Happy Tuesday! Apologies for the delay in getting this post out. She also spends some of the year in Placer County, where her boyfriend, Jeff Rieger, grows a variety of heirloom fruits at Penryn Orchard Specialties. While Laurence is not technically a chef, she does teach cooking classes in Santa Barbara. About a decade ago, when she was the executive director of the farmers market association, she lobbied City Council to let vendors at the market finally sell dairy, meat, baked goods, and wine.
A couple of weeks ago at the start of the overlap of plum and fig season Laurence told me about how she learned to cook as a child in France, the shock she had when she first moved here, and how her cooking has evolved. Here is what she told me, edited and condensed:. I was supposed to come to California with a friend of mine, Philippe, who had been an exchange student with a family down in Laguna Beach.
He and I had signed up for six-month program that was organized by the French government to teach people to work in the travel industry. Part of the deal was we were housed in these little bungalows on the French side of the English Channel, and I would cook dinner pretty much every night, just because I love to cook. I have friends in Laguna Beach; they could help us get started. We could start a little catering company. You take care of the food, I take care of the customers.
So, we put our plans togetherโand then my friend fell in love. He was gay, and he met this gorgeous guy. Because I really had my heart set on coming to California. This is pre-internet, , so I went to the public library, I found the phone number for the Paris bureau of the Los Angeles Times, and I called them and I asked them how to place an ad in the LA Times.
I got the information, and it would cost thirty-four dollars which was a lot of money to me to place an ad in the LA Times. So I did, and the add said something like French girl, 23, looking for au pair job. And I gave an address where people could write. And there was this one letter that really stood out, because I liked the handwritingโit was cursiveโand was a beautiful, warm-hearted letter. There were two photos in the envelope: one was the husband and wife smiling and hugging each other in the garden, and the other was of their little baby boy, who had enormous blue eyes and blond curls, and he was in the swimming pool with his little arms going Please pick me up.
