paris food & photography workshop with Yossy Arefi

I've got big news for you today: I'm teaming up with the super-talented Yossy Arefi of Apt. 2B Baking Co. to bring you a food & photography workshop in Paris this May!

We’ve planned 4 glorious days of cooking, shooting and styling in our light-filled Apartments Actually flat. We’ll visit local markets, boulangeries and cafes as we stroll the streets capturing the light Paris is famous for and tasting the city's best chocolate, coffee, pastries, cheeses and natural wines. And of course we'll gather around the table to share meals both in our beautiful workshop apartment and out and about in Paris.

We've designed this workshop for all skill levels. It will be a great opportunity to learn to shoot manually and master the settings on your camera if you’re new to that. More experienced photographers will benefit from our hands-on styling and editing sessions as well as our guided photo tours through the city.

All you need to do is book your ticket, pack your bags and show up. We’ve got all the details covered so you can focus on taking in the incredible beauty of Paris. You’ll leave feeling more confident in your photography skills and full of creative inspiration!

There are only 8 spots available. My last Paris retreat sold out in a week, so treat yourself to one of them before they're gone!

XO,

Olaiya

chilled spring greens soup with crispy prosciutto

Today, I have for you a chilled spring greens soup with crispy prosciutto. I love this soup because it’s easy and delicious and a great reminder of how being wrong can sometimes save the day.

If you’re anything like me, you’re not necessarily fond of being wrong. Especially in front of other people. But, in it’s own serendipitous way, this soup proved me wonderfully wrong on two occasions. 

It’s based on a chilled green soup I had at Frenchie in Paris a few weeks back. If you’re not familiar with Frenchie, you might not know that obtaining a reservation here is a major logistical feat. Or that on any given evening, the sidewalk outside is awash with Beautiful People, smoking and laughing and being generally very sexy and French. I’d scoped it out several times before deciding it couldn’t possibly live up to all the hype and striking it off my list. 

To be perfectly honest, I was intimidated by the effort required to secure a table. And all that sexy Frenchness. 

But when the lovely Sarah Pank, chief miracle-worker at Apartments Actually, managed to snag us a reservation, I wasn’t about to say no. Accepting her gracious offer was one of the smartest things I’ve done recently because, friends, that meal was phenomenal. All seven gorgeous courses of it. Working my way through crisp, seed-crusted cauliflower and silky foie-gras with apple confit and fresh berries with herbed ice cream, I savored every second of having my assumptions overturned.

A highlight of the meal was one of the the amuses-bouches: a tiny earthenware cup of chilled green soup, garnished with edible flowers, crunchy cured ham and creamy feta. It tasted like spring. When Beth suggested we try to recreate the soup as part of a lunch for our retreat guests, I was skeptical. It’s too cold out for a chilled soup. There’s no way we can come up with something as magical as the Frenchie version! Do people even like cold soup anyway?!? 

Beth gently insisted and I decided it wasn’t worth arguing over. The green soup I ended up making was fresh and bright. A riff on the classic marriage of peas and ham, in a springier incarnation. We garnished it with a few drops of pistachio oil and crumbles of salty jambon de Bayonne from the market. It was my favorite part of the lunch. 

So in addition to being fresh and light and just the sort of thing I want to eat on a warm spring day, this soup serves as a reminder that I don’t know nearly as much as I think I know. And that that’s a wonderful thing.

P.S. The Paris culinary retreat sold out in record time. (Thank you all for your wonderful support!) A lot of you wrote me asking about upcoming trips, so I wanted to let you know I've got details on the Portugal retreat headed your way next week. If you're not already on my mailing list, sign up here to get priority notice for all upcoming tours and events. XO!

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Chilled Spring Greens Soup with Crispy Prosciutto

Chilled Spring Greens Soup with Crispy Prosciutto

• 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
• ½ a medium fennel bulb, diced
• 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt, divided
• 3 medium zucchini
• 1 large bunch spinach (about 1 lb), rinsed and tough stems removed
• ½ cup loosely packed flat leaf parsley
• 2 cups English peas (from about 2 lbs. unshelled peas)
• 1 small head green garlic (or 2 cloves regular garlic), thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
• 6 very thin slices prosciutto (serrano ham, jambon de Bayonne and pancetta are great also)
• Pistachio oil, to garnish (or good quality extra-virgin olive oil)
• Edible flowers, to garnish (I used borage, chervil and thyme flowers from my garden)

*Notes: Feel free to substitute herbs for the edible flowers. You’ll want to use more delicately flavored herbs so they don’t overwhelm the soup. Fennel fronds, tarragon, thyme leaves, small mint or basil leaves, or a few snipped chives would work well.

- If you don’t plan to eat all the soup at once, add the lemon juice and vinegar only to what you plan to eat at one sitting. They will cause the soup to lose its color if added too far in advance. (It tastes fine, but looks a little drab.)

- For a vegetarian or vegan version, substitute a creamy feta or some finely-chopped pistachios for the prosciutto.

Heat 4 tablespoons of the oil in a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed stock pot over low heat. Add the fennel and half the salt. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until very tender, about 20 minutes. You don’t want the fennel to brown. Add the zucchini and cook for 5 minutes. Add the spinach, parsley, peas, garlic, the remaining ½ teaspoon salt and 3 cups of water. Raise the heat to medium and cook, covered, until the spinach has just wilted and the peas are tender, about 5 minutes longer. Take care not to overcook the vegetable or the soup will lose its bright color.

Remove the soup from the heat and puree in a blender in batches until very smooth. Take care not to fill your blender more than ⅔ full so the steam from the soup doesn’t blow the top off and burn you. If you don’t have a blender powerful enough to puree the soup very fine, strain it through a fine mesh sieve. Transfer the pureed soup to a large bowl, thin with cold water to your desired consistency and place in the fridge to cool completely.

Remove the soup from the fridge 30 minutes to one hour before serving so it can warm up a bit. (When it’s ice cold, it looses some of it's depth.) Add the lemon juice and vinegar just before serving. Taste and add more salt and/or acid as necessary.

While the soup is warming up, crisp the prosciutto. Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil over medium heat in a large sauté pan. Add the ham and cook, turning once or twice until crisp, about 5 mins. Transfer to a  paper towel lined plate to cool slightly.

To serve, ladle the soup into serving bowls and garnish with a swirl of the pistachio (or olive) oil. Top with edible flowers and serve with the crispy prosciutto.

Makes 6 first-course servings.

a paris state of mind

I recently returned home from the Paris food and photography retreat I led with Beth from Local Milk. In our elegant Apartments Actually flat, we styled and photographed. We gathered around the table with our guests for shared meals and laughter. We headed out into the streets of Paris to eat and drink and chase the shadow and light sparkling across limestone facades.

It was a joy to meet our guests and discover their creative projects. Natasha, Per, Brit, Michaela, Carrie, Griet, Colleen and Lisa each brought their own unique energy and sense of adventure to the retreat. Sharing my most beloved city with them allowed me to see it with fresh eyes and renewed wonder. 

It’s hard to write about why I love Paris without leaning on the usual threadbare clichés. The baguette! The architecture! That light! But these postcard notions of Paris don’t begin to explain the sense of connection I feel walking the city streets. Or the longing I feel once home across the ocean.

To me, Paris is above all a state of mind. A certain way of being I find difficult to summon in my day-to-day.

A Paris mindframe entails a certain nonchalance. A willingness to go with the absurd, existential flow of life. The entire country’s on strike and there are no trains, classes or public services? Why stress when you could spend the day reading and drinking large quantities of rosé instead?

Parisians slouch. And smoke. And run their fingers through their unkempt locks. And those shrugs. There is a shrug to express every stop on the emotional continuum: Curiosity. Amusement. Disdain. The French, and Parisians in particular, are masters of the what-can-you-do? shrug.

Parisians seem to feel more deeply at home in their bodies than we Americans. A subtle sexiness is the unstated goal. Men and women alike appreciate a whisper of cleavage beneath a blouse, a lipstick especially well-suited to its wearer, the suggestion of an intriguing cologne. There is a freedom to openly gaze at and appreciate strangers. In Seattle, the art of avoiding eye contact has been raised to a high art. In Paris, the terrace of every cafe is arranged for maximum people-watching.

The Parisian love of seduction and flirting makes sense in a country that takes pleasure quite seriously. To the American ear, pleasure is a word imbued with indulgent, quasi-sinful overtones. In France, it means three-course lunches instead of scarfing leftovers hunched over your keyboard. It means keeping the work week in check so you’re not too tired to enjoy time with family and friends. It means taking a moment out of your day to delight in the city’s treasure trove of art or sit on a park bench watching the world go by.

Paris’ seductive, irreverent spirit represents an escape from can-do Americanness. In Paris, I feel free to shrug off the mantle of efficiency and aggressive good cheer expected in the States. I slow down and settle into my body. I find myself walking for the pleasure of walking, with no particular destination in mind. I wear heels and lipstick and perfume. I give myself permission to sleep a little later and drink wine at all hours of the day and night.

I feel no need to be practical in Paris.

Which is just the point. Touching down at Charles de Gaulle, I suddenly feel like I’ve arrived home after a long journey. Surfacing from the Métro, I slip into my truest self. 

Wandering the city streets opens me up to new ideas and new encounters; my shyness melts away and I’m miraculously able to make flirtatious small talk with strangers at the supermarket. Paris turns my senses up a notch. The coffee seems richer. The sheets more velvety. The lingering perfume in an elevator more beguiling. 

The pleasures of Paris are not for everyone, of course. Some people prefer the rural idyll of the English countryside. Or the buzzing pace and neon lights of Tokyo. Or the breathtaking peaks of the Andes. But for some of us, Paris is the drug. A heady mix of new, old, fast, slow, imperfect and sublime. 

For us, this city is more than just a charming vacation destination. It is essential to our happiness. Your Paris may be Johannesburg or Beijing or Des Moines. Or your own backyard. 

Wherever it lies, find your Paris.

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Since my love affair with Paris shows no signs of abating anytime soon, I'm planning another Paris retreat for September 2016. I'm teaming up with my good friend, Rachael Coyle (who just happens to be a super-talented pastry chef and owner of Coyle's Bakeshop), for a week of eating, drinking, wandering and appreciating all the beauty that is Paris. *REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS.*