Bonjour, Buongiorno, and Welcome!
Starting seeds, kneading sourdough bread, and finding paths through abandoned fields; that’s where you’ll find me.
Life in the kitchen has made me a forager of delectable tales.
I call Chapel Hill, North Carolina home and am delighted to have founded the C’est si Bon! Cooking School. Now a second-generation business, the school continues to offer boutique culinary experiences locally and around the world.
Recently, I launched The Whispering Kitchen Archive, a gathering place for stories of kitchens, travel, mythology, gardens, memory, and the hidden origins of The Elysian Legacy.
My oldest son, Erick, is a culinary wizard whose artful approach to teaching everything from sushi to the Mother sauces inspires students of all ages. His enthusiasm for travel and adventure knows no bounds, and he now leads the school with a balance of precision, warmth, and wanderlust.
Alongside his brilliant partner Abbie—our program director, lavender whisperer, and orchestrator of boutique culinary journeys—they continue to keep the spirit of the school thriving. Her gifts for marketing, student outreach, and her uncanny ability to midwife both ideas and golden retriever puppies into the world make her indispensable in our kitchen and beyond.
My youngest son, Jaryd, brings stories to life in a different realm. A gifted rigger and animator, he contributed to How to Train Your Dragon and now helps shape the future of immersive storytelling. His wife, Ana, serves as a program officer at the James Irvine Foundation, supporting meaningful and lasting change across California communities.
I also count myself fortunate to share life with a devoted beekeeper and tender of tender roses and peonies and look forward to many more adventures gathered around long tables with family, grandchildren, bread, stories, and honey.
"Let there be work, bread, water, and salt for all."
~ Nelson Mandela
Over the years I’ve also contributed to a number of anthologies and literary collections, including Feisty Flash Fiction: Women Behaving Badly, Blink: Flash Fiction Before You Can Bat an Eye, and Original Sin: The Seven Deadlies Come Home to Roost — volumes that now seem to wander the used-book world in increasingly elusive fashion.
After an excursion to the ABC Islands, Food Historian Ken Albala invited me to contribute to The Americas, Aruba and Bonaire in Volume 2 of the Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia.
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