seasonal ingredients

We meet Ji Hye Kim, a chef who has a passion for making Korean food with a Michigan twist.  As the owner of Miss Kim restaurant in Ann Arbor, Ji Hye calls upon Korean Buddhist food tradition which emphasizes using local and seasonal ingredients. Ji Hye works with local farmers to source her menu.  One of those farmers is Tammie Gilfoyle of TamChop Farm.  Tammie shares her journey from a desk job in California to working in the dirt in Michigan supplying restaurants like Miss Kim with produce.  Tune in to hear how Ji Hye and Tammie collaborate to grow and serve food that is uniquely Korean-American.  

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“I just think food is so important to us, it is the most important thing we do, so why not enjoy it”...Rick Stein

Welcome to Episode 21:

This is just me, the real me, the girl that decides to make it happen regardless of the original plan.

A garden walk and a podcast recorded in the chicken pen.   A little cook up of the stinging nettle I foraged in the garden was the outcome of this spontaneous episode on the philosophy and heritage of La Cucina Povera.  

It goes without saying that 2020 has been an interesting social experiment and I have been contemplating  many things that relate to less waste and more good living on my own terms.

After listening to the book on Patience Gray about her evocative life by Adam Federman this week, she died early 2005 and published many books and essays on food and life in particular the classic 'Honey From a Weed'  on her journey of living in the wilds of the Mediterranean lands and sea.  I have been musing over many things related this past few months that I ponder in this episode.

This is an offering of sorts, a whimsical share and a possible rant on what it means to be a modern woman and what it means to juggle the anxieties of the modern trappings this world offers.   Certainly I am a privileged woman who can make her own decisions about the give and the take on an ordinary Wednesday.  

If you want the real truth it is most of all the ordinary kind of magic that interests me the most.  The kind of alchemy that happens in the kitchen and in the garden, and when you spontaneously decide to make a plate of pasta for lunch from something on hand and within reach.   An improvisation of sorts.  This is my favourite kind of day, a privilege yes, and a humble thrill to even ramble and share this musing on a detail of Italian culture and how I feel inspired by it daily.

mj xo

Enjoy, See You Next time with Florence and Lucca, Italy.........


© 2021 A Writer In Italy - travel, writing, art and life

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, © 2021

Please find all Show Notes and details mentioned at:

www.michellejohnston.life

Instagram:  @awriterinitaly and @theyellowhouse__

About A Writer in Italy Podcast:

Five years ago Michelle Johnston traveled to Italy to create space for herself and her writing.  Michelle traveled solo giving herself time to recalibrate after many years of parenting and life in general.  Leaving her husband to take care of the family she reconnected with her writing, her art and her love of travel.

The adventure turned into the book and travel memoir...............

In the Shadow of a Cypress: An Italian Adventure

As the founder & CEO, of Dig Inn, a successful farm to table restaurant group based in New York and Boston Adam Eskin was thrown in the deep end right from the start.

With an Economics degree from Brown University, Adam quickly entered the world of finance where he ascended the corporate ladder. His first insight to the world of food came when Wexford Capital acquired a small chain of bodybuilding restaurants, at the time of the protein craze during the mid 00's. Adam soon assumed responsibility for the transformation and revival project of the restaurants which would become Dig Inn.

Dig Inn is an inspiring company with direct connections to the farms that they source from. In the modern era where food companies alternate their fluffy descriptors depending on whats in vogue, Dig Inn has maintained the same vision from day one. They are a farm-to-table, seasonal restaurant group which serve healthy and nourishing food at very affordable prices.

This was the company that I wanted to work for when I first moved to New York, and it still magnetizes me to this day because it’s core ethos is so encouraging. Adam Eskin has thrown himself in to an industry where, on paper, he had no right to succeed, but with humility and ambition he has constructed a machine that will eventually shift the food industry.