39 minute read
TOP TIER
Elevated experiences at the newly expanded and updated Topping Rose House.
BY BETH LANDMAN
Fresh lobster served with microgreens and corn Kick back with a cocktail on the lawn of Topping Rose House.
Topping Rose House has long been one of the East End’s chicest hotels and dining spots, with its historic house, lush gardens, spectacular pool and rstrate massage services. Changes this season are taking Topping Rose House to another level. With a fresh coat of paint and sanded oors, “It looks brand-new, as if it were 1843 when it rst opened,” says General Manager Joseph Montag.
Even the grounds have expanded, with a rosé garden added that will host cocktail hours every Friday from 4:30 to 6:30. Along with libations, there will be complimentary Jean-Georges nger foods such as truf e pizza and crispy salmon sushi, as well as a live guitarist. The restaurant, Jean-Georges at Topping Rose, has a new chef, Paul Eschbach, who ran Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s restaurants in China and Hong Kong for four years. “I am hitting a lot of the local farms, as well as sheries, tapping into the community,” says Eschbach, currently planning sashimi and plateaux with local seafood, and specials such as cumin-rubbed lamb chops with cucumber yogurt; marinated and char-grilled Long Island duck; monk sh
piccata; and green chickpea hummus with local vegetables. The spa, too, is getting a boost. Farmaesthetics will offer massages and facials, while the tness program, run by Marissa Ivana, the wellness director, has planned a series of appearances by tness personalities such as Stephen Pasterino, founder of P.volve; Sarah Brooks, founder of Brooks Pilates Studio; and Ebenezer Samuel, tness director for Men’s Health magazine and head of training innovation for FlexIt. Monthly tness memberships are now available for the gym, pool and classes such as Sculpt and Swim, a hybrid that can be taken in the water or on land— Jean-Georges but either way, participants are asked to Vongerichten dress in athletic wear. “We are keeping it classy; nobody will be in thongs or Speedos,” says Ivana. A former cheerleader, she has also introduced a high-energy sculpting class called Cheer, using pompoms along with mini trampolines and weights. “People feel like they are in college again,” she adds. “It’s the cardio class you never knew you needed. Everyone is smiling!” toppingrosehouse.com
Photo credit here. Her wellness go-tos: morning tea and breathing exercises, which, she says, have given her “a whole di erent attitude.” Cristina Cuomo: I’m so happy to be interviewing you about your bestselling children’s book, Just Try One Bite. It’s been very well received in my house. I have three kids, like you, so I know how hard it is to do anything with three kids, let alone start a business. Camila Alves McConaughey: Thank you so much. I think it’s important to start this conversation by saying that the book is a reminder to parents about the conversations to have around food—where it comes from, what’s good, what’s not. We’re going to have a relationship with food for the rest of our lives, so the earlier we start on the right path, the easier the journey is going to be.
CC: Exactly. CAM: I come from a family of farmers. My dad is still a farmer today. We have a farm together in Brazil. To make extra money in the summer, we used to work on the farm. The journey from seed to table, the process of growing, and all of that was always clear to me. But we never had the conversation about sugar. That is the one thing that I struggle with.
CC: It’s the most addictive thing, and almost impossible to wean yourself off. Do you cook with alternatives like coconut sugar or stevia, things that are lower on the glycemic index? CAM: I do. And then if we’re going to have a dessert, we have a real dessert, a real cake, whether we get it from a bakery that is making it from scratch, or we make it ourselves. When I bake, instead of using processed sugar, I will do monk fruit.
CC: That’s a great natural sweetener. CAM: Yes, it’s better than overprocessed sugars, but the way your body processes it is very similar. I do use substitutes, but I try to keep those in moderation, too.
CC: Just Try One Bite is actually quite hilarious. It’s kind of this role reversal where the parents are the perpetrators of eating too much sugar. It’s so important to educate kids about marketing gimmicks. What is it that’s giving you the energy in energy drinks? Vitamin water has a negligible amount of vitamins in it. Kids have to know that it’s important to read labels. CAM: It’s very important to teach kids how to read labels because a lot of them—even my kids—would say, “Oh, it’s zero sugar and this many calories.” I’d tell them, “No, time out, stop. We don’t look at the calories. As kids you don’t need to be worried about that.” It’s just about looking for real ingredients.
The book was really an expression of me trying to inspire people to do better for themselves, their families, their community. My agent brought up [co-author]
Adam Mansbach’s name, because he wrote Go The F**k to Sleep. It was really important that this book wasn’t preachy, that it wasn’t telling parents what to do. I wanted it to be fun, to have twists and turns. Adam really understood that.
CC: I know you came up with the ideas for the food choices as the mom who’s probably been through it with your own kids, struggling to get them to eat these healthier alternatives. But this writing is just so fun. ‘So, it’s straight off to bed and no stories tonight, or you could both try one tiny bite.’ How many times have we said that to our kids? CAM: Right, exactly. It’s got a little bit of a rap vibe to it, but the fun part is that it’s the kids telling the parents. What I’m hearing a lot from parents, grandparents and friends that are reading to the kids in their lives, is that now the kids are trying new things. They’re also coming to the adults and saying, “I know you can do better.”
CC: It’s so important to invert that power dynamic. These kids, if you give them the right tools, will be empowered to educate their parents. Now, tell me a bit about Women of Today and the online community you’ve created. What was the evolution of this lifestyle, foodie, recipe Instagram community? CAM: Women of Today is a website, an online community dedicated to doing better for themselves and their families. The idea of the website was really to create a community where we learn from each other. You see so many recipes on Women of Today because that’s what the community asks for. So, if you want to share something, you can send an email to info@womenoftoday.com. You can participate in our events, and communicate with us through Instagram and messages on Facebook.
CC: As the expert mom bringing nutrition to the dining table every day, what are some tips and tricks for the picky eaters you have at home? CAM: My three kids are very different, their tastes are very different. My little one recently went through a stage where he would only eat black beans. That’s it, to the point where I was calling the doctor saying, “I don’t know if this kid is getting all the nutrition he needs.” I started to incorporate different colors on my son’s plate, telling him, “You have to try at least three colors.” I remember the rst time that he grabbed red bell peppers and started eating them. I was looking across the table at my husband, going, “Don’t say a word. Don’t look.” Playing the game of eating your colors can really be helpful. If you are introducing new foods, introduce them one at a time, with things that your child already loves.
CC: Eat the rainbow. CAM: Yes, exactly. And then the other important thing is to include the kids in the kitchen, but in a way that they can learn how the cooking process works. My rst experience I had with my kids in the kitchen was with breakfast, making scrambled eggs and avocado toast. It’s so easy for a child to put together. It gets messy and fun, but all of a sudden they go, “Wow, I can actually cook a meal, and I understand where it came from. And now I’m going to sit down with my family and eat.”
CC: What is your favorite Brazilian recipe? Do they love pão de queijo? My 12-year-old daughter is obsessed with it. CAM: They love pão de queijo. My brother has a company in Brazil that makes pão de queijo, so when he comes over to visit, he brings a big cooler to ll up the freezer.
CC: It’s gooey and delicious. It’s my favorite. CAM: You know, pão de queijo comes from my state in Brazil.
CC: Oh, it does? What is your state? CAM: Belo Horizonte, which is in Minas Gerais.
CC: What are some guiding principles you’ve used along the way as a mom, words of wisdom that perhaps your mother instilled in you? CAM: Respect yourself, and you’ll respect others. Do to others what you want done to you. Always tell the truth. In Brazil we say, “mentiras tienen patas corta” (“lies have short legs”). And we talk about that a lot—you think you are getting away with something, but eventually it’s going to come out. I’m big on independence with the kids. I think it’s because I left home at an early age and I had to nd my independence in a different country and ght for it and work really hard for it.
CC: You started this month on your Instagram by encouraging people to set a new goal, and your goal is to dance more often this month. Have you danced since you set that intention? CAM: I have danced more. We just had our big charity event that we do in Austin, called Mack, Jack & McConaughey. It bene ts kids and our Just Keep Livin Foundation. The second night, we danced and then had a fashion show. Stella McCartney was the designer.
CC: I saw that. That looked great.
Outfit by Veronica Beard Gold hoops available at christinacaruso.com
CAM: Yeah, there was great music there. My goal now is to dance more around the house. Wake up with music. I used to wake up the kids with music and then start dancing throughout the morning and the day, and I kind of stopped it. I don’t know why. I’ve got to go back to it.
CC: My daughter loves an app called Calm—that’s how she gets to herself to sleep every night. Your husband narrates a lot of the books on the Calm app. He’s got a calm voice. I’m thinking he must be very proud of his wife right now. You reached the bestseller list, much like he did with his own insights-on-life book called Greenlights. So, how is that dynamic at home? You’re both bestselling authors now. You’re both parents. A lot of couples aren’t that committed to all the things around them. It’s really lovely to see how it all comes together. CAM: Being on The New York Times bestseller list was a big surprise for me. When I rst moved here, I spoke three sentences in English, and that was it. To have a book on a bookshelf in a store is surreal. But to nd out that Matthew and I were both on the list in the same week was a big deal. We were together when we found out. Our oldest son was with us, but our two youngest were not, and we got to celebrate, the three of us, and then I told Matthew, “You know what? We’ve got to teach the kids to also give joy for every win that we have, no matter what it is.” And so he called the kids and talked to them, and they decorated the house and did a whole surprise when we came home, so that was really sweet. We got to celebrate properly. womenoftoday.com
REGENERATION NATION
A pioneering Deep South farm has proven a better way to raise food. Amely Greeven pays a visit.
aking up on one of the world’s best-known
Wregenerative farms is a unique sensory experience. First, the sounds: an eerie cacophony of the bellows of thousands of cattle oating on the mist that has transpired on the kneehigh pasture outside my guest cabin. Then, the touch of dew-soaked pants on my skin from a pre-coffee amble, as the carpet of cattle fodder transfers its humidity to my skin. But most of all, the sight of green upon green, so many hues even a professional writer’s words fail to do it justice. This is what a farm that works with nature, not against it, looks like in the coastal plains of southwest Georgia.
It’s exciting to get this intimate with farm life. Up close with the herds of cattle that have just moved, en masse, from one paddock to the next—sections of farm are divided up like a checkerboard so the herds brie y impact one section of land at a time, helping the deep-rooted perennial grasses grow—it feels like normal time has dissolved. The river of sleek-coated, majestic animals looks primal and prehistoric as it moves across the emerald pasture with egrets the color of toasted marshmallows darting above it, a sign of ecological health. Hours later, ocks of chickens, pecking at the earth for grubs, catch the golden light with their feathers like movie stars at Cabo before retreating into their movable houses for the night, shaggy guardian dogs patrolling the edges of their terrain. During a torrential rainstorm—I am quite certain it’s a Category 5, but Will Harris III, the farm’s owner, calls
Chickens (and ducks, turkeys, guinea hens and geese) roam and peck by day, naturally aerating and fertilizing the soil with nitrogen from their droppings. Movable houses keep them safe from predators by night.
it “a good rain”—a mama goat shelters her baby under hedgerows, just ne with the elements despite my nervous misgivings. Life with its constant turning of growth, death, decay and regrowth is everywhere. It’s a very different picture from neighboring elds, where intensive row-crop farming using tillage and chemicals have left expanses of terra-cotta-colored subsoil exposed and baking in the brutal sun. Harris likes to talk about nature and the cycles that drive its abundance. Humans have tried to tamper with nature, to improve it, manipulate and better it in the quest for cheaper, faster food. But we are nothing, really, compared to its awesome force. Nature always bats last.
I came to White Oak Pastures, a sixth-generation operation (not including Harris’ grandkids) that raises 10 species of meat and poultry on pasture and has become a beacon of the independent small-food movement, drawn by a personal epiphany that only the soil will save us. Documentaries and podcasts have awoken me to the fact that healthy grasslands draw carbon out of the atmosphere and lock it in the soil via plants and their roots, and that livestock raised in ways that emulate how our ecosystems evolved over time—with herds of ruminants moving actively across the land, trampling plants and manure into Earth’s surface as they go—help this carbon cycle to function. I’ve learned that profuse vegetation and trees help the Earth’s water cycle to work—a vital piece of the planet’s temperature regulation that is breaking drastically the more we clear land for vast swathes of monoculture crops and miles of concrete sprawl, thereby contributing to superstorms and wild res. And that the multiverse of microbes living in vital, intact soils make our food more mineralized, and consequently build our health. Light bulbs have gone off for me in what feels like a foreboding moment of planetary collapse and I want to throw my weight behind a different kind of food production. Besides, my family and I like eating meat, but we can’t endorse misery meat raised cruelly in industrial con nement facilities. So I traveled 2,300 miles to the tiny hamlet of Bluffton, Georgia, to see how a de-industrialized farm does it, one that (very unusual today) oversees each animal through its entire life cycle and whose credo is to let livestock express instinctive behaviors every damn day.
The farm’s origin story is, to carnivore-oriented foodies and fans of better farming, quite well known. Its owner, Harris, tells it often these days. Harris is the OG of regenerative agriculture; he began reversing the damage
The Harris family at the solar ranch where they raise “regenerative lamb” Mama hogs expressing maternal instincts outdoors
that intensive modern agriculture has wrought long before “regen ag” had the buzz (or even the name) it has today. And he says that for years, no one cared much about the tale of a former industrial cattle rancher in an overlooked corner of rural America that bet the farm on returning to the simpler, more self-reliant methods of his forefathers.
It was a journey that started roughly 25 years ago when he got disgusted by the excesses of modern cattle-raising, Will Harris III with its unnatural diet of grains, on-tap pharmaceutical drugs and crowded feedlots that turned cows into obese, sedentary creatures dying of diseases of civilization. He began striking out on what he calls a “radically traditional” path of raising fully grass-fed beef—a real oddity back then.
The path led him, over time, to regenerate acres of depleted land, add multiple species to the mix like his grandfather had, and restore animal welfare to what is arguably a near-utopian existence. And because Harris had the audacity—he just calls it the balls—to build his own meatpacking plant and later, a ful llment center, each requiring a signi cant workforce, it’s also revived a forgotten American farm town that the centralized meatpacking system had rendered obsolete. A hundredplus years ago, White Oak Pastures slaughtered and butchered everything on-site; most farms worked that way. But in reclaiming that critical piece of food production, it’s the de nite outlier today.
Somewhere during my farm-stay sojourn, all the inquiries I arrived with about the problems of glysophate and how soil fungi work dissolve away. In their place is a more holistic feeling of rightness, things working as they should. There’s the land (which an analysis showed stores more carbon in its soil than the grass-fed cattle emit; this means the soil is keeping carbon from the atmosphere), and there are the animals, lots of them, and there are the people involved in producing the food too. Not just the herdsmen and women outdoors, but the guys working the kill oor of the non-mechanized slaughterhouse and separating carcasses in the chilly cutting room, where loud music plays to keep everyone loose and warmed up. (This is a farm with no secrets; visitors can see every part of production because transparency is their sword in the ght to teach what food raised the right way is really like.) And the folks who drive the trucks transporting any remains not used for food, or dried pet chews, or tallow skin care or cowhide home decor (the farm produces and sells all those things) to giant compost piles, where a year of maturation makes what conventional operations would deem waste into a superb nutrient stream for the pastures, feeding the soil so the cycle of life starts again. We so easily forget that other humans work hard to get our food from farm to fork: people just like us with stories and families and dreams of their own. We don’t usually see or meet them, but we should.
As news of food shortages, and agricultural droughts, and grocery price-gouging ll the headlines, the world “out there” feels unsettlingly rocky. Here at this hub, which Jenni Harris, Will’s middle daughter, laughingly calls “a shiny little rhinestone in the Bible Belt,” you’d almost forget. White Oak Pastures pioneered the “regenerative” genre but the Harrises barely use the word now. That’s a given. They talk mainly about “resiliency” today. They produce meat (and vegetables, eggs and honey) from the sun, water, microbes, minerals and manure they already have—no fertilizer or expensive industrial inputs required— and they turn everything they raise into food themselves, selling much of it directly online, no outside plants or middlemen involved. They’ve also rebuilt a bustling rural village with uncommonly young farmers living in it, a pleasing side effect Harris never predicted. Even while circling back to the farm’s roots, the Harrises stayed ahead of the curve. And that feels right too. As I dig into a delicious meal at their simple farm-to-table restaurant, I think I just might have to stay awhile.
Cabins from $110 per night; whiteoakpastures.com
Pamela Fiori and Colt Givner, throughout the years.
GOOD GRIEF
After the loss of her beloved husband of 38 years, magazine editor and book writer Pamela Fiori found herself a newly christened member of what she came to know as the Widow’s Club. Here’s how she coped.
“I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.” –Groucho Marx
That’s pretty much how I felt about the Widow’s Club. You may have heard of this mythical association, which dates back to the beginning of time. For one thing, it’s easy to join: All you have to be is the survivor of a deceased spouse. No other quali cations are necessary.
No dues. No initiation fee. No sponsor. No restrictions. No annual meetings. None of the usual requirements.
My husband Colt died two years ago after a long struggle and multiple af ictions. We were married for 38 years, most of them happier than we ever thought we’d be. I was 38; he was 43. It was a rst for both of us. “We were too busy,” he’d like to say. That’s only partly true. I was a magazine editor; he was a creative director at a major ad agency. Both of us were in more than full-time jobs. But we also enjoyed a long period of being single, sowing, as it were, our wild or semiwild oats, until we both came to the same conclusion at about the same time: “Sow what?” Also, neither of us had truly, madly deeply fallen in love. I came close once or twice, but as the saying goes, “Close but no cigar.”
Colt and I met by chance and improbably in December 1975 at the former TWA Ambassadors Club lounge at Chicago O’Hare Airport. Both of us were returning from business trips. It was eyes across the crowded room—so intense that I actually thought to myself, “I hope I never see that man again.” Why? Bad timing. I was newly involved with someone. He was an unshackled bachelor.
When we returned to New York (on separate ights, thankfully), we crossed paths again, had an affair for a while, until the ame burned out. I didn’t see him for two years. In 1980 he called, ostensibly to ask my advice about a new client. Might he take me to lunch? Yes, of course. We had a polite meal together, gave updates on where we were in our lives and said maybe—big maybe—we’d get together again after I returned from a trip to LA.
Another call, this one from me. “What would you like to do?” he asked. “How about dinner?” I replied. Long pause on his end. “Oh…dinner.” That meant no timetable and no going back to the of ce. Dinner it was. We married in 1982.
Our bliss lasted for about 25 years. No man and wife, we believed, were ever happier or more grateful to have refound each other. One song summed up how we felt: “Love Is Here to Stay.” Still, we had our differences: Colt was a loner, most content at home watching the Yankees win or the Giants play (correction: lose). I was more outgoing: an adventurer, ready to get on the next plane to wherever or up for a night on the town. Somehow we balanced each other out, because despite being opposites in so many ways, we shared the same values.
All was copacetic in our household until Colt’s health began to deteriorate.
First it was his back: three major surgeries and chronic pain that he learned to live with. Next, he had to have his gallbladder removed and then a stent implanted.
His pace slowed, as did his energy and enthusiasm. Travel became a burden, as did even simple get-togethers with friends. Colt never complained, never felt sorry for himself, and we muddled through. Even his medical experts told him, “At least it’s not cancer.”
One day in 2014, the phone rang at home. He answered and listened intently for several minutes. When he hung up, he said quietly, “I have prostate cancer.” Yet another setback. He dealt with it stoically, and we saw it through together. Good news, no more cancer.
I’d like to report that all of the above was the worst of it, but that wouldn’t be true. What eventually brought Colt down, what was his undoing, began when he was in high school. A leg injury prevented him from participating in his two favorite sports: football and wrestling.
So what does an angry young man do when deprived of his beloved pastimes? In Colt’s case, he took up smoking, avidly and recklessly. Three packs a day. The addiction lasted all of his life, even though he eventually cut down at the urging of his primary care doctor, who happened to be a pulmonologist. By the time I met Colt, the damage was done, irrevocably.
He was in deep denial. Except for chewing Nicorette (a feeble effort at best), he wouldn’t seek help—not patches, not acupuncture or hypnosis or any other possible remedy.
There was no talking him out of it. Believe me, I tried to the point where he threatened to leave me if I persisted. It was “let him or lose him.” I caved. Colt was doomed and so, by association, was I.
What followed—and I will spare you the details—was full- edged emphysema. His doctor could do no more for him. Next step, several weeks of visiting nurses, who were like angels. When that ended, he had to have at-home hospice, which was according to his doctor’s caution: “Don’t call 911 and don’t take him to the ER or you’ll never see him again.” Bless you, doctor.
Not once did Colt ever broach the subject of dying or talk about what he wanted to do or what he wanted me to do. He knew. We both did. He died on June 15, 2020.
Thanks to the advice from hospice, I knew right away what to do and to whom to turn. I called the funeral home I’d been in touch with to give notice of his death, and to
have his body picked up to be delivered for FIORI’S FOLIO cremation. Two polite gentlemen showed up The editor and writer bearing a gurney and took my beloved away is an authority forever. on luxury, style I was of cially a widow. Welcome to the and travel. club. Like my fellow members, I set about to take care of the necessary tasks at hand, some of them painful (contacting family, friends and associates); some of them routine, such as canceling credit cards, driver’s license, certain accounts; notifying Medicare and Social Security and settling any debts. Most crucial was having my long-time and trusted nancial and legal professionals—all of them women—at the ready to assist me with Colt’s will and with probate. This part was the most time consuming and, as it turned out, the most expensive part of an often tedious process. In the meantime, the husbands of relatives and friends had coincidentally passed away around the same time, enlarging the members’ circle. Paramount was that we learned that everyone grieves in her own way. A few went into dark depressions. Others found relief through a litany of lunches, dinners and other distractions, often to an extreme. Some even set about to nd a replacement. They would read the obituaries and look for notices—not about men; about women and set their sights on Mr. Next. Gruesome, no? Sue, the wife of Colt’s best friend, Gus, couldn’t listen to music for months after he died. Too many memories. For me, music was my ultimate panacea. Because of COVID, I had no funeral or memorial for Colt. This happened often during the pandemic. Those who deserved to be celebrated couldn’t be. When it nally seemed like the right time to pay tribute to Colt, I arranged a get-together last November at one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants. One or two of the guests told me the event would give me closure. Quite the opposite: It gave me closeness. I didn’t need or want closure. As time passed, I’ve met many other widows of all ages, backgrounds and for many reasons, we nd comfort in each other’s company. We only occasionally talk about the circumstances of our husbands’ deaths. That would be grim. Instead, we know we have something in common and that’s enough. It isn’t deepest sympathy. It’s deepest empathy. Groucho was wrong.
hat re does not destroy, it “W hardens,” wrote Oscar Wilde. But for Silke Tsitiridis, ames served as an impetus to purify. The re was limited to her boiler room, and put itself out without causing any structural harm. But when the plastic boiler melted, it released soot and smoke. So Tsitiridis turned the re into an opportunity “to declutter, detoxify” and embark on a “complete mental and physical reset,” she says, the morning sun pouring into her airy Sagaponack home. “We had built our dream home, and we didn’t want to change anything structurally.” Tsitiridis, a licensed realtor with Douglas Elliman, Pilates instructor, former T Beauty marketing executive and married mother of two, wanted her Hamptons house to be a serene departure from her hectic city life in Tribeca. She hired architect Francis D’Heane of D’Apostrophe Design to create a space that was “minimalist but inviting,” with an open view of nature, so there’s harmony between the exterior and interior. She selected sustainable, natural construction materials, from the statuary marble used in her double-height kitchen, to cumaru wood, a Brazilian teak, for the siding. But the re melted some of the wiring, forcing her to open walls, redo the oors and undertake a major internal redoing: “a cleansing,” she says. Around the same time, Tsitiridis was undertaking her own cleanse. After years of nding only short-term solutions for digestive ills—the result of an eating disorder in her teens—she sought healing at luxury holistic wellness spa Lanserhof Tegernsee, in the Bavarian countryside, about an hour outside Munich and not far from Tutzing, a quaint village with a view of the Alps on the west bank of Lake Starnberg, where the German native grew up and where her parents and brothers still live. Although she had an idyllic childhood, she wanted a taste of big city life for college. “When I arrived in New York for college [at FIT], I thought, this is my place!” But fast city living didn’t Tsitiridis in her exactly better her health: gleaming white Anorexia turned her kitchen digestive tract sluggish to the point of dysfunction. “I tried high colonics, juicing, any cure to help restore my gut’s microbiome [the intestinal ora needed for good health].”
A return to her familial stomping ground, where she could hike, cycle and eat organic and locally sourced food, in a culture where doctors practice and prescribe integrative methods as part of mainstream medicine, proved just the thing.
“They teach you a whole different way of approaching food,” she says, adding that clean eating isn’t synonymous with deprivation. “When you sit at the table, you put your phone away and savor every bite. They give you a complete meal with vegetables, a full variety of nutrients and oils,” she says. “You’re still depriving your body enough to allow the bad cells to be replaced by good cells, but you can function. You don’t feel too light-headed to work out or walk.”
After her week at Lanserhof, Tsitiridis returned stateside, a new woman. By February 2020, Tsitiridis, her husband, Savas, president/CEO of New York’s United Management Group, and their two children, Sophia, 13, and Alexander, 15, were able to move back into their Sagaponack home— just in time for lockdown.
As the world froze under a devastating pandemic, Tsitiridis gured the time was right for her version of the spa detox diet. After a two-year incubation period in which she used her friends as her guinea pigs, she created BySilke, a curated wellness program that’s available by subscription ($1,600/year), centered on a ve- or six-day cleanse to be done quarterly.
“It’s a great way to kick-start each new season,” she says, adding that she customizes her regimens depending on the needs of each client. (As with any cleanse, consult
your doctor before embarking on it.) She’s launching with only 15 members to allow each one to get plenty of her individual attention, while forming a small, supportive group so they can cheer each other on. Although she doesn’t personally cook, juice or deliver the items on her menu, she provides members with a list of local caterers who do, as well as massage therapists, yoga classes and other services meant to enhance healing.
“I’m interested in starting a wellness community right here in the Hamptons,” she says, “so you don’t have to go away to improve your health. You can reap the bene ts of a highly curated spa experience from your home.”
Meanwhile, her Sagaponack residence now looks like a modernist spa, complete with an in nity pool. “Waking up to the sea anchors me,” she says. “It can be calm, and sometimes it’s angry. You feel very in touch with nature. I can spend the day inside, but feel like I’ve been outdoors because of our oor-to-ceiling glass panels. Everything is stripped of unnecessary details. That’s the concept behind my cleanse—the simpler, the better.” bysilke.com
“When inside, nature plays almost like an art exhibit,” and as the seasons change, so does the show.
Photo credit here.
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OPRAH WINFREY
“Wellness to me means life in balance. I was raised on a tiny farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi, by my grandmother, and she grew everything. Never went to town for food. Other than baking powder, baking soda and maybe some yeast, we bought nothing. If you needed medical remedies, you’d go out and gather some roots and pine cones. I remember her making me pine cone tea when I had a cold.”
ROBERT DOWNEY JR.
“We put Source Hydropanels, which extract clean, premium-quality drinking water from the air, dead in the middle of an open eld, because we want folks to get used to seeing these kinds of innovative contraptions as they begin to proliferate.”
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RACHEL WEISZ
“This is the rst lm that I produced (Disobedience). It’s about someone who escaped, but hadn’t really escaped. Rachel McAdams’ character and mine were two halves of one person. She’s the half that stayed behind, and I’m the half that left. There was no antagonist. (Director) Sebastián Lelio says the antagonist is within—we have our own antagonist inside us.”
VIGGO MORTENSEN
“I feel that problems of discrimination, class schisms and racism are challenges for every generation in every country…. The face and vocabulary of discrimination evolves. It is stubborn, tribal, based in ignorance and fear, and must be combated with factual information and direct, open exposure to those who seem, on the surface, to be different from ourselves.”
RACHEL BROSNAHAN
“Be kind to everyone. It costs you nothing and it’ll take you far.”
BROOKE SHIELDS
“It’s never too late to start investing in yourself. Taking care of yourself. Not just physically, but mentally and emotionally.”
MOLLY SIMS
“Mindfulness is really important. Self-care is probably the most important thing when it comes to being a good partner, a good mom, a good friend, a good sister. I love giving back. Being grateful and being grounded are really important. Because when that day sucks, because it sucks sometimes, it’s just about changing ‘I have to go get the kids’ to ‘I get to go get the kids,’ or ‘I have to work out’ to ‘I get to work out.’ Just kind of changing that, and being mindful of how your thoughts can really have power.”
5
CHRISTY TURLINGTON BURNS
“I do my best to eat cleanly. I don’t deny myself anything, but I believe in moderation. Be open, be exible, try things, experiment—I think that’s really important, and how we learn. Through having a steady yoga practice, I was able to have an appreciation for my body. My most creative ideas happened through that practice.”
CAROLYN MURPHY
“For the most part, I don’t have a strict regimen. It’s just whatever feels good to the body, because I think it tells you, even if that’s a half-pint of ice cream. At BuddhaBerry last night, it was like, ‘Make sure you get me the cookie dough’—as I put down my Modelo Especial after I had three tacos from La Fondita. I don’t want to be too strict on anything, because it’s not realistic.”
OLIVIA WILDE
“Best advice anyone has ever given me: Don’t pluck your eyebrows, and drink more water. Follow your dreams and direct your movie. Tell your story!”
ELLE MACPHERSON
“These days, enjoyment is my motivator. Lots of water and laughter go a long way to looking and feeling great.”
5
SIENNA MILLER
“I meditate once a day, I wish it were twice. Also, those moments when you reach for your phone while in a cab…I try not to do that. I try to stare out the window and just be present as much as possible. I think the world is designed in a way that distracts us constantly. But taking a beat to pause, to notice where you are, to take a real deep breath is essential.”
SELMA BLAIR
“If you feel in terror, if life just does that to you, it really is hard. But now that I’ve had a glimpse of silver linings, of people caring, and know that I’m so much better off than so many people, I just need to nd a way to help a few people. I can’t do a lot. I don’t have a huge amount of energy and I’m one person, but staying connected is key.”
ROSAMUND PIKE
“I fear losing my parents, a child being sick. And I fear things for the world. My biggest fear is the escalating plastic problem. You really feel it when you go to the countries I went to in preparation for this role (A Private War). I went to Lebanon and the plastic waste is everywhere, and I nd it very upsetting. I fear the damage to our planet.”
Purist is proud to be the media sponsor for the Hamptons International Film Festival.
SCARLETT JOHANSSON
“I am stronger and more capable than I was 10 years ago. It’s hard to t everything in when you try to balance motherhood, training and work. That balance is a myth! I don’t profess to know anything about parenting, anything more than anybody else, but being a working mom is an incredible challenge—and it’s an incredible gift.”
5
GWYNETH PALTROW
“The true tenets of wellness are rather simple: good sleep, regular exercise, whole, nutritious food. The complexities of modern life make it a little harder. We’re exposed to chemicals and environmental toxins without realizing it, and quite often, when women voice concerns about how we feel, we’re ignored or told that it’s not something to worry about. But the wonderful thing about wellness is that we have more autonomy over our health than many of us realize. It takes more work and self-education, but it’s worth it to feel good.”
AN ADVENTURE IN WELLNESS
A MODEL OF WELLNESS Miranda Kerr’s Malibu Home
MINDFUL ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN ISSUE BOLD COLOR AT CYNTHIA ROWLEY’S
ASPEN
THE CULINARY CAPITAL OF THE WEST
LIVE A VIBRANT LIFE!
GUS KENWORTHY
“A quote I read when I was a teenager stuck with me forever: ‘Be who you are, and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.’ It really resonated with me, especially when I was coming out. Anyone who doesn’t support you for who you are, who doesn’t care about you for you, just doesn’t matter. Anyone who does matter will care.”
MIRANDA KERR
“Each of us has something unique to bring to the table. We need to embrace our own individuality, and lift each other up. So, whatever it is you’re passionate about, embrace those passions. Follow what makes your heart happy. That’s where you’ll be the best version of yourself.”
5
NAOMI WATTS
“Advice I’d give to my younger self? Don’t try to please everyone. Don’t compare yourself to others. Trust your instincts. Those three are the strongest. I got caught up in that kind of stuff early on, which cost me. You’re enough. Just be you. Find you and embrace it, warts and all.”
JULIANNE MOORE
“The majority of Americans are in favor of commonsense gun safety measures. We all want to keep our children safe. We want to keep everyone else’s children, every other community safe. What’s happening right now, which is really exciting, is that all these diverse groups are coming together and saying this is our No. 1 issue. It’s a responsibility that we have as citizens, and as parents, to move forward on this.”
JESSICA CHASTAIN
“I’m vegan and have been for a long time. So much is about what you eat. I know a lot of people who really indulge and then do a ton of working out. I just love fruits and veggies. Watermelon is the most delicious, sugary dessert. I love juicing and doing yoga. Also, I love taking baths. Having a hot bath every night and a good night of sleep is my joy.”
5
SARAH JESSICA PARKER
“Books should be thought of as the gateway to wellness. Reading is restorative, it’s restful, it’s private, you can do it anywhere. Ten minutes in a book sometimes feels like a year away.”
JENNIFER GARNER
“The most effective way to teach your kids is to live. My mom didn’t tell me to grow up and bake bread, but I learned from watching her.”
Set sail this season with sailing races from Sag Harbor, including the 40th annual Sag Harbor Regatta, June 11th at Breakwater Yacht Club. sagharborcup.com
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKEY DETEMPLE
