Amsterdam that runs out of Carmen Amsterdam Guesthouse, a guesthouse run by Carmen and her partner Joris in their family home. I’ve never been fortunate enough to visit myself, but I’ve sent Jack there on his travels, and he once brought me back a birthday present from their wonderfully curated shop.

Kitchen at Carmen is the kind of place I would love to work. It’s small, light and open, and has the feeling of being in someone’s home, which it is and I love that.

Where is your kitchen, and what does it look out onto?

The kitchen is tucked away at the back of the CARMEN shop, on its own level. Once you enter the shop, everyone gets a little peek into it through the cutout in the wall. As you walk up the stairs to enter the kitchen, you are immediately greeted by windows all around. The main window is above our stovetop and faces the back garden. It’s so beautiful to see the changing of the seasons! In summertime, everything is bright green and I can peek down from the window and look at the customers below. I definitely feel spoiled being able to cook with sunlight all around.

What’s the first thing you do when you walk into it?

Of course, I turn on all the lights and machines, including the oven, dishwasher, and toaster. I get everything up and running. I’m usually the first person in, and I enjoy that moment of quiet when the building and guests are still asleep. I make sure to take a moment for myself to plan the day with a coffee and the clipboard, going over what is ahead.

What’s usually left out on the bench or always within reach?

Many things, but I think the bread deserves a special mention. I spend most of my day standing right by the bread station. We have beautiful raisin bread, seeded rye, and sourdough from a local bakery, all so delicious. I’ll often start my morning with a slice, and before long, the team begins popping by too, whether they need a quick breakfast or a little afternoon jam and butter sweet treat.

What do you make when you don’t feel like cooking at all?

Eggs! It’s funny because they’re the thing I make every day, all day, year after year. But even when I’m at home and not working, I’ll make eggs for my partner and me. When I don’t feel like making an elaborate staff lunch for my coworkers, I’ll make them all omelettes. It’s something I know I can do without even needing to turn on my brain.

What’s something you cook on repeat?

Lentils and beans are on repeat at CARMEN, whether we turn them into soups or salads. They’re the best hearty base for it all. The process of cooking them is always meditative, they taste great, they keep well, and they’re always a crowd-pleaser.

Who or what taught you how to cook?

Mostly cookbooks, along with a few wonderfully talented friends who always answer my crisis texts when I’m needing advice on roasting duck or rewhipping buttercream. I’ve often been alone in the kitchen, professionally, so I always reach for cookbooks. I do think there are too many cookbooks nowadays that aren’t properly tested and just dump recipes on you with a few buzzwords. It’s important to reach for cookbooks that teach you about the seasons, produce, techniques, and methods to build a foundation as a cook.

Describe a meal that felt really good recently.

My new colleague Manon and I just made a Lamb Marbella for our weekly special. It was so tasty and full of flavour, and we got great responses from our customers! It felt good to get something roasting in the oven for so long and to get it right on the first attempt. It always feels even better when a good idea comes from working together.

Who do you most like cooking for (or eating with)?

At the café, my favourite table to cook for is one where someone has brought their family, whether it’s their mom, dad or grandparents. There’s something really special about someone choosing to take their parents out for lunch at a place they love. To think they consider us good enough to share that time with the people who mean the most to them feels like an honor. It is heartwarming every time.

What’s a small food ritual or habit you have?

Eating salad with my hands, haha. I always grab the leaves with my hands, even if I’m seated properly. Everyday I grab quick bites of salad to taste the seasoning and also to just get something into my system.

What’s something you love making?

I love baking, especially working with doughs and batters to make cakes, scones, or cookies. I think what makes baking so different from savoury cooking is that you have to let go of a little control. You weigh everything out, mix it all together, put it in the oven, and then just hope for the best. There’s no sneaking a taste halfway through or adjusting the seasoning at the last minute. You have to trust that you’ve got everything right. I find that both nerve-racking and exciting.

Where do you eat your meals most of the time?

The moment I enter the building, I usually stay in the kitchen the whole time, even when I’m eating. Most of the time, I’m standing, which is very common practice for cooks, of course.

What do you like listening to in your kitchen?

Lee Hazlewood, Leonard Cohen, Simon & Garfunkel, mostly. I love the intimate feeling of their music. It’s romantic, with this confessional delivery that’s perfect when you’re cooking alone. I always want something gentle and intimate. I don’t like rock or heavy jazz. It just stresses me out so much. Jazz solos or guitar solos in the kitchen are chaos in my opinion.

What’s something slightly imperfect in your kitchen that you still use?

It’s embarrassing to say, but my favourite chef’s knife has a chip in it that I’ve postponed fixing time and time again.I love that knife so much that it doesn’t even make a difference to me. It’s a workhorse. But I think any other chef would judge me. But do as I say, not as I do. Take care of your knives everybody!

A meal or food moment that stays with you:

At CARMEN, I have people passing through the kitchen all the time. When someone chooses to stay in there with me to have their lunch, enjoy a snack, or drink their coffee, I feel so happy. It’s the little moments like that that make my day. I strongly believe the kitchen should be a place of warmth. Traditionally, professional kitchens can be rough and tough environments, but I really want this one to feel inviting. Of course, I’m running a café, but at the end of the day, we’re in a house, and I want that feeling of home to extend into the kitchen. I want it to be a place where our team feels comfortable and where anyone who drops by feels welcome to stay a while.

Follow the Kitchen at Carmen here and Tedi Stoyanova here. If you find yourself in Amsterdam, be sure to visit Carmen and stay a few nights.

Eggs are a common meal in our house too, and always seem to be the perfect thing to eat. We’re lucky enough to have 12 chickens who provide us with lots of eggs to feed the family. We eat them all sorts of ways but omelettes are a favourite because, for some reason, lots of kids don’t like eating the yolks when eggs are boiled or fried.

My eldest, Patience, has recently taught herself how to make omelettes, which is so great because now she can cook me a meal.

Here’s my recipe for a simple omelette from my second cookbook.

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Three Weeks in Greece

This trip to Greece has been a long time coming for me.

I had planned to go to Greece last year and meet a few friends over there, but when their plans changed, I started to realise just how anxious I was. It wasn’t something I’d really experienced before and I didn’t quite know how to deal with it. I got as far as checking in at the airport but I couldn’t get on the plane.

Over the past year I’ve spent a lot of time working through my anxiety, trying to look after myself as well as my family, and getting back into exercising. I also managed a quick trip to Japan with a close friend last year, which reminded me how much I love travelling and how good it feels to have a little time away.

This year I felt ready to go, and my best friend Sophie wanted to come with me too.

It was exactly the break I needed. Three weeks of laughing, swimming, eating, walking, meeting people, staying up late and having nowhere in particular to be. I lost track of the days and the time and I haven’t felt that free in years.

I’ve put together some of my favourite places from the trip, along with a few old favourites from previous visits. I’ve also added everything to maps throughout the post, including plenty of places I didn’t manage to visit this time but would still recommend.

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Hannah Maurice, Great Barrier Island, New Zealand

Hannah is an artist living on Great Barrier Island, which is off the coast of New Zealand. To get there you can take a five-hour ferry from Auckland or a short flight in a small plane. There are very few shops and the scenery is stunning.

Hannah lives with her husband in an off-grid house on community titled land. Their property is only accessible by boat, followed by a half hour walk through the bush to reach their home. I find this way of life so inspiring!

It was quite hard for Hannah to get enough reception to send me these photos from what she calls the “edge of the earth”.

Where is your kitchen, and what does it look out onto?

Our kitchen is in the South East corner of our small wooden house in a remote bush valley on Aotea. We live off grid and access is only by boat then feet. Our house is basically a cabin and feels like being inside a fat little bird. You look up to the rib-like rafters, and covered verandas run along the north and south sides like stubby wings.

Above my sink is a long window, I see the sunrise and the weather rolling in over the treetops. The other window over the wooden bench lets me look out to our currently laden lemon tree.

What’s the first thing you do when you walk into it?

In the morning I make the fire and grind the coffee. Our wood stove provides cooking, warmth and hot water, it’s the heart of our kitchen for sure.

When my husband Ben is home he does the fire and breakfast, but work days it’s me and my sticks.

What’s usually left out on the bench or always within reach?

Most everything is out accept for food, I have big tins for flour and rice and many jars, a pantry with cats painted on it to keep mice away and a window seat full of coffee beans and lentils safely stowed. Plates are out and stacked, spoons and implements hang next to the stove, I have quite a few teapots, ones I’ve made and shiny brown ones that I seem unable to leave in op shops. These migrate round the house, I brew lemonbalm, ginger, and gumboot in them.

What do you make when you don’t feel like cooking at all?

Toast. Every secondish day I bake a sourdough loaf so that we never run out.

I make my toast on top of the wood stove lying flat on the cast iron, then a sluice of oil and a nice drizzle of honey or a thatch of parsley with salt, and maybe a hard boiled egg. I adore eggs and we have insane bush honey from our neighbours hives. I try and make my sourdough extra sour, the ferment tang + honey is one of my fav taste combinations.

What’s something you cook on repeat?

I make bread on repeat and cakes too. I make everything from scratch, we like to eat this way, it aligns with our values and our budget. I always have a cake in the tin, at the moment mostly lemon or banana because we’ve got a lot of both from the garden. I cook fish often. Ben keeps a hand reel on his dingy and will get a kahawai or two on the way home, I bake them whole in the oven with garlic, oil, lemon, soy sauce or wine . I’ll cook all the bones and heads again in the soup pot adding water, greens, chopped chilli and at the end, after straining, a big spoon of miso paste. I”m very waste not want not and I always use leftovers, my kids have bad memories of this lol!

Who or what taught you how to cook?

My mum. I learnt by osmosis mostly, just by hanging out in the kitchen as a child. I’m lucky to have a great mum and I cherish the learning that soaked in.

I also lived in France for 17 years, in the south. My French life taught me a lot about the cultural importance of food, and helped me appreciate the magical aspects of cooking. I was a teenager during the waif look era and that did a lot of damage to the way women of my generation ate and felt about food, France remedied my relationship with deliciousness.

Describe a meal that felt really good recently.

It was a kind of Coq au vin that I made from a rooster I killed. I fish and I help process wild pigs Ben hunts with his compound bow, but I hadn’t killed a bird before. I did slug a big glass of wine before heading to the hen house. The plucking was abit sad, gutting was interesting. The little rooster got slow cooked with wine, herbs, and shallots. I served this with roasted kumara.

All of these things I’d grown in my garden….except the wine. I then used the bones and feet to make soup with lemon and chilli so we got another two meals out of Peewee the rooster. The soup also helped ease Ben’s cold. I felt good about this meal or meals because I accomplished a daunting task, made nourishing yummy food, and it was super sustainable.

Who do you most like cooking for (or eating with)?

My husband, he loves everything I make and has many helpings. I still make too much, I’ve been a mum for over half my life so it’s ingrained.

I like meals with my family, we have many good cooks and home cooking is an integral part of all our lives. It’s always a treat to eat with my kids, my son Ruben visited from France last year and cooked us a sublime soupe aux poissons.

What’s a small food ritual or habit you have?

I always cut the little core part out of tomatoes if slicing or cutting them. My mum once heard on a jokey cooking programme that only mean people leave them in….its BS of course but it always pops into my mind….though a couple of mean people I know do leave them in….so go figure!

What is something you love making?

I love making jam and cooking fruit. We don’t have a fridge so preserving produce is important.

I love the colours of stewing plums and the smell of lime marmalade bubbling. I used to make fig jam in big copper cauldrons as a part of a day job I had in France, I like making bubbling brews, I love the jewel colours. Putting away glowing jars is so satisfying, it’s like being Brambley Hedge mouse.

Where do you eat your meals most of the time?

At our table, its in the kitchen end of our living space, Ben’s chair has a seat cover made from an old dress of mine, and my little wooden chair is upholstered with fabric my daughter Rose gave me. One end of the table is covered in stuff like seeds drying, my work paints and brushes, jars of nails, lemons, buttons….there are candles, we have only a little solar power. We eat all our meals at our table and have candle lit dinners every night.

What do you like listening to in your kitchen?

My Dad listens to RNZ concert 24/7 and Bene has started tuning us into this at breakfast, it’s calm, beautiful and sometimes hilarious. We have a 12 volt car stereo amp and an analog speaker so I can bluetooth my playlists, these are a mix of everything I’ve ever listened to and I have many dancing moments. If it’s a rainy day and my work is not too intense I listen to history podcasts like RNZ Black Sheep. I also love the sounds of the bush, and because I often have pots on the stove I need to keep an ear out, you can do a lot of cooking by listening.

What’s something slightly imperfect in your kitchen that you still use?

Basically everything, no joke, everything is old, thrifted, gifted or found, and I feel that it’s all imperfectly perfect. I broke the lid of my vintage Temuka ovenware crock pot, damn it, but the pot part still bakes a perfect loaf, it’s a treasure.

A meal or food moment that stays with you:

I would say blackberrying with my kids when they were little, the joy of finding plump sweet berries and juice staining our mouths. Collecting and growing food is my favorite part, it’s magical to me.. I get a thrill finding fruit , collecting eggs from my chooks and catching fish. I love my hearth and my witchy cosy kitchen and I enjoy keeping us healthy and nourished, but my best food moments are outside when I’m treasure hunting things to eat and cook.

Follow Hannah’s art here.

Hannah loves to bake, and so do I. Yesterday I made a blueberry cake for Jack’s birthday, with ingredients we had at home and here’s the recipe..

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In Greece, lots of the cakes and desserts are soaked in syrup, and this orange pie is one of them. It has a lovely texture that’s almost custardy, with filo pastry used instead of flour, making soft layers through the cake. It’s easy to make and hard to mess up, and because it’s soaked in syrup, it keeps well for a few days. Although it’s hard to stop eating it, so it might not last that long!

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Ella Mittas, Melbourne

Ella Mittas is a chef, writer and printmaker and I’m lucky enough to own a copy of her first cookbook. She is Greek-Australian and has worked through Greece, Turkey and Italy. She is about to release her second self-published book Ela! Ela! To Italy, Georgia, Bulgaria and Home, a book of essays, prints, photos and recipes.

Where is your kitchen, and what does it look out onto?

My Kitchen is in Parkville in Melbourne. It is opposite a big park, but directly in front of the window I can see into all of the living rooms of another apartment block, it’s a bit of a rear window situation.

What’s the first thing you do when you walk into it?

Depending on the time of day, I will be going into the kitchen for a coffee or a cup of herbal tea. I like to have a hot drink while I work, so in the morning that’s coffee, and then later, licorice tea normally, or Greek mountain tea.

What’s usually left out on the bench or always within reach?

A 4-litre tin of olive oil from Crete, flake salt, and good quality aged red wine vinegar.

What do you make when you don’t feel like cooking at all?

One of my favourite snacks is Cretan barley rusks; they’re called paximadia, and they’re made with 100% barley wheat. I have them broken up with olive oil, salt, raw garlic, tomato and feta, sometimes a soft-boiled egg.

What’s something you cook on repeat?

In our house, we have something called legume Sundays where we make a big pot of legumes to last us the first part of the week. These are normally legumes braised with tomato and olive oil, but they might be dishes like gigantes, lentil soup, or brothy braised chickpeas.

Who or what taught you how to cook?

My family are all excellent cooks, and I grew up with lots of cooking around me. I started cooking from a really young age and would make whole meals out of cookbooks for my very patient parents. Mum says I’d serve everything cold because it took me so long to serve anything. And then much later, I worked in lots of kitchens. So I learnt from a big variety of places.

Describe a meal that felt really good recently.

Recently, my partner, my son and I went to a wedding where there were hours between the ceremony and the reception. We were all dressed up and went to have lunch at Roma, in the Melbourne CBD. We just had so much fun, the service was really considered, and the food was such a treat.

Who do you most like cooking for (or eating with)?

My partner probably. Cooking for people is definitely my love language, so I love making things I think he’ll really enjoy. I have a five month old baby, and I’ve started to plan to cook for him too, which I’m so excited about.

What’s a small food ritual or habit you have?

I think it’s probably dousing everything in olive oil and then adding flake salt when I’m serving it, even if it doesn’t need it. I keep saying that the reason my son is growing so fast is because of all the olive oil I eat.

What is something you love making?

I love making vegetables braised in olive oil. Greek and Turkish cuisine has a big collection of vegetable meze served at room temperature. When I worked in kitchens across Greece and Turkey, it was my job to make these dishes, and I still love them.

Where do you eat your meals most of the time?

On the couch. We have a very big and very comfy couch; the window that it sits under looks out onto some very beautiful gumtrees.

What do you like listening to in your kitchen?

Either Pam on NTS, or if I’m cooking alone for the whole day, a podcast, something like Novara Media.

What’s something slightly imperfect in your kitchen that you still use?

Nearly everything in my kitchen is imperfect. I cater so much and cook so much that anything that comes into it ends up very well used. We have a stick blender, for example, that has one of its internal parts loose; every time we go to use it, we have to click it back into place. It’s a miracle the part hasn’t gone missing yet.

A meal or food moment that stays with you:

There is a restaurant in Istanbul called Ciya and they have a salad bar that is a buffet and is priced by weight. They would always have a selection of wild greens braised in olive oil that you could chose from. I always found it amazing.

Follow Ella on Substack here and instagram here and look out for her new cookbook!

I love barley rusks and when I am in Greece I eat a lot of dakos salad. As it is coming into Summer in Australia, we will be able to find the big heirloom tomatoes just are juicy and less acidic. These are the perfect types for this kind of salad. You can purchase the rusks online from Greek importers like here. Here’s how I make a Dakos salad..

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I’m home from Greece, always inspired by their way of eating. In three weeks away I only cooked once but I never get tired of simple Greek flavours.

I came home to a clean house and kitchen and a nearly empty fridge, and made this Greek inspired bean dish. Even the kids loved it.

In Greece they use gigantes, or giant beans. You can find them in Australia, but they’re hard to come by where I live. Any canned white beans work well here.

I’ll share more about my trip next week, but for now here’s a recipe to enjoy.

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Gabrielle Mirkin, Topanga Canyon, California

Gabby, the sister of a close friend of mine, is originally from New Zealand but now lives in California. She has a honey and skincare brand called Activist, which uses honey sourced from New Zealand. Living in Australia, I miss Mānuka honey and love all Gabby’s products. We both share a love of Greece and I’ve been using her body oil while here and my body soaks it up, and it smells divine.

Where is your kitchen, and what does it look out onto?

My kitchen sits up high on a mountain in Topanga Canyon, California and it looks out onto wide expansive views of the Santa Monica Mountains.

What’s the first thing you do when you walk into it?

Usually turn on the espresso machine, have a big glass of water and light my favorite Bodha incense.

What’s usually left out on the bench or within reach?

Multiple jars of ACTIVIST Mānuka Honey in different grades, a yummy California olive oil, flaky sea salt, Canyon Coffee beans and a big bowl of colorful seasonal fruit and citrus from the Topanga farmers market.

What do you have when you don’t feel like cooking at all?

A leafy green salad or simple rice bowl with some kind of vegetables and a fried egg on the top with some chili crunch oil.

What do you eat or drink almost every day?

I always start the day making a flat white for my husband and I, made with coconut or cashew milk. A big smoothie is my morning ritual every single day. I add banana, greens, fresh ginger, nut butter, hemp seeds, sometimes collagen, creatine or herbs. Or sometimes Carter’s simple greek yogurt smoothie with berries or mango and Mānuka Honey. My children love this.

What’s the last thing you made, even if it was simple?

Last night I made my boy’s favorite dish – it’s a baked chicken dish with turmeric, white wine vinegar, smashed green olives, loads of parsley, cilantro and a bit of garlic. I serve it with rice and a leafy green salad. I also roasted little cherry tomatoes slowly in the oven with olive oil and herbs. We sat outside under the big bay tree and had an early family Sunday night dinner.

Is there something you make on repeat without thinking?

Usually rice bowls for the kids because they are so easy and everyone loves them. I cook rice and chop up a whole lot of different toppings – chicken, tofu or salmon, mini cucumbers, spring onion, cashews, cilantro, seaweed, sesame seeds, ginger, tamari and Japanese mayo for the kids. Or a simple roast chicken with butter, garlic and herbs.

What do you have late at night or early in the morning?

Late at night I always drink dandelion tea with Mānuka Honey and a dash of nut milk. Sometimes some dark chocolate with Mānuka Honey and a sprinkle of sea salt (it’s so good!)

Is there a drink you make all the time?

I like to juice greens in my juicer – everything and anything green that I have lying around in the fridge! I used to drink celery juice daily for years.

Is there something you always order when you’re out?

A campari spritz in the summer time! Or a glass of orange wine.

Is there a place you go back to for the same meal?

We mainly cook at home because where we live is very isolated with not many food options. I also prefer home cooked meals. When the kids and I venture out into Los Angeles, our go to spot is always Vietnamese – chicken pho soup, fresh spring rolls with tofu and mint and the crispy spring rolls that you wrap in big lettuce leaves with a yummy fish sauce. The kids also love dumplings and Japanese.

What’s something you’ve eaten recently that stayed with you?

I’ve just been in Greece for the summer with my family, and pretty much every lunch at a simple Greek taverna on the sand has stayed with me! Big delicious greek salads with fresh local Sifnos cheese, stewed chickpeas with loads of lemon baked in traditional clay pots, almyrithra (local sea asparagus) and vlita (amaranth) simply blanched with olive oil and lemon juice is my favorite. Soft local cheese with honey comb.

How do you take your coffee or tea?

If I am having a hot coffee I love it with a dash of cream or nut milk. I also am very partial to an iced latte in the afternoon.

Where do you eat your meals most of the time?

We eat most of our meals outside under a big oak tree looking out onto the mountains. We are lucky enough in Southern California to be able to eat outside most of the year.

What do you like listening to in your kitchen?

My dad’s old jazz records – Pharoah Sanders, Miles, Alice Coltrane, Mulatu Astatke, ’70’s psychedelic rock, African pop, and my mum’s playlist of all her favorite songs – Paul Simon, Van Morrison, The Beatles, Leonard Cohen, George Harrison...

What’s something slightly imperfect in your kitchen that you still use?

My favorite ACTIVIST x Gidon Bing coffee cups that I have broken the handles off a few of them! But I still like to use them for my morning coffee as the crackle finish makes them imperfectly perfect anyway.

A meal or food moment that stays with you:

My mum’s roast chicken that she used to make for my sister and I each Sunday. Her thin French crepes with lemon and sugar that she would exclusively make on weekend mornings. My dad’s vegetarian lasagne he would make for my sister and I as kids. It was a huge production that would take hours – fresh chard leaves, kumara, courgette, eggplant, homemade tomato sauce and three different types of Italian cheeses and loads of fresh herbs.

Follow Gabby and Activist here and here.

I’m in Greece and about to walk over the hill for a Greek salad, almyrithra (my favourite vegetable), fish and a swim. First though, I’m sharing a simple grilled peach recipe. While not every house here has a proper kitchen, they usually have an electric two-burner stove and a pot. This is the perfect breakfast or dessert.

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Recently in Vanuatu, we were lucky enough to eat fish every day. Fresh snapper was caught locally, and ‘coconut fish and chips’ were on most menus. If there was one meal I had to eat every day, it would be fish, potatoes and greens. This is my version of the coconut fish and chips we ate in Vanuatu, crunchy coconut fish, sweet potato chips and a really simple cucumber salad with lime.

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Matilda Riek, Brisbane

Matilda owns a restaurant called August, inside a charming church in one of Brisbane’s inner-city suburbs called West End. I’ve spent some time in Brisbane, as my in-laws live there and it’s really grown on me. It reminds me of inner-city Auckland, with its hilly landscape and old houses with palm trees and banana palms in their backyards, it’s just missing the sea. I’ve visited Auguste a few times and it’s hard to find a restaurant with such a special atmosphere. I always feel it makes a huge difference when the owners are present and the food is delicious too!

Where is your kitchen, and what does it look out onto?

We live in a Queenslander, with beautiful timber floorboards, and the original glass casement windows. Our kitchen is at the back of the house, and looks out onto the huge back yard. From the kitchen sink, we look out onto the huge backyard. There is a jasmine tree directly in the centre, which blossoms in spring. Our neighbour has a huge Moreton Bay Fig tree, which extends over into our view. Through the other windows, we get the golden sunrise light, through our neighbour’s palm trees.

What’s the first thing you do when you walk into it?

Usually give something a clean so that we can start the day afresh. Then, turn the coffee machine on.

What’s usually left out on the bench or always within reach?

Salted butter, olive oil, celery salt, pepper, a bulb of garlic, a few vinegars I brought back recently from France.

What do you make when you don’t feel like cooking at all?

I defrost a batch of Dahl from the freezer, with some greens in olive oil. Otherwise, it’s some kind of legume in olive oil with garlic and onion, and whatever vegetables are around.

What’s something you cook on repeat?

Pasta! To be honest, I think I could eat pasta every night and never get tired of it. Pesto is always a favourite, and it’s something I grew up making and eating, with basil from mum’s veggie garden. Always with lots of parmesan!

Who or what taught you how to cook?

I grew up in a family that was very much focused on good food. My mum always says she wakes up in the morning and immediately thinks about what she is having for dinner. She’s a very generous cook and, to this day, is just as likely to drop off a batch of baked goods as she is to host a dinner party for forty.

Describe a meal that felt really good recently.

We were lucky enough to visit The River Cafe earlier this year, after using their cookbooks for years, and it was as special as I’d hoped. It was such simple cooking, and yet so perfect and unpretentious

.Who do you most like cooking for (or eating with)?

My partner, Brad. He is a chef and I think he appreciates being cooked for on our days off. It’s also nice to eat at home, when we spend a lot of our nights at the restaurant. I also love being invited to my parents or my sister’s house for a meal. They are both very generous cooks and it’s so nice to be cooked for sometimes.

What’s a small food ritual or habit you have?

Dark chocolate in the afternoon with green tea. It’s such a simple thing, but it’s something I now crave most days.

What is something you love making/or eating?

At the moment, I am making a lot of flourless chocolate cakes for some reason. It’s a recipe that is just melted chocolate and butter, folded through eggs which have been whipped for a long time. I have always loved baking, and find the method and process enjoyable. Today I made an upside down blood orange cake, for my dad’s birthday dinner.

Where do you eat your meals most of the time?

We always eat dinner together at the dining table. This is something we did every night when I was growing up, and it still feels like an important way to end a day.

What do you like listening to in your kitchen?

It depends on my mood. Sometimes I will put a podcast on, but often I just like the silence as too much background noise can get distracting, especially when baking.

What’s something slightly imperfect in your kitchen that you still use?

Our oven heats up quite unevenly. The top shelf is too hot and the bottom shelf is the opposite! But, I have made a lot of wedding cakes from that little oven, so it gets the job done!

What’s your favourite thing about or in your kitchen?

My Kitchen Aid mixer - for years I thought it was an unnecessary thing to have. It was the first thing Brad bought for me, and now I can’t imagine baking without it.

A meal or food moment that stays with you:

We landed from a very long flight recently, and arrived home to a batch of warm quiches, fresh bread, eggs, and Italian almond biscuits, all made by my mum.

Follow August here and here and visit for a meal if you are ever in Brisbane.

Matilda loves baking and so do I, I was lucky enough to be gifted a Kitchen Aid for my 30th and I love it for baking. You can find second hand Kitchen Aids on marketplace, or a budget friendly alternative is a hand mixer. They are a helpful kitchen tools for anyone who enjoys baking. Here is my favourite flourless chocolate cake recipe:

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When I visit Yamba, I love to visit Beachwood café and the owner, Sevtap, always has a few different cakes on the counter and I always have to get a piece. This cake is inspired by her and a great cake to make when passionfruit are in season.

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Kerrilynn Pamer, California

I’ve been a long-time admirer of Kerrilynn and her brand, Cap Beauty. I love all her products. My favourites are the serotoner (the most divine-smelling facial mist), matcha, hochija and matcha granola. I also love that she’s a dog lover and is truly beautiful inside and out. One day I hope my fridge and pantry is as orderly as hers too.

Where is your kitchen, and what does it look out onto?

I recently moved from Los Angeles, my current temporary home base is Tesuque, New Mexico, about ten minutes from downtown Santa Fe. I’m in a little casita in the mountains, surrounded by sage, juniper, pine trees, red clay and many animals. Including a bat that is currently my roommate. My kitchen window looks out onto an expansive sky with comically large clouds. Everything here seems so much bigger.

What’s the first thing you do when you walk into it?

I light a stick of incense, either gold by Perfumer H or Ground by Bodha. Then I drink an obligatory glass of water before making my espresso in a stovetop Bialetti. I recently downgraded from a very fancy and complex espresso machine and am loving the analog nature of my new routine. I fill it up with ground espresso—I’m currently drinking Ethiopian Worka Sakaro from Red Rooster—and then get it started boiling on the stovetop. While that’s happening, I’ll cut some fruit or toast a slice of my sourdough bread, load it with butter and a slather of our newest collaboration: a raspberry hibiscus jam we made with Sqirl in LA. Then I take it back to bed, and happily eat while I write.

What’s usually left out on the bench or within reach?

CAP salt and olive oil, my Japanese copper container with ground espresso beans, fruit, sweet potatoes, bananas. And a toaster.

What do you have when you don’t feel like cooking at all?

Popcorn is a pretty common dinner for me these days. I’m in the midst of some major life changes and although cooking is one of my greatest joys, lately I can’t seem to bring myself to cook at the end of the day. I know I’ll get back to it at some point, but for now, I’m doing what I need to do. If it’s not popcorn, it might be grapes, or something I’ve pulled together from the fridge.

What do you eat or drink almost every day?

I drink a ton of water, one espresso and a matcha. I always eat some type of salad, eggs, and sourdough and I also eat a lot of fruit. I love snacking so I’ll often have plates of pickles, olives, nuts, crackers and whatever dip I have. Since I’m in New Mexico right now, there are so many options that include chiles, which I’m ecstatic about. I have a sprouted hummus with roasted red chiles in the fridge right now. It’s delicious.

What’s the last thing you made, even if it was simple?

A friend suggested coming up with four dishes to make while I’m on the road, which iss such a simple and smart idea. Since I don’t have the convenience of a fully stocked kitchen, I’m trying to be creative with what I do have. That being said, when I left LA, I brought a lot of ingredients from my kitchen since I couldn’t bear to part with them. So this week I made a quinoa salad with red chile flakes and saffron, pine nuts, capers (all brought from LA), red peppers, tomatoes, salt, olive oil and lemon juice and zest. It’s a great dish to have in the fridge, and it just gets better with time.

Is there something you make on repeat without thinking?

I have been making gluten-free sourdough for about a decade now. I learned everything I know from my brilliant friend, Aran Goyoaga. When I lived in LA and NY I had a consistent routine of making sourdough every week. Now that I’m on the road, my schedule is a bit more open to change, but I did bring my starter on my two day drive, and it’s happily resting in my current fridge waiting for its moment in the oven.

What do you have late at night or early in the morning?

I like to have fruit when I wake up, and I love having popcorn or chocolate at night. I try not to eat too close to bedtime because I find it harder to sleep, but I do like having a small snack before bed.

Is there a drink you make all the time?

I live for my morning espresso. When I’m out it’s a cortado. And not to sound too cliche, but I adore matcha throughout the day.

Is there something you always order when you’re out?

Always a salad, typically with fish. If the menu includes french fries made in a dedicated gluten-free fryer, I’m over the moon. I have celiac, so when this is an option, I’m absolutely ordering them.

Is there a place you go back to for the same meal?

In LA I was a regular at All-Time, Honey Hi and Sqirl. I miss each spot for their own particular charm.

What’s something you’ve eaten recently that stayed with you?

Last week, I ate a meal at the Tune-Up Cafe in Santa Fe that was so good I went back two days later. It was a perfectly cooked piece of masa coated trout with scrambled eggs, red chile sauce, corn tortillas, pinto beans and sauteed greens. It was my ideal meal, I can’t stop thinking about it.

How do you take your coffee or tea?

I take my espresso black, if it’s not that, then it’s a Cortado. Matcha with coconut butter and a date, blended until frothy in a blender.

Where do you eat your meals most of the time?

Since I’m not in my permanent home right now, I’m eating at whatever table is available. Right now I’m eating my meals in front of two wide-open windows, taking in the view. It’s pretty nice.

What do you like listening to in your kitchen?

I love the idea of listening to music but have come to realize that silence suits me best when I’m in the kitchen. My car is where I listen to music. Currently I can’t stop playing Dijon.

What’s something slightly imperfect in your kitchen that you still use?

I have a few pieces from my Aunt Maggie that are very old and show significant wear and tear. One is a whisk, the other is a wooden knife that I use for buttering my toast. It brings me a silly amount of joy.

A meal or food moment that stays with you:

My mom’s twice baked potatoes or homemade french fries and her caesar salad. My dad’s fried chicken, and my grandma’s trailblazer cookies and her tapioca pudding. I wish I could sit down with all of them and eat this meal today. I don’t think I appreciated them enough while they were all still earthside.

Follow Kerrilynn here and Cap Beauty here.

Kerrilynn loves to eat popcorn for a snack and it is something we eat a lot of too. I have figured out how to make the best popcorn at home, and it’s an affordable snack! Here’s how I do it..

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As a New Zealander, my favourite chocolate is Whittaker’s (this is not sponsored, I genuinely love it). It’s recently become widely available in Australia and I use the dark block, not the super dark, for this brownie.

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Fanny Singer, Los Angeles, California

Fanny is a writer, cook and mama living in California, and I have followed her along since I first heard about her mum, Alice Waters, when I was in my twenties. One of my most cherished memories is from when Patience was a baby and we were touring with Jack’s band, and none of them knew what Chez Panisse was but I had booked a table. We showed up looking really messy, but we were treated just like everyone else, and the waiter even gave us two desserts. To me, a great meal isn’t just about the food, but also the service. Not only am I inspired by her mum, but I’m also inspired by Fanny and her work too. She has an online shop, her own books (a new one coming out soon) and co-author of a Substack I love too.

Where is your kitchen, and what does it look out onto?

We have a small Victorian bungalow so when you walk into the house you’re walking directly into the living room. The kitchen is a little further beyond off to the left on the other side of one of the loveliest remaining original features of our 1900ish craftsman: a green tiled fireplace. The kitchen itself is a bit of a galley, and a room sorely in need of some updates to make cooking and moving around in it easier and more pleasurable. But for now, it gets the job done just fine. We live in Highland Park, a neighborhood in northeast LA, so our view from the kitchen is a stretch of the San Gabriel mountain range. I love these mountains, especially in the wintertime when the early evening light turns them violet. A Dutch door at the back of the kitchen leads onto the garden and immediately outside is my modest herb plot, a place I visit multiple times during meal prep for an array of fragrant leaves.

What’s the first thing you do when you walk into it?

I walk over to the speaker and turn on NPR so I can bask in the horrifying news du jour. Then I put a pot of water on to boil for my daughter’s breakfast oatmeal and make (or commission my husband to make) a matcha with beautiful tea from Kettl.

What’s usually left out on the bench or always within reach?

A pair of semicircle cutting boards from my homeware brand, Permanent Collection. I designed them on the model of an antique key-maker’s work board— thick enough to stand up on their ends which makes them great for small(er) kitchens. Not a plug just a fact—ha!

What do you make when you don’t feel like cooking at all?

Coming Home Pasta always cure the cooking blues

What’s something you cook on repeat?

Garden Salad Tacos. Simplest, most satisfying, endlessly appealing breakfast/lunch/dinner

The Green Spoon

Our Favorite 10-Minute Breakfast, Lunch Or Dinner

Hi Friends…

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2 years ago · 15 likes · 4 comments · Fanny Singer and Greta Caruso

Who or what taught you how to cook?

My mother is the chef and activist, Alice Waters, so, needless to say, I’ve been exposed to cooking and a love of food all my life. But I had a lot of other people in my world who were fantastic cooks and from whom I learned about ingredients and textures and flavors less common in my mother’s kitchen: the cooks and writers Niloufer Ichaporia King and David Tanis, namely, and also the many chefs at my mom’s restaurant, Chez Panisse, under whom I staged during summer breaks.

Describe a meal that felt really good recently.

I’m up in Winnipeg, Canada currently, whose seasons are radically different from those of Los Angeles, so we found a huge bag of locally-grown English peas that were just exquisite: right at that magical moment when they’re big enough to shell easily but still super tender and sweet and not at all starchy. I decided on the spot to make a Risi e Bisi for my husband’s family and it may have been the best risotto I’ve ever made. I give the lovely sweet carrot broth that my mother-in-law had on hand a large portion of the credit. It was mild but interesting—a perfect backdrop for the peas.

Who do you most like cooking for (or eating with)?

My daughter, Cecily. She’s nearly 4 and eats everything and is always so genuinely excited about dinner. When we start eating, if she likes something, she’ll declare it “the best food ever” and that right there is enough to fuel the endless cooking that parenthood requires.

What’s a small food ritual or habit you have?

I love popsicles. We make them out of blended fruit on a weekly basis because my daughter is crazy for them too, but I finally had to give in and start supplementing with store bought ones (generally from Goodpop—they’re made with just organic fruit, no dyes or flavors or added sugar) because some days are just 3-4 popsicle days and even the most industrious home cook can’t keep up with that kind of demand!

What did you is something you love making?

Salad. I’m just obsessed with salad and love the ritual that it requires: a genuinely contemplative moment with the season’s produce to decide what type of salad to prepare; the time it takes to trim and wash and carefully roll up leaves in kitchen linens; to prep other veg (slice and ice bathe, or roast or blanch or braise); pounding garlic in my mortar and pestle for a vinaigrette; selecting which type of vinegar or citrus might be the best complement; GLUGS of green-gold olive oil from my dad’s Sonoma orchard, etc, etc. I have a dedicated salad cookbook, Salad, Always, coming out with Knopf next spring so, needless to say, I’ve taken my obsession to the max.

Where do you eat your meals most of the time?

At home, around our dining table, at 6pm, generally the moment my husband walks through the door. I never imagined I’d be a 6pm dinner-eater, but then I had a kid and now an 8pm dinner makes me feel like I’m dining in Spain lol. Breakfast, on the other hand, is something my daughter eats while sitting on the countrer while I prepare her lunchbox contents.

What do you like listening to in your kitchen?

Either the aforementioned sense-of-doom-inducing public news radio station, or endless seasons of old ER which I often have running on my laptop while I cook and scarcely look at but rather half-listen to like a radio play.

What’s something slightly imperfect in your kitchen that you still use?

I’ve made a pretty concerted effort to weed out plastic implements and tools from our kitchen for all the obvious reasons but I cannot let go of an ancient bright, egg yolk-yellow plastic handled Tupperware strainer that belonged to my husband’s grandmother. It’s both pleasing to look at and incredibly functional—exactly the size I always seem to need for whatever task I’m undertaking.

A meal or food moment that stays with you:

The way my mother holds a piece of fruit as she deftly slips the skin from its flesh at the end of a meal. The dining table in my childhood home—where my mother still lives—has always had a bowl placed at its center containing some variety of seasonal fruit. This was dessert every night, with few exceptions. I can hear the phrase from my childhood ringing in my ears: “Fan, can you get me a sharp knife and a plate, please?” And I would cross the room to the knife drawer, which I knew to approach with caution, and select a small wood-handled paring knife. I would bring this and a small salad plate to where my mother was sitting in front of the fireplace and she would feel around the fruit bowl for the best specimen. The moment would endlessly elongate as she methodically relieved a peach of its fuzzy sheath or shimmied a ripe pear from its gritty skin, or sectioned an orange, but slowly, slowly. Then she’d cut the thing into perfect crescents and, depending on the company, either directly drop these in our mouths or array them on a plate to pass around. I will hold this memory with me always.

Follow Fanny here: @fannysinger and her shop Permanent Collection and also The Green Spoon Substack

Fanny loves making popsicles for her daughter Cecily and we enjoy making them too. Especially since the good ones from the store are so expensive! I also like adding smoothies to them and they think they’re ice cream. I have great stainless steel moulds and here’s how I make them.

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I’ve been enjoying crumbed chicken lately. It’s a simple dinner to make and the kids love it too. One day my friend made a similar salad and I’ve recreated it. The bitter leaves, sweet mandarins and salty olives complement the chicken perfectly and this meal is great for lunch or dinner.

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Yasuji Hisai, Auckland, New Zealand

Yas and his partner, Fumi, own a small cafe called Coffee Pen in the top end of Auckland city. It’s a shared building serving the best coffee and home-cooked food, under some big trees. Yas brews the coffee while Fumi cooks in the kitchen. When I was quite pregnant with Patience, I did a pop up in their cafe to serve toast like I used to in my shop with Sophie, Harry and my brother Ferg. We sold out in a few hours but it was a fun morning. I remember staying up all night baking bread and cookies in Harry’s small oven in batches. I love it at Coffee Pen.

Where is your kitchen, and what does it look out onto?

We live in a small apartment, so when you open the entrance door, you are already in the kitchen. It looks out over Basque Park, and we can see the Waitākere Ranges in the distance. The kitchen faces west, so on good days we get really beautiful sunsets.

What’s the first thing you do when you walk into it?

Usually the first thing I reach for is a drink. Either alcohol or sparkling water.

What’s usually left out on the bench or within reach?

Pretty normal things. Salt, black pepper, shichimi (Japanese chill pepper)

What do you have when you don’t feel like cooking at all?

Probably Tenshinhan, which I loved when I was living in Japan. It’s a very simple Chinese-influenced Japanese dish — soft crab omelette over rice with sweet and sour sauce. Very comforting and easy to make. Or Cacio e Pepe.

What do you eat or drink almost every day?

Coffee. Alcohol maybe three days a week.

What’s the last thing you made, even if it was simple?

Yakitori. If the weather is nice before a day off, Fumi and I often put a small charcoal grill on the balcony table and barbecue while watching the sunset.

Is there something you make on repeat without thinking?

Steak. We both really love New Zealand beef. We have a few favourite butchers and cook steak at least once a week. Usually sous vide for a few hours, then finished over charcoal and with a burner. Recently I’ve also been obsessed with making potato pavé prepared from the day before.

What do you have late at night or early in the morning?

Not really either of those. But maybe once a month I lock myself in my office and listen to music until 3 or 4 in the morning. Those nights usually involve beer, wine, whisky, gin… a lot of alcohol.

Is there a drink you make all the time?

Nothing besides coffee. We live close to Pen, so even on days off I usually walk down to the shop and have coffee there.

Is there something you always order when you’re out?

Beer and chips.

Is there a place you go back to for the same meal?

At Ralph’s, burgers, chips and fried chicken.
And Apero — a bit like Pen, they always have changing specials, so we’ve probably been going there for almost ten years

What’s something you’ve eaten recently that stayed with you?

Probably the T-bone steak and pork chop from Mapari Meats in Mt Wellington. It wasn’t rich like wagyu, but the flavour in the lean meat really stayed with me.

How do you take your coffee or tea?

I don’t really drink tea. Coffee is usually black or piccolo.

Where do you eat your meals most of the time?

Mostly at the small table in our kitchen.

What do you like listening to in your kitchen?

There’s never really one thing. We don’t have a TV, and unless we’re watching films, there’s almost always music playing at home. We both tend to like darker sounds — ambient, electronica, noise. But also techno, jazz and post-rock. Recently we’ve been listening a lot to “The Way Out of Easy “ - Jeff Parker. It’s probably one of the albums I’ve enjoyed most over the last few years.

What’s something slightly imperfect in your kitchen that you still use?

Honestly, almost everything. Most things are old, broken, chipped or things we couldn’t use at Pen anymore. We’ve never really spent money making the kitchen look nice.

A meal or food moment that stays with you:

Since moving to New Zealand, we’ve really started enjoying food in a different way. In Japan, a lot of cooking is built around soy sauce, mirin and sake — simple and balanced flavours. But here we discovered completely different ways of building flavour through herbs, spices, nuts, cheese, olive oil and all kinds of fresh chillies.

For the first five years, we often didn’t even understand what people were talking about when describing food. We didn’t know the names of many ingredients or dishes, and we didn’t have those flavour memories yet.

There are honestly too many memorable meals to name. A lot of them came from people around us — food-loving friends like James, who helped us build Pen in the early days; Michael and Sarah, who used to import small Japanese BBQs; another James, who took photos for our Pen book; and many chefs from restaurants and cafes who have shared food, ideas and moments with us over the years. Carter, you’re definitely one of the people who gave us those moments too:))

Follow Coffee Pen here and if you are ever in Auckland, make a stop here.

Yas and Fumi love New Zealand beef, and I’ve been enjoying meat from our local market or the organic butcher in town. I had some leftover rib eye in the fridge and decided to make a simple Japanese dish called Gyudon. It’s fried beef with onion and rice. This easy meal was delicious and my kids would love it too. Here’s how I made it.

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Pho is a a fragrant Vietnamese noodle soup, that is nourishing, easy to make and a family favourite.

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