STAT BOX
SheGives Director of Programming and Operations since fall 2016
Runs the blog Bread & Ginger, as well as a catering company by the same name (you've tasted her delicious food at SheGives events!)
What is Bread & Ginger and how did it come about?
Bread & Ginger started because I have always had a lot to say about food, and I needed to spare my friends and family the pain of listening to me all the time, so I started writing it all down. It turned into a recipe blog that primarily my dad and grandmother read, and eventually landed me my first paid cooking gig when a friend of a friend recommended me to a colleague. For a long time it was a side gig – a break from my finance job – and in the last two years, I have been able to take it on “full time” and I couldn’t be happier. Food and cooking are my greatest joys, and now I get to share them with clients as well as friends. It couldn’t be better.
Who would be invited to your ideal dinner party?
Several years ago for a big birthday I rented a house in California and invited a bunch of women that I love to come with me. It was a group made up of a lot of different groups of friends, so I was a little nervous about everyone traveling together. It turns out we had a fantastic time and it was one of the greatest vacations I have ever taken. (We even reunited to go to Nashville six months later.) I think I would get that group back together again. All the laughs, conversation and entertainment I could possibly need. Or Beyonce, maybe I’d just invite Beyonce.
What book (or movie/play/tv show etc.) had a tremendous impact on you?
About 15 years ago I read Reading Lolita in Tehran. It’s the memoir of an Iranian professor living and teaching in Tehran during the revolution and forming an illegal bookclub with a group of women who found their rights and freedom drastically restricted. It discusses the books that they read and how the themes relate to their lives, societal changes and their goals and dreams. Barnes and Noble was doing online book clubs with authors and there was a huge group (mostly women) reading that book and communicating with the author and it was a great experience. The book taught me to really read, and to love my favorite books all over again. Reading was such an integral part of my childhood and something I always took for granted. This book made me rethink my relationship with books and reading.
What is your dream vacation?
This is nearly impossible, because I have so many places on my list, but if we are talking dream vacation, I think it would be to take a couple of months and eat my way through East Asia- Japan, China, Vietnam, South Korea and Thailand. I want to visit the cities and the countrysides, cook with locals and eat some incredibly impressive sushi.
