Cooking Good featured in the “Chef de Tucson” column of the Arizona Daily Star!

What an honor to be featured in the Arizona Daily Star’s Chef de Tucson column last week! Kim Matas called me the week before saying they had written about many restaurant chefs in town and were wanting to do something different.

“How ironic you would call me right now,” I said, “I was just reading that very column in the paper–I always check it out because I love the recipes and the stories, too!” Of course I was thrilled to share with her my passion for cooking and healthy eating (it just feels good inside when you eat well, right?). Read the article here!

The interview was followed a couple of days later by a photo session with Ron Medvescek who came out to the house.

“Do you want to see my ugly garden?” I asked him, “I’ll show it to you if you promise not to take pictures!” Of course with a lead in like that he was hooked.

The back story here is that since I cook every day for my clients, I have a lot of produce trimmings that used to go in the trash. One day I decided to take them home and grind them up in my food processor to start a compost heap. It worked great, but the food processor step soon fell by the wayside. After a while, the bag of trimmings went straight into the heap, everything from carrot peelings to pineapple tops. No problem, everything big and small gradually transformed into good soil as long as I was sure my automatic drip system was watering it every morning.

Soon, seeds began to randomly sprout–tomatoes, peppers, melons, squash, and even potatoes!  Yes it is haphazard and unkempt, but who cares since I did hardly any work.

Ron liked the idea and he didn’t think it was really ugly–he did take pictures, but just for himself because he liked the idea of a garden that requires so little work. Ok, you want to see a photo don’t you? Here is my little compost heap along with some very happy basil and sprouting squash and tomatoes. And if the idea appeals to you, try it out and let me know how it goes!