Kit Valentine
I crave beauty, sensuality, and variety. Other than music and my dreams, food is the most accessible form of these things that I can conceive. I can’t travel to beautiful locales nearly as often as I like, and my attempt at creating a glorious flower garden failed miserably, but what I can do is choose two pieces of fruit in contrasting colors, slice a green pear, and pull apart January’s juiciest orange. I arrange them on a lavender striped plate. The colors delight me, and biting into that juicy joy ignites sensory firecrackers. Food has the capacity to meld the necessary with the exquisite.
Simple, thoughtful, meals are the peaceful eye in the storm of my life’s activity. In them I find refuge from frenzy, mediocrity, and suburban banality. By exercising my right to choose a recipe, I can explore the world, rebel against my upbringing, and say no to the corporate conspiracy to enrich stockholders by making me sick and fat. Hear me roar.
Cooking is a rebellious act. It is how I scream “I don’t want to be behind a computer any more!” It is a welcome opportunity to do something physical, meaningful, and real that connects with nature. If I can’t do pirouettes in a forest’s emerald green, julienning vegetables and zesting limes casts a tangible thread between me and the earth.
Having bedded a couple of engineers in my time, I’ve developed an admiration for simple, elegant solutions. This has influenced my cooking tremendously. The best recipes have a manageable number of ingredients, a creative twist, a divine flavor, and if I’m lucky, don’t make too many dishes. Of course, sometimes a more complicated recipe is worth the effort, but this is an occasional indulgence for me.
My name is Kit Valentine. I am a writer, a musician, a cook, a francophile, a traveler, a cyclist, and a student of Tai Chi. I have a band called Lilymoor, a beloved rabbit named Isabella, and a groovy partner with just the right amount of testosterone who delights me to no end by playing guitar like an angel. I am sister to artist Laurie Halbritter, cousin to tattoo artist Dennis Halbritter, and grand-daughter to jazz pianist June Halbritter. I have a B.A. in political science, which is really strange considering that my true academic love is literature, including the classics, post-apocalyptic science fiction, and alternative histories. I recently developed an obsession with simplifying my life. I just have this superstitious feeling that if I get rid of 80% of my clothes and furniture that Fortune will smile on me with even greater favor. So far it’s working! Don’t worry though – I’m keeping my insane spice collection, and every single cookbook.
I look forward to sharing with you my fanciful thoughts and haughty opinions on the intriguing subject of food.
