Bodey

As I dive deeper into the dishes I ate growing up, I find that Neapolitan food has so much deep symbolism tied to the Catholic Church. This is might not be so surprising, being that Naples is made up of something like 500 churches, and being just south of Rome. As I read more about this specific dish I discovered that Capretto (young goat) is symbolic of the crucifixion of Jesus much like the “Lamb of God” and the peas being representative of new life, calling to the resurrection of Jesus. To be honest, I am not so much religious but more so curious in the ways food can tell broader stories through different components, from the technique, to ingredient, to the time of year. Cross culturally we all have these foods that act as a sort of inter-generational hard drive, carrying with it so many stories to tell. - - - #foodhistory #italianfood #napoli #caprettoconipiselli

make this omelette it’s yummy

COME COOK WITH YOUR SENSES!!!! ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡ @dapscancook and I are extremely excited to be hosting an intuitive cooking class at @thebridge.kingston this up coming Sunday the 26th. We will be exploring food through conversation around food memories. What was on your table as a kid? Who was cooking your favorite meal? How has food shaped you? Let’s talk about all of it and more! There will be tears, laughs, and delicious food of course :0 of you want to build your confidence around cooking, or want to dive deeper into how you can be a more intentional cook, I invite you to come sit at our table<3 Saturday the 25th the @lamisa.events team will combine efforts to bring a very special kamayan dinner collaboration also at @thebridge.kingston ! Check out tickets for both events in my bio or on the bridge website. I look forward to eating with you :) - Very special thanks to @titabaddie @lamisa.events @nicoleayame for their hard work making this possible ! - - - - - - Headshot: @leodersanchez - #upstate #upstatenewyork #cooking #cookingclass #kingston #newyork #chef

CELEBRATIONS ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა These past few weeks has been full of celebrations, big and little, with so many people which has had me remembering past celebrations as well. Whether it’s creating a tart based off of Leo’s personality, or grabbing dinner at Abuqir with Kristine and her cousin — friends new and old forging food memories. We grabbed barbecue at pig beach to celebrate Loisse’s shift into a new part of her life, Charisse came through after work to surprise us. Celebrating Chaos return from her roadtrip with a spontaneous visit to Fort Lee, for a feast and a late night Korean spa with Kevin and Sonny. Peeling a grapefruit after dinner I’m reminded of a celebration with Abigail. We peeled grapefruit as the semester came to a close and she was getting ready to head to her externship in California. Grapefruits always remind me of her. Mexican spiced chocolate cake for Leo’s actual birthday. Sonny and I working together and story telling in our kitchen for the first time, telling him how I used to make cakes when I was little helping my mom with her orders. One candle for 27years. Celebrating a solid day of dinner service with Robbie and Luca. Pop ups have a special way of bringing you closer to people you just met. Friendship forged in a pool of tickets and the end of the night wine. Had so much fun throwing food together for the staff at with others. Heading the deepest into queens I have been, to join a celebration for Perry’s parents wedding anniversary. Getting a glimpse into her home life brought me so much joy and I feel lucky to experience this before their child comes into the world. Bringing the group chat together to celebrate Sonny’s new job. The new Soothr in LIC was amazing and we all had such a great night getting to eat together. It’s so special when we can all get together with such busy lives. All I need to say is I wish we could celebrate more. Bring cake just because. Grab wine just because. Do things just because, because at the end of the day, food and friends are gold.

These past few years have been full of many transitions; changes that make me feel like I’m constantly in a state of transience. Life as a private chef inflames this feeling with traveling to new places, meeting new people, and cooking new dishes every single week. I think I’m finally realizing that my anchor is not a place but a feeling. Nostalgia fuels everything I do; I have many saved menus, letters and trinkets as proof lol. Being able to share meals with people whether it’s eating alongside my friends or feeding complete strangers I just met for the first time, the ability to foster a collective nostalgia breathes life into me.  I have been lucky enough to work with @lamisa.events where 3 of us all cook from our own life experiences channeling pure nostalgia onto a plate.  This week I got to create some special plates for a family birthday @grateful_woods in Kerhonkson with one of my dearest friends from culinary school, @abigail.connolly . Abi really helped bring the food memories to life - One of the birthday celebrants mentioned their favorite food memory involved Coca-Cola and the other fig newtons. We created a fig tarte tatin with a cola spiced caramel. There was a coco whip to finish, a perfect post summer feast dessert.  Abi hosted me for two nights and showered me in yummy fruits and healing conversations around her little red drop leaf table. It’s these sweet memories I feel so lucky to be able to make with a life like this.  Following grateful woods, I helped @titabaddie at her client’s estate in Rhinebeck where we powered through a weekend consisting of 8 meals in total, all varying menus with no repetitions. It’s exhausting but it feels like a ballroom dance, being perfectly coordinated. Highlighted here are some of the fun dishes I got to cook, A poached scallop dish utilizing the garden at the estate; Basil dill oil, strawberry vinegar, fresh sunflower seeds and petals, and borage flowers.  A chili lime fish sauce grilled squid using potato starch in the marinade in order to thicken the sauce directly on the grill giving you more charred bits, finished with a roasted sungold Jeow Mak Len and tons of basil.  Thank you for reading ✨🫶

end of week nostalgia check in. This week has been full of revisiting places I used to frequent as a teen and flavors that take me back to childhood. Starting off at the Hungarian Pastry Shop (1030 Amsterdam Ave, Harlem). This place has a very special place in my heart of why time visiting New York City with my French class throughout high school. Every December our class would take a trip to the city to speak French in a random restaurant lead by a day full of stopping at the same landmarks as every year. We would always stop here before walking around the cathedral of Saint John. Despite the monotonous details and long walks this trip meant so much to me as a teen, being able to get out of my small town and walk around the city with my friends acted as a sort of light at the end of the hellish tunnel that was high school. Revisiting these places with people who are newer in my life brings about a certain wave of validation for little Alex. I used to dream about food during math class and now it’s my whole life. Also had this crazy amazing birthday cake ice cream from @sugarhillicecream which just put me back to my favorite flavor of ice cream as a kid. I also saw these polypores growing on the side of a tree in Harlem, which was jarring to see in the city. Any bit of life can be surprising here sometimes haha. Helped make some cookies for my friends work and then made a super simple but yummy walnut tofu stir-fry for dinner.

pie pie pie Beginning to finally utilize this account as I become ready to share a more detailed journal of my food, and I think having a log like this will hold me accountable to take more pictures and write more in general. This motivation comes from my time cooking @theslowstead which was an extremely resetting experience and got me excited about food in a way I haven’t been in years. It’s really easy to get sucked into a million different things which I feel like i have been the past year and some change. Cooking and creating so much but not recording or writing any of it almost feels like I’m losing out on something bigger. I realized this feeling is commensality, creating community around food. As I think back, like many others, all of my greatest memories somehow relate to or circle around food. These core memories cannot be separated from food because that is how I create bonds with the people around me. Feeding others is my way of caring and navigating this world. Food is a story, and I hope to be a story teller as while as be a spectator to stories. I am so excited to share my food and the food of the humans surrounding me. This pie started in the orchard with @verodelro as we strolled through the different apples, tasting each variety as if we knew everything about apples. We both stopped in our tracks as these maroon almost purple apples hung against the stark blue sky. These empire apples had a crisp refreshing bite with a sweet acidity, with almost no graininess. I knew I had to make a pie with them. Veronica doesn’t love a pie with a lid so I made my favorite crust and whipped up a little crumble using oats and brown sugar. I decided to save the scraps from my pie crust and chop them into tiny pieces, freeze them and toss them into the crumble as a way to utilize waste. I made two pies this day one going towards my anthropology professor, and one for the house. Any way that’s my little spiel and I’m feeling very good going into this fall, excited to share upcoming popups, events, foods, and stories with you!!!