Sitting in the late afternoon sun, a warm breeze was blowing yellow leaves by me. I could hear them crackle as they fell to the ground. It was one of those balmy early fall days when the sky is so blue and the grass so green and the trees so golden that you feel as if you could die in that moment and be satisfied with your life. My dog even languidly dozed on the outdoor couch with a face exhibiting what could only be interpreted as extreme satisfaction.
I had a supper club coming up and after a few days of paging through cookbooks with stained covers and battered binding, in a spurt of inspiration jumped up to my small collection of old Gourmet magazines. As I sat there with the breeze, and falling leaves, my bubbling Topo-Chico paging through a crinkled magazine that I hadn't looked at in 14 years, a strong feeling overtook me. What was it? Nostalgia! It felt like the old days.
I was 22 when I got married, 23 when I had my first son, and 24 when I catered my first wedding. Those early years of making a house a home, raising a child, cooking for family -- I remember the excitement of getting that magazine in the mail at the beginning of the month. The dinner parties I'd plan with friends and the dreaming that I might do more with food one day. I've shared this before, but I was a junior in college when I realized that I should have gone to culinary school. I finished my degree in Bible and Theology anyway, but hosting and entertaining were my passions even then. Growing up in a loving home with memorable meals and constantly revolving people around the table grew in me a desire to make every day feel like a candle-lit dinner with friends
kind of day.
Gourmet magazine shuttered in 2008, just when I was figuring out the difference between braising and baking but still too full of my 20 year old self to admit that I didn't know. I had fingered dusty, boozy-smelling copies of this magazine since I was a child at my grandparent's house and now in my early adulthood something about having a subscription made me feel like I had gone up a level of some sort. What do the kids say? Gained aura points...idk. I felt important with this magazine and admittedly, I learned to cook and take risks from it and others. I started a blog in 2009, I started catering in 2011, I hosted a pop up dinner at a local restaurant in 2015, I started giving cooking lessons in 2017. I launched Bebop's Supper Club in 2023. I can't say what 2025 will bring.
Here I was 20 years later, and besides an extra dose of maturity and the ability to willingly admit I still have a lot to learn about cooking, nothing has changed. I'm sitting outside on a gorgeous day planning a party for someone, blogging about food and how it changes us, imagining the way the candlelight might flicker on a cool September night, and thinking about if I'll drink wine with dinner or just use it took cook my sausage. I guess some things never change. I can only hope we get better at them or at least look back at the last 20 years and feel that dog-like sense of extreme satisfaction.
Comments