Delights - March 2018

delights

03.2018

READY? PLAYER 1 TYE SHERIDAN on the new VR film

Brooke Shields wants to grab sand The epic movie of A Wrinkle In Time

MARCH 2018

Contents specials 10 The Wrinkle Universe 14 Power Play style 20 K-beauty Goes Kaboom 22 Essentials home 30 Clocks as Art 32 The True Meaning of Houses

health 27 Grab Some Sand food 36 Crafting the Future of Food in every issue 38 Last Look

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Special

10 A Wrinkle In Time

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Ready Player One

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THE WRINKLE UNIVERSE Few wrinkles in saga brought to screen at perfect moment

A Wrinkle in Time is the first major release since the 2018 Academy Awards called for more inclusion in the movies and it certainly echoes that theme. The multi-ethnic female-led cast includes Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling as a trio of guardian angels and Storm Reid as Meg, the main character from the 1962 novel by Madeleine L’Engle. Director Ava DuVernay is a woman of colour and an Oscar nominee from a year ago for her documentary 13th.

The film is a sensory feast, not least when the characters travel to a planet called Uriel, which looks like Pandora with better landscaping.

Meg is trying to find her father (Chris Pine), a NASA scientist who disappeared four years earlier while trying to figure out a way to travel to the stars without a spaceship. He wanted to figure out the universe, to “find its origin and shake its hand,” which makes for a lovely image of peaceable exploration.

Meg is accompanied in her quest by her six-year-old adopted brother, Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) and by Calvin (Levi Miller), a neighbourhood kid who just kind of shows up and tags along. (Don’t blame screenwriter Jennifer Lee: That’s pretty much how it happens in the book, too.)

The kids get some much-needed assistance from the aforementioned angelic trio, who are brimming with warmth, wisdom and glittery lip gloss, and who answer to Mrs. Which, Who and Whatsit. What I wouldn’t give to see Abbott and Costello show up.

Much has been made of Disney giving the reins of a $100-million project to a female director. I could find only two other Disney liveaction movies this decade directed by women, the much smaller budgeted Queen of Katwe (Mira Nair) and McFarland, USA (Niki Caro).

But the result here is still very much in the Disney mould: You can feel the guiding hand of the director, but the even heavier hand of the studio over her, shaping the final vision.

None of which makes A Wrinkle in Time a bad movie, though it is an oddly pedestrian one, given its interstellar locations. Pitched to a young audience, it may leave adults feeling talked down to, particularly when Winfrey’s character delivers a Yoda-esque rant about an impersonal evil entity, called simply IT, and accompanied by some clunky anti-bodyshaming images that bring the whole thing dangerously close to after-school-special territory.

But there are far worse sins a movie can commit than being too earnest. Meg starts the film awkward, shy and bullied at school, only gradually coming to realize that she possesses real power, and that our talents are not great in themselves — it’s what we do with them that defines us.

Kids should get the most out of all this. The danger of IT feels palpable without ever getting gory, and there are moments that are more thrill ride than terrifying, as when Meg and Calvin travel in a tree stump that’s been uprooted by a tornado — or to use the movie term, by Ozmosis.

Kaling’s character, Mrs. Who, gets some of the film’s best lines by stealing those of others — she speaks mostly in famous quotations, ending each with a credit to the writer, including 13th-century Muslim poet Rumi, Churchill, Shakespeare and, to show she’s up to date, rappers OutKast and Hamilton’s Lin Manuel Miranda.

Movies in the #MeToo era are seldom about mere entertainment, and A Wrinkle in Time passes what I’m going to call the Frances McDormand test — strong female characters in front of the camera, and a good representation behind it, including the writer, director, producer Catherine Hand and production designer Naomi Shohan.

But audiences do want to be entertained, and Wrinkle delivers. It won’t transport every viewer to its glorious place, but its message to little girls and boys comes through loud and clear.

Storm Reid is the quintessence of calm in the eye of the — well, you know. The young U.S. actress isn’t asking herself very many questions as she fields a barrage of them from the press.

As the star of Ava DuVernay’s Walt Disney Pictures-produced new mega-budget children’s adventure A Wrinkle in Time, the young actress is about to go from relative unknown to household name. And she’s OK with that.

“It’s really fun,” Reid said, of all the promotional work that comes with her impending stardom. “I don’t really think about the attention. I could care less about it. It’s nice but it comes with what I really want to do.”

Reid has known she wanted to act since the age of three, growing up as the youngest of four children in Atlanta, Ga. “It was solely my idea,” she said. “It wasn’t (a thing in) my house, or my mom’s idea. I really think of it as fate, or destiny. I don’t think a lot of three-year-olds are telling people what they want to do with their lives. It was meant to be, and I’m glad God gave me the talent to do so and to share it with the people around me.”

If she sounds remarkably poised for 14, Reid seems doubly so in light of her performance as A Wrinkle in Time’s geeky, math-savvy protagonist, Meg Murry, who must overcome her insecurities as she travels the galaxy, brother and potential boyfriend in tow, to save her father from the forces of darkness. Rounding out Meg ’s crew is a trio of celestial well-wishers, played by Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling.

Reid read Madeleine L’Engle’s 1962 novel in Grade 6, before there was any talk of starring in the film, earning an A on her book report. That was three long years ago.

“I loved the journey and the story,” she said. “I just loved that Meg was so peculiar and confusing, and that she didn’t realize how great she was, even though everyone else did, and that it took her a trip around the universe to figure it out.”

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As calm and collected as she appears in interview, Reid admits to being overwhelmed during her initial meeting with DuVernay.

“I was very intimidated and really nervous,” she said. “It was so nice meeting her and spending a couple of days with her in the audition process, just being myself. I didn’t think I was going to get the part. I thought I would do my best and hopefully Miss Ava would consider me for something in the future.”

When she was told she had landed the part, Reid couldn’t believe it.

“I was so shocked,” she said. “It’s such a blessing. I get emotional talking about it. When I got the call from Miss Ava, I started crying.”

Reid’s southern manners only add to her charm. She refers to her elder fellow cast members with Mr. and Miss prefixes, beginning with Winfrey, who never fails to leave an impression.

“Miss Oprah was so much fun,” Reid said. “She’s so amazing, and so talented. She doesn’t act like Oprah. She just acts like a regular woman who loves what she does. She’s so grounded, helpful and gracious. I was so glad to share the screen with her, learn from her and take her advice.”

And what was the most memorable pointer she received from the former queen of daytime television, who brings serenity and a touch of divinity to her role as the seemingly all-powerful Mrs. Which?

“She said, ‘Don’t waste energy on things I can’t change’; and to use it on positive things, to gravitate to something I can do something about,” Reid said. “That’s become my life motto.”

That mantra could double as the take-home lesson Meg learns in A Wrinkle in Time. And while she’s nowhere near as self-conscious and awkward as her character, Reid connected to Meg ’s internal transformation.

“It was challenging,” she said, of playing someone ill at ease in her own skin.

“I am very open-spirited and very happy, so it was a challenge to go through some of the experiences Meg went through. I basically had to step into her shoes, put myself in her situation and think about how I would act.”

With A Wrinkle in Time, there will now be legions of girls stepping into Reid’s shoes.

From Left: Reese Witherspoon as Mrs. Whatsit Below: Oprah Winfrey plays Mrs. Which

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One of the triumphs of DuVernay’s vision of the story is in placing a young woman of colour in the lead role.

Reid has been around Miss Ava and Miss Oprah long enough to glean what that means, and to realize what her presence in the film represents in Hollywood.

“It’s such a blessing,” she said. “I feel so grateful to play a female protagonist, in this film, who is African-American. It feels like representation matters. All people should be represented, in a good way. I feel like this film does that for girls who look like me, and just girls who are going through tough times.

“I’m glad to be able to break barriers and to represent inclusion and diversity. I just want it all to be normal.”

POWER

PLAY Tye Sheridan played as teen gamer named Wade Watts may be the hero in Ready Player One

If you’ve ever yearned to see what a love letter to Steven Spielberg from Steven Spielberg would look like, you’re ready for Ready Player One. Even hero Tye Sheridan in his wire-rimmed glasses looks like a younger version of the director.

Actually, it’s more of a love letter to a decade.

The beautifully jarring first note comes when the words Columbus, Ohio — 2045 appear on a black screen at the start of the film, accompanied not by some post-apocalyptic dirge by Vangelis, but Van Halen’s raucous hit Jump, from 1984.

But in this version of the 2040s, drawn from the popular 2011 novel by Ernest Cline, everything old is new again. Citizens the world over plug into a virtual reality called the Oasis — which, by virtue of having been invented by a GenXer named Halliday (Mark Rylance, looking like a cross between Bill Gates and Garth from Wayne’s World) — is heavily influenced by all things ’80s.

Sheridan plays orphan wiseacre Wade Watts, who goes by Parzival in the online realm, and is an amateur “gunter” — or egg hunter.

When Halliday died in 2040 — there are hints he may still be around as a ghost in the machine — he left behind three virtual Easter eggs.

Whoever finds them gets control of the Oasis and a gazillion dollars.

Parzival is joined in his quest by Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), whose sylphlike avatar has him smitten, even as his best friend Aech ( best not to spoil who plays this character) reminds him that people in the Oasis may not look anything like their offline selves. But the real world has a way of butting into their quest, usually in the form of an evil megacorporation headed by professional bad guy Ben Mendelsohn of Rogue One, The Dark Knight Rises,etc.

The three-keys quest gives Ready Player One its simple structure, and it’s a wonder it doesn’t wear out its welcome, clocking in at a solid two hours and 20 minutes. Chapters include: Parzival participates in a road race that feels like an extreme version of trying to get from JFK into midtown Manhattan. Parzival and friends infiltrate a Kubrick movie (don’t worry, it’s not A Clockwork Orange). And Parzival and Art3mis shoot looks at each other that will discomfit anyone in the audience who isn’t precisely 13 ¾ years old.

The screenplay, co-written by Cline and Zak Penn (Last Action Hero, various superhero movies), pares down the lengthy, andthen-THIS happens narrative of the book.

Those hoping to see Wade quote-check his way through Monty Python and the Holy Grail — we know who you are, you’re an anarchosyndicalist commune — will have to do that on their own time. There is, however, a Holy Hand Grenade in play, as well as a nifty device called a Zemeckis Cube and an Atari 2600. (Ask your dad, unless you are one.)

There’s also a fair bit of humour, much of it coming from T.J. Miller’s character, an oversized bounty hunter with an underwhelming personality.

And pop culture geeks will be geeking out for years over the references tucked away in odd corners.

I spotted a poster for Mayor Goldie Wilson, and was sent scrambling to YouTube to reacquaint myself with a 35-yearold Tootsie Pop commercial. Spielberg even throws in a few references (Citizen Kane, It’s a Wonderful Life) that were old before he came of age.

The film does a good job balancing and in a few cases overlapping the virtual and real worlds — though anyone from the future will tell you that you don’t run down a street wearing VR goggles.

And while it barely pokes into the darker and/or more philosophical corners of a life lived mostly online, it isn’t trying to be a primer on teleology, any more than Jaws is a treatise on marine life or Raiders an archeology lesson.

No, this is Spielberg in popcorn mode, and it’s his best in the genre since 2011’s Tintin, and a fair sight better than the lumbering BFG from 2016. Sure, it’s also a bit narratively fuzzy, but that’s part of the charm.

If you’re old enough to have mucked around with photocopiers, making duplicates of duplicates, you’ll know what I mean.

But you’ll also enjoy this nostalgic trip all the more.

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in-depth look

films

But according to everyone on the Ready Player One panel at last year’s Comic-Con, director Steven Spielberg is the hero of the film. “I assumed that it could just never work as a film,” author Ernest Cline told the crowd of his 2011 book about a decrepit near-future Earth where people escape into a virtual-reality, game-based society called The Oasis that’s comprised of characters and elements from real movies, videogames, music and TV shows from the 1980s to 2010. “I think that the only two guys who could have made it came on board,” he added.

Director Steven Spielberg’s last film set in a futuristic world was 2002’s Minority Report so it’s time for him to show off his sci-fi chops once more with this adaptation of Ernest Cline’s dystopian novel. The year’s 2044 and people, including the unassuming Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), spend their days playing the massively popular videogame OASIS. When OASIS’s creator (Mark Rylance) dies, it’s revealed that he’s hidden an Easter Egg inside the game and whoever finds it wins $500-billion and control of his company The first is Spielberg, who’s responsible for many of the pop-culture icons referenced in the book, including the Indiana Jones franchise, which he directed, and two franchises he produced, Goonies and Back to the Future, and the second is screenwriter Zak Penn (Last Action Hero, X2, the story for The Avengers), who also pointed to Spielberg as the key to getting the film made. “I thought, well, this will never happen,” admitted Penn. “We’re never going to be able to make this movie because we’d need, like, Steven Spielberg to direct it…. And to be honest with you, when they told me they were going to send it to him I was like, ‘Ah, he’s never going to do it.’” As for why Spielberg took the job, the director told the crowd, “Ernie’s book, it was like the most amazing flashforward and flashback at the same time, [a flashback] to a decade that I was very involved in, the 1980s, but a flash-forward about a future that I think is out there awaiting all of us whether we like it or not.”

Ready Player One hits theatres March 29th.

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Style

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K-Beauty

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Essentials

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style

K-Beauty

K-beauty Goes Kaboom

Since its launch last May, over 150,000 users globally have flocked to Beautytap.com for a Korean cosmetics shopping extravaganza.

Swanicoco Multi-Solution Triple V Ampoule

Romand Perfect Innerlighting Cushion

There are low-maintenance types whose daily skincare regimen consists of a few rushed minutes before the mirror—unthinkable to connoisseurs of K-beauty, who invest hours each week in the ritualistic application of age-defying Korean cosmetics: sheet masks, essences, serums, fermented products, high-SPF sunscreen (by day) and “sleeping mask” (at night). This community is hardcore, yet it had no unified online portal—until May 2017, when the ecommerce site Beautytap made its debut.

Enabling the K-beauty-obsessed is the goal of CEO James Sun, the first Asian male entrepreneur to land a spot on TV’s The Apprentice and a ringer for the K-drama heartthrobs populating DramaBeans (his other online venture), Sun isn’t just the founder; he’s also a customer. “Currently, I’m using COSRX toner, SanDaWha daytime moisturizer, Eclado sunscreen, and Sulwhasoo night cream,” says Sun. Such dermal due diligence pays off: Sun cites his mom, a lifelong K-beauty devotee, who “is 70 but looks 50.” Since its launch, the U.S.-based Beautytap has attracted some 150,000 dedicated users globally, with the top five markets being the U.S., Australia, France, the U.K., and Canada. “I was a bit surprised about France,” Sun admits, “because the French have historically come up with the very best beauty products.”

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For K-beauty fans, this site is a 24/7 amusement park. A timer counts down the hours, minutes and seconds remaining on each day’s Dailytap: a limited-edition steal of a deal. These sell out like hotteok (Korean pancakes). But the real draw is the site’s insider intelligence: “We have a team of 15 experts at our office in Seoul. They research, discover, curate and verify all the new products at the ground floor.

Many people don’t realize how many counterfeits there are on sites like Amazon, Alibaba and eBay,” Sun cautions. “With Beautytap, consumers can trust that we have real people sourcing real products from our partners.”

Although males are in the minority—95 percent of Beautytap’s users are female—the five percent is equally devoted. Take, for instance, the CEO himself, whose enviable complexion proves it’s never too early to adopt a K-beauty routine. “During junior high and high school,” Sun recalls, “I used to wipe the inner side of orange peels on my face, thinking the vitamin C would balance my skin to prevent acne from the oil.” Turns out he wasn’t far off. “While filming The Apprentice for nine weeks, I ran out of my K-beauty regimen and only slept three hours per day,” he admits. “I ended up getting temporary wrinkles and age spots.” The damage control? “Vitamin C serums and thick eye cream did the trick!” beautytap.com

style

essentials

Philosophy Purity Made Simple Moisturiser

A new product from the brand behind the fan favourite One-Step Facial Cleanser and 2017 Best of Beauty winner Pore Extractor Exfoliating Clay Mask. This moisturiser, which is suitable for dry and sensitive skin, is made from a selection of almost edible ingredients, including cold-pressed chia seed oil, meadowfoam seed oil, a green tea antioxidant complex, and vitamins C and E. There’s also a blend of fatty oils and moisture-locking glycerin and hyaluronic acid.

Benefit Badgal Bang Mascara

It seems everyone’s going wild for this new mascara having seen some seemingly miraculous before and after campaign shots that give the impression of falsies without the hassle. This is thanks to Benefit’s space technology which promises big things: volumised lashes, 36-hour wear and lengthened lashes.

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Health

27 Life

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life

health

“Grab Some Sand”

by Brooke Shields I grew up spending my summers in Southampton. It was here that I learned how to swim, how to dance the box step, and how to build the perfect drip sandcastle.

I have always been my happiest on the beach. I can’t, however, say the same thing about the actual ocean.

Put simply, everything about the ocean had always terrified me; its darkness, its temperature, its inhabitants, and its sheer force.

At an early age I had a terrifying encounter with a wave. I was about 9 or 10 and was out for a swim with some friends. There was a sudden drop in the sand and I sunk in it just as a big wave was cresting over my head. My face still above water, I looked up and froze; down it crashed and immediately my world became silent, violent and terrifying. I got flipped around like an ice cube in a martini shaker at Shippy’s and each time I surfaced, catching glimpses of the oblivious sunbathers, I’d get sucked right back down again. This process, which left me with bloody knees and a bathing suit filled with wet sand, probably only lasted three to five seconds—but to me, it felt like an eternity. Pummeled and hurt, I crawled onto dry land feeling traumatized and small. I vowed never to swim in the big, bad ocean again. The pool would have to suffice. And aside from various tropical dips that peppered the next few decades of my life, I kept that vow. That is, until not long ago.

I had recently returned to my roots on the South Fork of Long Island, and was invited to what I thought was a paddleboarding lesson. Instead, I found myself confronted with a wet suit and a surfboard. Afraid of appearing void of courage, I smiled and accepted the challenge. Terrified, I paddled out against what felt like a fire hose being aimed at my face. In an instant I was transported back to my childhood and was convinced that this time, the waves would actually succeed in devouring me. My fear was mounting and my eyes began to well with tears. In addition, not only was I lugging around a massive hunk of fiberglass, I was surrounded by children and other moms who were gleefully gliding atop the water’s surface and cheering each other on. Me included. I wanted to punch everybody and everything. Very mature!

My instructor must have seen the mounting panic in my eyes and said, “We are going to surf without a board.” Great news, except that I still had the water to deal with. Once free from the leash and closer to shore, I was told to face the oncoming waves. I could feel my whole body begin to tense up. Suddenly I saw a huge wave approaching and, as I had many years prior, I became paralyzed. Just as it was about to crash on me, I heard, “Grab some sand!” “What?” “Go down and grab me two handfuls of sand, NOW!” I did as I was told, and once below the surface, I felt the powerful rumble of the wave ripple over the backs of my legs. I clawed into that sand with all my might and burst back up into the open air. Looking like a triumphant prizefighter, I held up two fistfuls of sand and screamed.

I had done it. I had escaped being battered and beaten.

“Hesitation is dangerous.” A voice rang out. “When you get in trouble, dive down to the ocean’s floor and the wave will pass.” Miraculously, in an instant, I actually felt bigger. This event has since become a metaphor for the way I now approach my life. It empowered me and I promised myself that day that I would no longer allow fear to debilitate me, but instead make it urge me, simply, to “Grab some sand.”

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Home

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Inventions

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Architecture

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home

inventions

Clocks as Art—A Timeless Concept from Humans Since 1982

For Bastian Bischoff and Per Emanuelsson, the forces behind Humans Since 1982, time is a marvel of design and imagination in their ClockClock24 art pieces.

Can you tell us a little about the inspiration behind ClockClock24?

BASTIAN BISCHOFF: There were two experiences that inspired us to create these kinetic artworks ClockClock24 and A million Times, which are both based on the same concept. During our studies in 2009 we experimented with animated typography and developed a font that was based on a grid of clocks. Using clocks to show a circle of formation and decline of characters was intriguing and after some experimentation it proved to be beautiful, too. What triggered this typography experiment was a diffuse question that followed us during our MA studies: “How time designs and how to design time?” We took the above question literally and in a deliberately naive and almost childish act we manipulated the official symbol of time, the clock. As it can be seen in our artworks, the clocks are not following a ratio between the hour and the minute hand. They also stop when they want and even sometimes go backwards. Metaphorically speaking, we liberated the clock from its sole function of measuring and reporting the time by taking the clock-hands out of their “administrative” roles and turning them into dancers. It seems that a combination of childish escapism and a personal preference for pure forms led to the design of our kinetic sculptures.

Regarding the visual aspect of the artwork, there was another experience that influenced us. Back in 2009, we conducted experiments with patterns of random fallen toothpicks. We were curious to discover when something appears random, and how much human intervention is needed in order for dozens, formerly randomspread toothpicks to be recognized as artificially arranged. Though the scientific method and result were questionable, we saw in those fallen sticks a pure and mysterious visual language. During this small experiment, we noticed the beauty in the contrast and interdependency between chaos and order, an aspect that is now seen as central in ClockClock 24 and A Million Times.

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Delights is devoted to the exploration of all things wellness. How can our sense of time play a part in our wellbeing?

Realizing that time is passing can be scary, of course, and paradoxically, the urge to optimize the here and now often leads to a call for efficiency that leaves un-free, stressed or depressed individuals that simply feel paralyzed when facing an imagined time scarcity. On the other hand, the passing of time is the base for healing, growth, forgiveness and hope. With time come opportunities and new chances. Seeing it this way and really being aware of this positive aspect can be quite calming.

In what ways do wellness and luxury come together in ClockClock24?

Why did this participation in the Pop-Up feel like a good fit to you?

We created and still see ClockClock24 rather as a kinetic artwork that happens to be quite expensive to produce and hence falls into the luxury segment. Regarding the wellness aspect, I can say that many people who saw the piece at exhibitions reported to us that it feels like a “massage for the eyes” when watching the piece performing.

The Purist Pop-Up is a good fit to show ClockClock 24 because we think that the magazine’s audience is interested in such unique concepts that go beyond just the look but of course also appreciate a pure visual language.

Each piece is produced and assembled in your workshop. Anything to say about the hands-on process, or the human touch—fitting given the name of the company!—in creating these stunning pieces?

Indeed, each piece is hand assembled in our workshop in Sweden. We have highly skilled artisans in our studio team who support us with the manufacturing. It is important to make these limited editions in-house with skilled people to keep full control over the quality.

How do you and Per shape time in your downtime, outside of work?

I actually like staying home and experiencing the world through books or sometimes go back home to Southern Germany for meeting with old friends or to hike in the Alps. Per spends time with his wife Tove and his son Jarl. He likes going out and work on their new country house that they built on an island in the Stockholm archipelago.

home

architecture The True Meaning of Houses

What better representation of self can there be but a personally designed home? Sag Harbor-based architect James Merrell analyzes the latest increase in clients’ emotional and mental investment in the design process.

For much of the 20th century, clients seemed to want their architects to tell them not only what their houses should look like, but how they should be lived in as well, right down to the toothbrushes. These architects were the role models for my generation. But today the relationships that they had with their clients can seem to border on the abusive.

Indeed, at the beginning of the 21st century, things are different. Of course, it may be that we are living in an age with no single, ascendant architectural style. But more importantly, clients seem different too, perhaps trained by their parents to seek experience over acquisition— self-actualization over commodification. And so they have a greater desire to participate in the design process. If these clients also intuit that house design is the mother of all self-actualizing experiences, they have discovered our most precious secret.

It may surprise architects to learn that people find their own meaning in our designs, but this is not a new idea. Analysts have long known that the house, for example, is a symbol for the self in our dreams. And as psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi put it in one of the only studies devoted to our relationship to things: The house “…is a material environment that embodies what we consider significant. In this sense the home becomes the most powerful sign of the self…who dwells within.”

Once, this perspective surprised me. But over the years I have seen how helpful it can be in the design process. When clients find their own meaning in our designs, their homes cease to become mere commodities, and are less likely to be traded or razed over time. And when clients “cathect” with a design—make a mental or emotional investment in it—the house starts to become a valued heirloom. As Csikszentmihalyi notes, people find meaning in the objects that trigger memories, like family photos, and houses can be the ultimate in memory triggers. In fact, nothing shines a mirror on our hopes and dreams quite like the process of designing a new house.

For me, it is telling that so many of the architectural icons of the 20th century are monuments today, valued by tour- ists but otherwise uninhabited. Could this be because those additional meanings were never permitted—the client’s dreams were held at arm’s length? Did their architects in some way subjugate or preclude their clients’ cathection?

Understanding design from the client’s perspective can also help us to understand the success of an architect like Palladio, whose 16th century villas still stand—and are still inhabited today. Clearly, his princely clients saw much of themselves in his designs. And in this way, among others, they provide great models for us today, four centuries hence.

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Food

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Comfort Food

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food

comfort food

Crafting the Future of Food

In PlantLab, Matthew Kenney’s next-level guide to a delicious, satisfying and healthy plant-based diet, the author details his epic journey from New York City omnivore to LA vegan superchef.

Growing up in a small town on the coast of Maine, I was as unlikely a candidate to become a plant-based chef as anyone. But my earliest memories are of devouring blackberries off the vine along the path we walked to the rocky shore, and tiny wild strawberries that grew in the field just outside my bedroom. Although my family sourced much of its produce locally, and grew a beautiful garden in the backyard, consumption of animals and fish was a main part of our diet. I grew up with the premise that hunting wasn’t a sport, but rather part of our food ecosystem, and I began hunting at the age of 10.

When I was in college, I spent a lot of time during my breaks in New York City, where I realized that much of the city’s energy was found in dining establishments. I would find myself going into many of them, obsessed with every facet of hospitality. In 1993, I opened my first restaurant, Matthew’s, in New York City, a gorgeous North African– themed Mediterranean concept. One restaurant evolved into three, then seven. In my free time, I was learning more about meditation, and gravitating toward a vegetarian lifestyle. Years of yoga and conscious attention inspired me, and opened me to the possibility of an entirely plant-based lifestyle. I dove into it wholeheartedly, with a passion and fervor I had never experienced before.

Despite years of forward momentum and positive results, it wasn’t until I moved to California several years ago that I began to see the true potential of plant-based cuisine take shape. Southern California has long been a pioneer in American and global cuisine, specifically when it comes to market-inspired, fresh cooking. That spirit, which has been led by Wolfgang Puck, Michael McCarty, Jonathan Waxman and so many others, is alive and well today. Los Angeles is a true melting pot of cultures, and it shows brilliantly in the food offerings of the city. Farmers markets are bursting at the seams all year round, and the active, sunny lifestyle lends itself to fresh, healthier foods.

While our ideas now come alive on the West Coast of the United States, our aim is to inspire and help others utilize their own geographical and cultural influences to create plant-based food suited to their own locations. As more chefs embrace this way of living and show diners how brilliantly obvious it is to cook and eat this way, the global food paradigm will shift. That is our goal.

Green Gazpacho, with Tomato Water and Chipotle Crema

SERVES 5 TOMATO WATER 6 beefsteak tomatoes, chopped Liquify the tomatoes in a food processor or blender. Pass the mixture through a finemesh strainer and discard the pulp and seeds. Place 3 layers of cheesecloth in the finemesh strainer and pass the tomato water through the strainer again, allowing it to drain overnight, covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated. Reserve the liquid that drains through the cheesecloth and store it in the refrigerator.

GREEN GAZPACHO (Makes 5 cups) 2 English cucumbers, peeled, seeded and quartered 2 yellow bell peppers, peeled, seeded and quartered 3 celery stalks, chopped 2 ripe avocados 2 cups tomato water 2 cups spinach 6 tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil 2 cups fresh cilantro ½ serrano pepper, seeds removed 1 tsp. sea salt 2 cups ice Blend all ingredients, in two batches, in a high-speed blender until smooth. Pass the soup through a fine-mesh strainer and refrigerate for 2–3 hours, or up to 3 days, to allow all the flavors to meld.

CHIPOTLE CREMA 1 cup water 1 chipotle chile, dried and seeded 1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked ½ tbsp. chile powder 1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice ½ tsp. sea salt, plus more to taste 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar ½ tsp. spicy paprika Bring water to boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and add the chipotle chile.

Rehydrate the chipotle chile in the hot water for 20–30 minutes, then remove the chile and reserve the water. Blend the chipotle chile, sunflower seeds, chile powder, lime juice, sea salt, apple cider vinegar and spicy paprika until creamy. Use liquid from the rehydrated chipotle to thin, if needed. Season with additional sea salt to taste.

ASSEMBLY 1 English cucumber, diced 4 radishes, sliced thin 6 cherry tomatoes, sliced thin 2 tablespoons radish sprouts 1 avocado, medium dice Pour 1 cup of gazpacho into a soup bowl. Using a spoon or a squeeze bottle, place dots of chipotle crema on top, totaling 1 tablespoon. Garnish with diced cucumber, sliced radishes, sliced cherry tomatoes, radish sprouts and avocado.

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last look

Queen Mamas

Expecting in LA? Get Asian-inspired post-baby TLC from Heng Ou’s MotherBees.

After the birth of her third child, LA native Heng Ou was determined to give local new mamas a serving of postpartum care similar to what she received during her experience with zuo yuezi, or the Chinese art of confinement after ybirth. Zuo yuezi follows a lengthy list of protocols, including staying warm and limiting outside stimuli, but food is at the heart of the program.

Throughout the 40-day regimen, new mothers are served hearty soups and stews and revitalizing teas and tonics, each enhanced with ingredients designed to support post-delivery recuperation, encourage lactation, and create easeful bonding with baby.

Through her company MotherBees, Ou gives Los Angeles mothers essential TLC—a new mother’s needs often get lost in the whirlwind of a newborn’s arrival—with home-cooked meals delivered quietly to their doorstep. Dishes and drinks include kabocha squash and red lentil soup; hibiscus, cinnamon and ginger tonic; and a “Mother’s Bowl” with kitchari (an Ayurvedic mixture of rice and beans), greens and wild mushrooms. “Food plays such a big role in postpartum healing,” says Ou, co-author of The First Forty Days: The Essential Art of Nourishing the New Mother. “Feeding a new mother nutrient-dense, delicious things is the quickest way to help her find her center again and to give her the strength to tend to the needs of the newest, and most demanding, member of her family.” motherbees.com

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DELIGHTS / MARCH 2018