That same night I asked one of my best friends, Sara McGuire, also in the VCT program, if she knew him; I wanted to know why on earth someone missed so much class to go to “concerts in Cleveland” as part of his major. “No, RG’s shit is for real. Here watch this Machine Gun Kelly video. He shot it,” Sara said as she opened YouTube. And she was right; RG’s shit was for real. At the next class, when RG turned in his paper, I said, “Lace up” under my breath. And that was it; RG and I came to an understanding with one another. I helped him pass freshman comp, and he worked hard in the class while shooting great videos when he was absent.

 

Naturally, when I toyed with the idea of adding a video component to From Plate to Palate, I approached RG. He knows how to capture a moment on video through the most beautiful, artistic, and unique lens. I also approached Sarah Lenz, a friend and regular contributor to From Plate to Palate, to be my co-star. The two of us have always enjoyed cooking together, so it seemed natural to cook with her on camera. After a brainstorming session with RG and Sarah, we dreamed up Spatula: 1 Ingredient, 2 Recipes and immediately got busy.

 

While filming our kale episode, RG brought his lovely girlfriend Kristin Esper (another former student of mine!) who immediately jumped in and contributed awesome ideas for shots. Having experience working on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations and being a home cook, Kristin knows her way around a kitchen and how to film the fast-paced dance that happens there. When RG’s workload overwhelmed his schedule, Kristin became my camera-girl, co-director, editor, and intern extraordinaire.

 

Because of RG, Kristin, and Sarah, in addition to The Codgers for our theme song, Josh Woodward for the spunky tunes during each episode, and Frank Cucciarre for an awesome logo, Spatula went from a daydream to internet reality tv. As a team we documented the ease of home-making kale chips, the insanity of grinding your own hamburger meat, the divinity of seared Brussels sprouts, and the truth about lentils. I couldn’t be more grateful for each member of team Spatula. They are all truly gifted peeps who deserve much more praise than I’m giving them here.

 

While working on Spatula, my relationship with food started changing and evolving. Yes, I love to cook and share recipes, but I started seeing food as more than a meal. Food grows. Food travels. Food re-invents itself. Food changes with its context. I started wondering how could From Plate to Palate capture the multiple facets of food that happen away from the kitchen. Like all times when my mind wonders, my journals started filling with more ideas, my desk became littered with post-it notes, and my bedside table was seized by stacks of cookbooks and books about food.

 

In an effort to streamline the projects I work on while fostering more creative time in my life, I changed the format of From Plate to Palate once again. This time my goal was to make it a multi-modal blog with essay, photography, video, and whatever other art stumbles upon the webpage. With this new direction and with Kristin’s keen eye and thoughtful camera work, I hope to show the different personalities of food—the ones that exist outside and inside of the kitchen.

 

To honor the tradition of From Plate to Palate’s pet issues, I started with making gluten-free dog treats, which have become quite a big hit in our house. In the next episode, the exquisite Abigail Cloud showed just how easy it is to start a container garden. (While the burlap bags are a fantastic idea, we’ve discovered they just don’t stay together as well as pots and hanging containers.) I deeply appreciate Abs’ contribution to this episode and her devotion to the garden. Finally, last month I found myself once again with a gluten-free theme. Many folks are being prescribed a gluten-free diet, and I hope that the July issue sheds a little light on a diet that can sometimes feel like complete hell.

 

Coming up, From Plate to Palate welcomes again Top Chef alumna Valerie Bolon with her culinary speakeasies. Many other treats are in store this year too. As I see it, the future is an empty plate, and that means there’s plenty of space to pile on the goodies.

Here's a teaser for the culinary speakeasy piece, which will run in its entirety on our September 1st post. Enjoy!: