New Gatherers Cuisine

New Gatherers Cuisine is a term that I came up with while talking to a highly respected food loving friend of mine.  Because he believes my food to be "post-modern," or different than what has been done, and that it largely focuses on the land he suggested that I along with another out west are just a few in the United States to be doing cuisine such as this.  There is a food movement in the Nordic regions called New Nordic Cuisine.  He had said we were following in those footsteps so I said then I suppose we should coin the name for it here, thus after a few names being thrown out there, New Gatherers Cuisine was what we settled on.  While we don't have the actual manifesto written nor do we have the funding as they did for it truly to be a movement I think this is a lovely time for this focus considering it's become less and less taboo to eat foraged foods as people are largely becoming more conscious of what they eat and much more knowledgeable.  I grew up foraging and was use to cooking found mushrooms, cracking gathered nuts, so for me it seemed completely reasonable to have it incorporated into the cooking I did for others.  I also grew up in a house where mostly everything we consumed was from our garden, my mother constantly processing foods for the winter.  My favorite she said was peaches from our tree that she canned with simple syrup.  Our pantry was wall to wall Ball Mason jars.  I think it is Maya Angelou that says something to the effect, you don't have to go further than your own backyard to tell a good story.  This is also true I think for the story of food.  So I do gather some of our cuisine,  I preserve a large amount of the gathered and farmed cuisine, other gatherers or foragers and hunters work with me, and we are highlighting as best we can some of those items.  They are gathered, far and wide as well as close but rural, and all from lands were they can be rightly collected.  We serve what we know.  We preserve what we can.  But this is not all we do.  This is just one facet of Elizabeth Restaurant.  We use local and/or organic produce, serve antibiotic/hormone free meats,  cure, salt, and pickle our own items.  We tried to remain as sustainable and local as possible.  We know exactly what we are going to serve each week to our guests so that we have as little waste as possible. We are and intend to be as earth conscious as possible.  We are still a work in progress as we navigate our best avenues.
However, New Gatherers Cuisine has a larger meaning to me, to us.  It has always been that fine dining establishments have a flair of pretense, stuffiness, and separation by space.  We've purposefully eliminated all of those elements.  I wanted to open a restaurant that was all of who I am, all of who Elizabeth was.  The gathering goes beyond food and it's the gathering of people.  I wanted guests to come into Elizabeth and feel like they were in my home.  I wanted them to feel more than welcome.  I also wanted them to experience dinner as a party.  I wanted guests to meet new people, eat near one another as a family.  I want strangers to become family, just for a few moments in time.  I feel interaction with each other, even strangers around food allows one to feel enchanted. With all the Internet and connectedness yet separation I think this is a lovely way for people to be face to face.
New Gatherers Cuisine means so many things to me and I believe it's working.

Gratitude Part 3.

Elizabeth Restaurant is radiant.  She's beautiful in so many ways.  I couldn't be happier.  Really.

My friend from LA.

Daaimah's gratitude lists.  I miss my friend so much.  We are both busy.

The chefs at Elizabeth Restaurant are such hard workers and I appreciate them so much.

The staff at Elizabeth is brilliant.  They shine.

That I have a strong network of friends that really really get me.

Walking through the woods my friend and I came across a deer.  The last thing I thought of was hunting it.  The first thing I said was be quiet so we don't scare him.

Opening Weekend Pictures

Take a look!

Gratitude Squared

Grateful at all the different ways in which I'm grateful.

That I'm surprised I curse so much.

All the lovely press and people and writers behind it who have written about my venture.

Anna Lloyd. Katie K.

My new staff.  They are great.  It's so lovely to be working with others.

That my mom calls and says, "Don't you do anything to that article.  I'm going to fix it up real nice."

How many friends and family reached out to me to say something generous about my mission.  It's unreal.

The chefs laughing at me when I said our first week might be slow.

My friends will be here visiting shortly.

Another List

My nieces are easy to spoil.

Elizabeth Restaurant looks like a dreamy cabin.

Anna Lloyd.  Katie K.  Daaimah.

Being able to sort the true from the false.

Knowing what I am willing and unwilling to do

The ability to make clear decisions

I am absolutely in love with what I do and am always doing it.  My work does not feel like work to me.

More Gratitude

My niece's widened gaze and smile when I gave her a taste of sassafras ice cream.  I said, "that's how good the woods are, why do you think I'm always out there?"  She says, "You are like Pocahontas or someone." Ok, sure, I'll take that.

That my older niece sadly is moving out after two and a half years with me but her little sister will replace her.  One for the other, it's an equal trade.  I could never have dreamt of anything better than having my sister's daughters with me, even if they can be a pain.  She had them as babies and I have them as young women.  Fair enough.

Mom still takes care of my posion ivy.

My dad still telling me what to and what not to eat from the woods even though the apprentice has surpassed the teacher.

Hunters and their wives.

Nancy McClelland, my accountant, is amazing and so helpful.

Spinach flavored gnocchi.

Daaimah Musbashshir and her gratitude.

One of my best buddies, Kelly Crowley, is coming to town soon.

A Note of Gratitude

My best friend Daaimah and her emails, addressed to whomever on her list will read them, highlighting clips of her life that resonate gratitude.  I will do the same.

Today when I drove my niece somewhere and she thought I was checking out a girl but I was looking at a fallen tree, scanning it for edible mushrooms.

That this Joni Mitchell and this Van Morrison tune bring me to not just tears but the act of weeping.

I'm weird enough to say these things about myself.

My mutual friends and friends.

Elizabeth Ann Regan.  Bunny is what we called her.

Elizabeth Restaurant.

Mike Meier and Jen Laaback and Robert Herbster who make up my team of investors and business partners.  They see me and accept my vision.

All the people who put in time and effort.  Neelu McGibbon, design.  Joseph Novelli, construction.  Sean Kaplan, PR.  Code, logo.

My family.  Always my family.

Nostalgia and the house I grew up in.

Homesteading roots.

The woods.

Great opportunities to work at fabulous restaurants even if I wasn't always the best employee.

I can't be tamed.  Well, I can but I can't.

Katie K.  Anna Lloyd.  Daaimah Mubashshir.  Loren G.  Monique W.  Jessica S.  Jill Mc.  Stacey G.  Gabi W.  Rachel B.  Veronica.  These ladies are rocks!  There are more!

BTC.

The faith that miracles happen in many different capacities.