I met Jen years ago in a car when my friend SF (and founder of Put A Egg On It) pulled up for another culinary adventure. That’s what they did, piled into a car to go sample Queens, south Brooklyn and whatever far reaches they could reach. They got married. Somewhere in between, we made bo ssam for an article. And some time later, they had a baby shower. Jen requested some of pork and I obliged. I wanted to surprise her with a spicy kung pao pulled pork. Legend has it that it was so spicy, it made her go into labor!

When it came to celebrating her milestone 40th birthday, she asked if I would cook for her 20 closest friends and family. We served it up buffet style in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn. All of the vegetables were fresh from the Union Square Greenmarket that morning. I was very excited to reimagine “bean salad” by tossing fresh purslane with yellow and purple, green beans, string beans, Italian flat beans, and English peas.

If you’d like to host a small dinner party, reach out on my Inquiries page.