Few activities are more rewarding or satisfying than nourishing our fellow humans, the people who come to the table. If we’re lucky, the faces there are those most precious to us, the people who matter. At least, that’s what I think, and I’m holding the fork here.

I've spent most of my working life as a reporter and columnist - penning a food column for more than a decade, and authoring two cookbooks on the side. Through more than three truly rewarding decades as a journalist, I sought out any opportunity to slip into the kitchen to decompress and be embraced by the sublime rhythms of chopping and sauteing, kneading and shaping, steaming and braising, and all the other delicious pathways to satiety for the people I loved the best. It has always been my happy place.

With media of all kinds undergoing phenomenal upheaval and unprecedented change, the day unavoidably arrived when it was time to set down my pen and step out of the ’lines - the headlines, deadlines and bylines. When I came to that fork in the road, nothing felt more natural than slipping into the kitchen for good.

So talk to me about what your table looks like, and what I can bring to it. 

Life is short. Eat well. 

THE FORK PRIVILEGE

The grandmothers reigned supreme.

In the household where I was raised, gathering at the table was a fundamental piece of the daily rhythm. It was where we connected and caught up. My parents recognized this as essential policy, key to maintaining the snug weave that was the family dynamic, and for that I remain forever grateful.

The implicit sanctity of this routine ritual would kick up just the slightest notch or two when one or both of our beloved grandmothers was among the gathered faces. It was about, at least in part, fork privileges. Both grandmothers wielded the authority to lift their forks to signal that the polite-but-hungry diners around the table could do the same.

With that, and in lovingly appreciative memory of those two gracious grandmotherly gastronomes, let’s all lift our forks. 

"Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act, which should not be indulged in lightly."  MFK Fisher