Hello, I’m Katie.
I have always been interested in food. Where does it come from? What is this made of? What am I going to eat next? As a child, I was usually either helping my mom in the kitchen(licking bowls) or in the woods behind our house tasting things I probably shouldn’t have. As soon as I was old enough to get a job, of course it was in food. At 15, I was mixing “secret sauce” and coleslaw in the back of our local fast food chicken finger place, hanging out with college kids and feeling like an independent woman. From then on, I was always working in restaurants in some capacity, though never in the coveted positions. My typical job description was untitled and underpaid(which is the case with the majority of service jobs). I would get to work early, prep cook until opening, switch to waiting tables and jump in the back to help the dish washer/shrimp peeler when we got slammed and the kitchen was waiting on plates to serve food and peeling their own shrimp to order.
I went to college in Alabama where I ate a lot of kudzu. I majored in Latin American Studies & Spanish, because I wanted to travel to that land of plenty where all of our produce came from. My studies took me abroad to Cuba and Costa Rica, and I fell in love with the people, the food, and that easy lifestyle that emerges from abundance. When I travelled north to Nicaragua from Costa Rica, though, I saw the disparity of privatization. In a land where the natural resources had not been protected, the locals could not even walk on the beach or find a native fruit-bearing tree. After college, I moved to New Orleans, where I worked in restaurants and lived cheap, saving up money to travel in the off season. I lived in just about every neighborhood in the Big Easy, worked in many restaurants, and backpacked all over Central and South America, Southern France, Spain, and Italy. I met some amazing people, ate incredible food, and expanded my mind and palette by leaps and bounds. During the travel months, I honed the ability to create fabulous meals over a campfire as cheaply as possible. My culinary education in the city was an immersion in flavor, focus, technique, hospitality, and efficiency.
Well, a rolling stone gathers no moss and I always liked moss. I landed a job in a restaurant I had a crush on and the head chef turned out to be one of those legendary unsung heroes of one of the last inspired, make-it-work, by-the-sweat-of-our-brow and for-the-love-of-food, french quarter hole in the walls. We were a small crew that worked hard together(played hard too), bounced ideas off each other and got to be creative with beautiful local ingredients under the leadership of an excellent New Orleans born-and-raised chef. I stopped traveling and stretched some roots out. The restaurant became my life, as good restaurants tend to do.
I worked there for around seven years until I got engaged and moved to Lafayette to be with my fiancée, John. I tried working in a few restaurants around town, but nothing was a great fit, so I started a catering dinners, including a weekly vegetarian pop-up, under the name Feel Good Foods. No, I am not vegetarian, but at that time in this area, it was a gaping hole in the food scene and it was hard to find a meal cooked with any appreciation for vegetables. People came that were just curious to try a meatless meal or something outside of the traditional Cajun cuisine that dominates the area… and, of course, the half-starved vegetarians came too. It was fun. I got people to eat vegetables they always thought they hated and love it. People from different lifestyles and age groups all sat around a big table on the porch of a beautiful historic home-turned-healing center and ate my food. I started getting invited to cook for special ticketed dinners and restaurant take-overs. I stopped doing the pop-up a month before the birth of our son, Leo, and haven’t picked it back up, although I just started a potluck on the same night for those who just cant let it go. For now, I am mainly just cooking for my family and friends and have turned my focus more towards sources of our local foods; the docks, the forest, the field, and the garden.
On the weekends we go the camp. We are the stewards of 44 acres of a mixed hardwood real forest north of Saint Francisville. Here is where we learn about mushrooms and other wild edibles. John is the true mycophile, wanting to identify every fungi we find, whereas, I really just focus on the edibles… chanterelles, milky caps, lion’s mane, oyster mushrooms, as well as pecans, paw paws, mulberries, & muscadines to name a few. People also hunt deer and hog around here which is another beautiful source of local food.
There is a massive blueberry patch up the road as well as a free range chicken and buffalo farm. On the weekends we don’t go to the camp, we go to the boat, which at the time of this writing is moored in Delcambre, LA; home port for many shrimpers and crabbers. We can often by fresh shrimp right off the boat for an unbelievable price. My cousin in North Louisiana raises a few cattle every year and we go in one with a few people. We have friends that grow such an abundance of fruits and vegetables, that they bring it over to share and process in my kitchen seasonally and I have a garden as well that I am learning a lot from. Now that Leo has started school, many mornings I will stop by the nearby woods after I drop him off. The dog and I get a good walk and often come home with a handful of something to add to dinner that night.
I love gathering food this way. I am starting this weblog to celebrate the abundance of the deep south and share how it inspires me. I can’t think of anything more sustainable than eating and sharing what is all around you. Being an opportunivore, to me, means relishing the adventure that is finding, cooking, and eating whatever food you might come across and finding ways to get the most out of every beautiful ingredient. I feel the need to tell the stories behind my meals and I hope they inspire people to start seeing and enjoying the sustenance that surrounds us. Our food and the tales behind them have been shared together since the dawn of humanity and I like to think of our collective story on this amazingly generous planet as an ever evolving feast.
7 responses to “About”
You rock!!!!! Love, Lisette….
Good morning Katie, I loved reading your entire weblog today. I met you when you met John and I never knew of all your culinary explorations. It is a delight to read into your thoughts and soul of the foods you prepare. You are the first opportunivore, that I have the privilege to share your feast and call a friend! Can’t wait to read the upcoming Evolving Feast logs.
Katie this is awesome!! Love reading of your journey of life and food!! Look forward to following along!! Love ya!! Aunt Sarah Jean
Katie, this is awesome and loved reading your blog. Can’t wait for other stories. Love you, Aunt Tish
Katie,
I absolutely loved reading your blog! Cannot wait to see what else you will share with us!! Way to go cousin so proud!
Katie, what a beautiful story and I had forgotten you traveled so much. Very excited to follow your blog and using some of your recipes. Love, Aunt Mary
Katie, I love everything about this! You are amazing.