SUNDAYS WITH CELIA VOL 2
Welcome back to Sundays With Celia Vol 2 this week! I’m so pleased you stopped by!
My goal in publishing Sundays with Celia is to bring you a little of this and that, odds and ends of things I have discovered that intrigue and interest me and I hope they strike a chord with you too! So let’s get started, shall we?
Things Worth Watching on a Sunday Afternoon
Cooking is my passion and has been for as long as I can remember. My mom and Spanish abuela (grandmother) were wonderful cooks and allowed me free reign in the kitchen since I was a very little girl. I am grateful for this because it ignited a fire in me, and gave me direction in my life from a very early age. In fact, by the time I entered middle school I had already decided I wanted to include cooking in my career. After experiencing my first Home Economics class in the 7th grade I set my sights on being a Home Economics Teacher and never looked back.
I won’t bore you with a long dissertation about the history of my career, (if you want to learn more visit my FAQ page) but I will say that my love for cooking and feeding people has guided my path in life, from my early days as a High School Home Economics Foods Teacher, to blogging about food right here. But honestly, you don’t have to enjoy cooking to love the acclaimed Documentary TV series called Chef’s Table that I’d like to introduce you to today. You just have to like eating and learning about those who are very exceptional at preparing food. The chefs featured in this program are all extremely passionate people as well, and lead very interesting and intriguing lives.
The entire Season 1 of Chef’s Table is available to watch streaming on Netflix and I highly recommend it. In fact, I have trouble sleeping at night and when I find a great program such as this I often find myself binge-watching it instead of getting my beauty sleep. And that’s exactly what I did when I discovered Chef’s Table. I watched all 6 shows over the course of 2 sleepless nights!
Inside Season 1 of the critically acclaimed show created by filmmaker David Gelb, Chef’s Table examines the lives and kitchens of six of the world’s most renowned international chefs. Each episode focuses on a single chef who tells his own story:
- Ben Shewry of Attica Restaurant in Melbourne, Australia
- Magnus Nilsson of Fäviken in Järpen, Sweden
- Francis Mallmann of El Restaurante Patagonia Sur in Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Niki Nakayama of N/Naka Restaurant in Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Dan Barber of Blue Hill Restaurant at Stone Barns and in New York City, USA
- Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy
After seeing the entire Season 1, I am now on a mission to visit all of the chefs restaurants. In particular, Blue Hill Restaurant at Stone Barns in New York really looks amazing. Oh, and by the way, Season 2, 3 & 4 of Chef’s Table were recently released all together so I’m going to begin another epic couple of binge-watching late-nighters soon!
Things Worth Reading on a Sunday Afternoon
I especially liked the episode in Chef’s Table about Francis Mallmann, an interesting character who fervently and passionately cooks with fire in exoctic locals. I liked what he does so much that I ordered his beautiful cookbook called “Mallmann ON FIRE, The Romance of the Grill”. And honestly, you don’t have to like cooking or cookbooks to enjoy this book. It reads as much like an autobiographical travelogue as it does a cookbook.
I’d love to be a guest at one of his dinners in Argentina, one of the many places he calls home around the world.
The passionate master of the Argentine grill takes us grilling in magical places – in winter’s snow…
on beautiful mountaintops that remind me of home here in Lake Arrowhead,
on the beach, on the crowded streets of Manhattan, on a deserted island in Patagonia, in Paris, Brooklyn & Brazil, each locale inspiring new discoveries.
At every stop along the way there is something delicious to eat and a lesson to be learned about slowing down and enjoying the process, not just the result. To me that’s what cooking is all about, enjoying the process, the creativity of cooking and the sense of accomplishment when the result is also very satisfying.
He has inspired me to spend more time cooking with fire, as I plan to do today for Father’s Day. By the way, Happy Father’s Day to all the great dads out there!
Things Worth Listening to on a Sunday Afternoon
Speaking of fathers, my husband Brad and I are the proud parents of our youngest son, Austin. When Austin was about 7 years old a Hollywood Talent Agent discovered him and signed him to her agency. Being “discovered” out of the blue, when one hadn’t even considered an acting career, is usually too good to be true. But it does happen on the rare occasion, and it actually happened to our son. Austin enjoyed about a 7 year run as a working child actor in Hollywood, doing mostly commercials for companies like Exxon/Mobile, Intel, Yamaha, etc. It was a LOT of work but it was fun to be on Hollywood sets where actors (and their mothers) are treated really well, and it is now helping to pay for Austin’s college education.
Austin’s manager was also Demi Lovato’s manager at the time she was filming “Sunny With A Chance”, her breakout TV show. So, Austin and I got to visit the set and meet Demi who was a super sweet, exceptionally pretty and a very talented young girl.
Ever since meeting her I’ve been a bit of a fan, so when I caught her on the Tonight’s Show with Jimmy Fallon, during another one of my sleepless nights, I got a good laugh out of her participation in what Jimmy Fallon calls, “Wheel of Musical Impressions”. Demi sings imitations of Cher and Christina Aguilera that are really quite amazing. Have a listen…
In closing, after the horrific events in Orlando that took place one week ago, I wanted to let Jimmy Fallon have the last word…
In the words of Jimmy Fallon, “Keep loving each other, keep respecting each other, and keep on dancing.”
So there you have it: SUNDAYS WITH CELIA VOL 2
I hope you enjoyed my little snippets of stuff, and I hope you’ll stop by again next Sunday (and the days inbetween too) for more of Sundays With Celia. Have a great Father’s Day!
Express Yourself!
No blog post is truly complete without a word from you. I’d be so delighted if you’d leave a comment below.
All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Unless otherwise credited, all photos are the original property of Celia Becker @ www.AfterOrangeCounty.com and may not be reproduced without specific permission. This post contains an affiliate link. All images from Francis Mallmann’s Book Via Amazon.
