LR: Where are you from?
AL: Born and raised in SF Bay Area → West LA for my 20’s → Now back in Northern California! I live in a coastal town about 25 minutes south of SF.

LR: Why do you cook?
AL: It’s creative and practical, and I feel super present while cooking. I love to throw on a playlist and find fun vintage pieces for the table (I need to be cut off from buying vintage glassware). It’s a nice little vibe!

LR: What do you listen to?
AL: Al Green, ‘60s and ‘70s rock, Allah Las - so many genres! This playlist has been on repeat for cooking and dinner hangs these days.

LR: 5 ingredients always found in your kitchen:
AL: Extra virgin olive oil, tomatoes in all forms (fresh, canned, paste), fresh citrus, local bakery bread, flaky salt.

LR: Who do you admire? Do you have a mentor?
AL: I admire Alice Waters and my parents. They all have a beautiful relationship with food and prioritize using peak-of-season garden ingredients for the best flavor. I also admire Water’s lifelong commitment to transforming our food system to make cooking accessible to all. I’m lucky to have a lot of female chef mentors in the industry and on a day-to-day basis, my parents are my mentors. Growing up they taught me so much about gardening, cooking, and supporting local farmers. They’ve both spent years in creative fields and now they are kind of my built-in art directors when I need it, which is super fun.

LR: Any recent best bites?
AL: Michele and I have a shared love of El Molino Central in Sonoma. I just had it over the weekend and I felt like I needed to close my eyes while eating it lol, so damn good.

LR: How does Lorenza make you feel?
AL: Lorenza transports me to aperitivo hour in Italy or a backyard dinner on a warm summer evening.

RECIPE

Toast with Burrata + Smashed Minty Peas (serves 2 as a meal or 6 as an app)

Ingredients

Process

• If using fresh shelled peas, quickly blanch in boiling salted water for about 1m30s, or until they are bright green and just barely cooked through, and transfer to bowl of ice cold water. If using frozen peas (a perfect shortcut), just make sure they are thawed, no need to blanch ‘em.
• To medium sized bowl, add peas, extra virgin olive oil, mint, lemon zest and juice, and few generous pinches kosher salt. Mash some of the peas with fork and stir to combine, set aside. I like to mash about half of the mixture, and keep the rest whole so you get different textures.
• Toast bread and while it’s toasting, slice tip off top of garlic clove.
• Once bread is toasted, while warm, rub sliced garlic clove on each piece of bread.
• Evenly distribute burrata or mozzarella onto garlicky toasts, and top with spoonfuls of minty smashed peas.
• Top with reserved fresh lemon, flaky salt, freshly cracked black pepper, and pea shoot tendrils, if using.
• Cut each slice of toast in half at an angle to create 6 smaller portions, or keep as is for 3 larger tartines. Arrange on serving platter or board, and enjoy with chilled Picpoul. Cheers!