Kristie Lauborough
Kristie is a displaced southern girl living in a land of fresh fish and organic foods. She grew up at her parents’ knees at the stove and could fry a skillet of chicken before many of her friends could even follow the instructions for Kraft Mac and Cheese. While she grew up in Bartlett, TN, she currently calls Larkspur, CA, home. She shares an apartment with her husband, Jason, and her blue-point siamese cat, Piewacket, and her new kitten, Tonks. She is a fan of many things: the Oakland A’s, Ghirardelli chocolate, progressive metal, her local farmer’s market, and Henckles santoku knives (to name a few).
The San Francisco Bay Area is a veritable foodie paradise, and Kristie has learned to use the availability of high quality ingredients and her southern upbringing to her advantage in the kitchen. While her day job as a tech worker in SF’s SoMa district takes up the majority of her time, she likes to relax on the weekends by baking or making a meal to share with her friends and family.
She likes to give Padma a hard time about her choice of footwear (in particular, a pair of teal Crocs she likes to wear in the kitchen).
Padma Lavigne
Padma is a Swedish girl who grew up with a chef in the family and a French heritage. When her Swedish grandmother wouldn’t serve her the best southern Sweden could offer, her French grandmother would step in and let southern France take over.
She was basically born with a knife in her hand and at the age of six she would start her reign in the kitchen which has yet to see an end. At the age of twenty-three even her mother (who had long hoped for a different choice of profession) had to cave in and realize that Padma was born to cook when she finished her culinary arts programme with top marks.
After over 10 years as a chef, with her own catering firm, halfway to a bachelors degree in Fine Culinary Arts and a cooking show at the local student network, she started to actually write down her reviews of all the restaurant dinners she had. They can and will be found here.
If Kristie ever mentions the word “gnocchi” in combination with serving more than two, Padma will probably go ballistic and start a potato war.
Cleo Christine
Cleo is a relocated Yankee from Colorado, now living happily in Austin, TX. Growing up in a multi-cultural household, the love of food was entrenched quite early in life. Some of her earliest memories are of watching her mother preparing Korean specialties for an upcoming meal and listening to stories, while eating a very American peanut butter and jelly sandwich. While she has no children to tell stories to while cooking, the menagerie of animals she shares a home with are, nonetheless, very attentive in the kitchen.
While barbecue and Tex-Mex are still the reigning champs when it comes to regional cuisines, Austin is quickly developing a metropolitan palate of culinary choices. Cleo is intent, with her significant other, on sampling all of them. Also in her plans, which shall be duly chronicled here, will be the attempt(s) to recreate some of her favorite dishes from childhood—aided and abetted by her tastebuds and her family’s memories.
Let the chronicles of the (mis)adventures begin!
