About

Photo by Jessica Chou

Photo by Jessica Chou

The Gist - Food writing, photography, and artistically-inspired food-centric projects.

What is this site about? I write, I take photographs, I work on food-related projects that intrigue me, and I make delicious cookies.

’Records in the Den’ started as a moniker for a space about food, creativity, adventure, and cooking. Food-related experiences are sensory. They can be soothing, transformative, fun, triumphant, inspiring, therapeutic, a reminder of a person or place, or the anchor or creator of a memory, and much more. Food also lends to gathering, whether simple or elaborate, a drunken dinner party or a PB&J. These are the ideas and feelings conveyed throughout these pages that I hope motivate visitors to think about food and creativity in new ways; to cook intuitively and pleasurably, to experience fun and generosity in gathering around the table, and to think about food's intersection with a wide variety of artistic mediums and forms of creative expression.   

A Note About Me

My name is Sharon. I’m from the San Francisco Bay Area and am currently based in Los Angeles, CA. I’ve lived in Athens and New York for some years, as well as Paris, Istanbul, and Cape Town for some months. I'm also an immigration lawyer.

My work broadly includes:

  • Food writing

  • Photography (food and other)

  • Cooking classes

  • Curating food components for creative events

  • Recipe testing

  • Cookies!

Feel free to contact me if you'd like to collaborate.

Recipe Assumptions

The more you cook, the more comfortable and intuitive it becomes, and you can learn to make almost anything without fancy machines or strict measurements. Tools and gadgets are nice, but you can cook a lot without them so for the most part, recipes here can be made with very basic kitchen equipment. My ‘fancy’ gadgets include a hand-me-down stand mixer from my Grandma, a Vitamix, one good knife, and a few nice pots and pans. That’s about it. Everything else is sourced economically (read: Ikea and the like), and only if I use it on a regular basis. That said, if you don’t have one good knife, one good pan, and a decent cutting board, it’s worth the investment.

All ingredients here strive to be easily accessible and economical. If there is an unfamiliar term and you want a lengthier explanation or a visual example, well, you’re already online…it’s called Let Me Google That For You. You can also contact me and I’ll get back to you.

Regarding measurements, nothing is too strict. When cooking for myself, I typically don't measure anything (but in baking, always measure!). Be comfortable ‘messing up’, this is the learning process. All recipes are in US measurements. I assume that anyone exploring these pages has some basic core pantry items at all times. If the tenets below reflect your pantry philosophy, we'll get along just fine.

  • Good quality olive oil for eating, and decent quality olive oil for cooking.*

  • Salt and fresh ground pepper for cooking and a nice coarse flaky sea salt for eating.

  • Nut butters that are just nuts. No added oil/sugar.

  • Good quality vanilla extract or homemade.

  • Fragrant, well-stored dried herbs and spices.

*Brief olive oil rant: My everyday cooking and eating olive oil is a large 3L Terra Creta can from Amazon which is not only great quality, but the convenience and price really can’t be beat for a good oil like this. This lasts me about 3 months. If I’m cooking something that requires a large quantity of cooking oil, I’ll sometimes sub in TJ’s Kalamata Greek olive oil. Fancy one-off oil purchases (although rare because I’m devoted to my 3L can), are typically used for finishing. Moral of the story, buy the 3L can and thank me later.

PS what does 'Records in the Den' mean anyway?

I don’t recall the interviewee or the exact context of the conversation, but I was listening to a podcast and someone referred to ‘…just sitting and listening to records in the den…’. I love music and film, and this sentence spoke out to me because the way I feel when I listen to music or watch an exceptional film is akin to the often relaxing or expressive feelings I have when cooking. When I first started recording my recipes, I would title them like a song or after lyrics I admire. I see cooking and sharing food as experiences and opportunities, with the most beautiful meals, records, films, concerts, and cooking triumphs all recalling a certain sense of kinship with each other. Enter, ‘Records in the Den’.

(born September 2016)

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