Today’s Newsletter Includes:
Why I’m on a mission to convince more people to cook mussels.
One of the greatest food stories you’ve probably never heard.
Two classic French recipes and a toast you’ll be thinking about long after lunch.
Why you should join me on my trips to Africa and Oaxaca.
If you’ve ever wanted to see the world through its food, culture and the people who make a place special, I’d love to have you join me. I don’t put my name on just any trip. Every one is thoughtfully curated with incredible partners and built around the kinds of experiences you simply can’t recreate on your own. The people who’ve traveled with me have had an absolute blast. So have I. These journeys are one of the most rewarding parts of what I get to do.
Oaxaca: A Deep Dive Into Mexico’s Culinary Capital
Oaxaca is one of the most exciting food destinations on the planet, and this trip is designed to help you experience it beyond the guidebooks. We’ll explore vibrant markets, meet remarkable artisans and cooks, dive into the world of mezcal and share unforgettable meals that tell the story of the region. It’s an immersive experience built with care, curiosity and plenty of fun.
South Africa: A Luxury Culinary Safari
This is one of those trips you’ll be talking about for years. We’ll experience extraordinary restaurants, world-class wines and unforgettable safari adventures while exploring one of the most beautiful countries on Earth. Every detail has been carefully considered to create a trip that is equal parts adventure, discovery and incredible hospitality.
Why Mussels Deserve a Place on Every Table
There is a reason the French have never treated mussels as a luxury. They’ve always understood something the rest of us are only beginning to rediscover, that few foods deliver more pleasure for less money, less effort and less environmental cost than mussels.
For centuries, probably longer, mussels have belonged to the working table. They appear in medieval records throughout Normandy, Brittany and the Atlantic coast, where they were gathered from rocks at low tide long before organized aquaculture existed.
The great leap came in the 13th century when an Irish sailor named Patrick Walton was shipwrecked in the Bay of Aiguillon. His bird-catching stakes became covered in mussels, leading to the development of bouchot culture, the practice of growing mussels on wooden poles driven into the tidal flats. Whether every detail of the story is true hardly matters. By the early 1400s, the technique was firmly established and France had developed one of the world’s earliest sustainable shellfish farming systems. That’s right... aquaculture in France is almost 1,000 years old. It’s even older in other places.
Today, mussels grown this way remain among France’s greatest culinary treasures. Smaller than many rope-grown mussels, they are prized for their dense meat, remarkable sweetness and consistency. Brittany, Normandy, the Vendée and the Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel have built entire regional identities around them. I love this food story so much. I just had to share it with you.
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