A chat with Katy Sparks
I first had the pleasure of meeting Katy Sparks when I was looking for a stage, just out of cooking school. Katy’s restaurant Quilty’s in Soho was well known for seasonal American cooking – enhancing the natural flavors of the freshest ingredients available at the moment. That was a quote from our mutual friend Steven Hall, and this was 1998, the year I walked in her door. So one could never refer to Katy as trendy, and it was no surprise that she was named best new chef in Food and Wine that year.
Organic Food, Fennel Salad and Boys
A very charming Criminal Defense Attorney introduced me to a curious little restaurant that I’ve grown devoted to, called Metro. It’s in a random Miami neighborhood – an unassuming venue hidden behind a long row of shrubbery, attached to a car wash called Karma, on a strip of Biscayne Boulevard in a section of Miami called Mimo. The CDA, chose Metro because it is fully organic, sustainable, green and they even compost. We liked this guy already (not to mention ...
Videos by Lora Krulak: Sleeping Tips
Videos by Lora Krulak: Natural Sweeteners
Kitchen frustration and mushroom carpaccio
Living in Miami sometimes is like living in a third world country. It has nothing to do with the language, or the fact that my Spanish is a bit rusty. The shops on Lincoln Road in South Beach are very modern – there’s a Nespresso and a Pottery Barn, two Starbucks, a pole dancing studio and two salsa studios. It’s more the attitude. In India it was easily detectable in the head waggle. You kind of knew that whatever it was you were requesting may or ...
A cooler and wiser iced tea
Tea and coffee are easy ways to engage and embrace a foreign culture. I’ve always found that when invited for one or the other, I’m able to snatch a vivid glimpse into what’s more than just a caffeine fix. For example, in India, being offered a short cup of sweet-spicy-milky tea in the late afternoon, with the sun belting down and the temperature well over 90, made me begin to understand how spices and hot drinks can be medicinal and ...
Grilled cheese, sort of.
I admit it. I am an enabler. Entertaining gives me enormous joy, and cooking for large groups of loved ones gives me immense pleasure. Or even small groups, or even for just one. Cooking is a moving meditation for me – a temporal art I can loose myself in. It’s much the same feeling I get from my yoga practice. Recipe re-creation takes the thrill up to an entirely new level. It’s the challenge of taking one’s favorite recipe and ...
Soul-searching and Broccoli Soup
There is a trend surfacing among my friends and loved ones. They all say they’re having a midlife crisis, but we’re not that old! I think it’s more a transitional period – a soul-searching phase. They’re quitting high-paying jobs, thinking about sabbaticals or parting from long-term relationships. This is very peculiar for me since, for the past decade, I’ve been the one doing most of these things. I now find myself back in a stable place and armed with suitcases ...
Parisian Market with Lora Krulak
My Mothers Version of a Bake-Sale
It’s normal for kids to be embarrassed by their mothers. I see the same look as I used to have in the eyes of my friends’ kids and I know that they are the most fabulous hot-to-trot mothers around. They are my fiends after all! Of course, I was mortified and often embarrassed by my mother. Despite her statuesque beauty, magnetic personality and constant, current striking sense of style (on her size 4, 5’10” body). She was the original yummy ...
