Food and Family with Chef Bill
Food and Family
Chef Bill Wavrin here. Some of you may already know me from Cafe Solé at the Hot Springs. Welcome to Glen Ivy’s November Challenge.
Don’t you just love autumn in Southern California, and all that it brings? I sure do. While other parts of the country are hunkering down for winter, burrrr! our harvests here are still plentiful and abundant with avocados, oranges, artichokes, apples, Fejoas, Sapotes, garlic, figs, dates and persimmons, just to name a few. I am thrilled to be hosting this month’s challenge, and the theme is… You guessed it… “food.”
Food. We love it, we need it, it’s a fundamental part of our every day… whether it’s a power bar on the go or holiday dinner for twenty. Food fuels our daily life.
If there is one thing that I have noticed over the years of cooking for my many spa guests, it’s that all too often we tend to buy, prepare and eat our meals on autopilot. It’s as though we are numb to it. I know it can be mundane, with today’s fast-paced lifestyle—busy at work, rushing home to get meals ready for one and all. It’s so easy to forget the role that food plays in our daily lives—and more importantly, how to truly find the joy in preparing and sharing good food with good people.
So, that’s why this month I challenge you to slow down and deepen your appreciation of food — not just what you eat, but to ask yourself where your food comes from, how it was made, the story behind it, and in what way does it connect you to family, the community, and the world around you? Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as you think… and you might even surprise yourself (and your family).
To start this challenge off in a way that I know won’t hurt even a little bit, and to get you in the mood for food, I’m throwing a fun RECIPE CONTEST! Share your favorite holiday recipe that features seasonal, local ingredients and tell us what makes it so special? Get the full details on the Glen Ivy Blog with contest rules, dates, and prizes.
Be sure to keep coming back through the month as we will have lots of fun things to share with you. I will be posting some of the recipe entries and stories as they come in, as well as sharing a few of my favorite books on the shelf—the absolute essentials for anyone who loves food as much as I do, and later this month, I’ll be letting you in on a little discovery I made while in the orchard.
Wishing you and yours a happy holiday, and as always, it’s a pleasure to serve you.
¡Buen Provecho!
Your Chef,
Bill Wavrin
