Katie Khoury-The Hands That Feed You

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Katie Khoury chopping corned beef

Katie Khoury grew up in Washington, DC in a very food-oriented family where they sat down and ate together, cared about what they were eating, and started thinking about the next meal while eating the last one.  Katie then went to college in southern Maryland, which is an agricultural area.  There she had the most delicious tomatoes of her life and recognized immediately the difference between fresh, just-picked produce and the imported stuff of grocery stores.  She wrote her senior thesis about local agriculture and what has happened to family farms in the process of industrialization.

After graduating, Katie worked at Restaurant Nora in DC, America’s first certified organic restaurant.  She then moved into environmental education, spending time at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Urban Education Department at the Irvine Nature Center in Baltimore.  Katie then made her way to California and got a job at Vita Verde, a non-profit that offers environmental education for low-income students in the Bay Area.  All the participating classes would take a trip to a local farm and make food at the farm with the produce there.  They would also get to milk goats and make cheese.  Vita Verde also takes the classes on a trip to the ocean and to the redwoods.  When Katie saw the amount of joy that a connection to real food could bring to the youth, she became more convinced than ever that this is important work.

A coworker at Vita Verde had celiac disease and used the book Nourishing Traditions to help support him in his diet, and she began learning about the Weston Price work–a process that is continuing at Three Stone Hearth.  Much of what she is learning about traditional diets in the CCTP makes sense to Katie and resonates with earlier experiences she has had.  She has family in Lebanon and visiting there she watched her aunt prepare food in the same way that her ancestors have for generations.  They would mix bulgur with yogurt and spread it in the sun to dry for kishk.  She also lived in Nicaragua for a while and spent a lot of time with the tortilleras who made the traditional tortillas with an open fire.  She was moved by the richness she saw in a life where food preparation connects you to a long history.

At this stage Katie is most interested in getting better and better at making large quantities of nutritionally-dense food.  She is attracted to the CSK model and interested in replicating it somewhere else.  We hope she does!

Menu for Week of February 8

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This Week’s Specialties

• Turkey and Chicken Posole
• Corned Beef Stew with Cabbage & Root Vegetables
• Tex Mex Ground Beef
• Rice-a-Cheesy with Greens
• Chicken Liver Pâté
• Blessed Beet Salad
• Pork Patties with Ginger and Scallions
• Beet Red Sauerkraut
• Creamy Sesame-Dulse Vinaigrette
• Brownies with Walnuts
• Orange Gelatina with Almonds

Laura Ralston-The Hands That Feed You

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Laura Ralston with just-jarred sauerkraut

Laura Ralston grew up in Bellingham, WA, but her parents are from the south and often melded the two cuisines in one meal, like salmon with cornbread. Her father would take them out mushroom foraging, and her mother is an herb gardener and fantastic cook who prepares beautiful and fast meals with a lot of love and skill.

In college, Laura studied sustainable food systems as well arts and humanities, and Laura often found herself reading cookbooks for pleasure. She developed a dream of cooking and marrying it with social consciousness.  Her interests led her to a stint in the kitchen at Gould Farm: a 650-acre organic farm that is a therapeutic community for adults with mental illness.  She spent 6 months there, learning from chef Flavio, an Argentinian-born New Yorker who could put together a dinner for a hundred and simultaneously talk down a kitchen worker dealing with intrusive schizophrenic voices in a kitchen with sharp knives. Laura says about Flavio: “His potent and affirming message of trust and dignity made me realize just how badly I had longed to be in an environment where the human body and soul are nurtured and uplifted.”

Laura found her way to a famous restaurant kitchen that served wonderful local and organic food, but she found the kitchen environment to be harsh, critical, driven, and perfectionist. It was a rude awakening for her to realize how dysfunctional commercial kitchens can be.

As she struggled with health issues, she discovered Nourishing Traditions and took a job at the Wedge Cooperative in Minneapolis.  There she found kindred spirits and a reconnection with health and community.  She knew that it was possible for her to be in integrity with food, but she let go of the idea of professional cooking.  She began studying holistic medicine, and then spent a year teaching science in Beijing while her husband taught history.  After moving back to the Bay Area she heard about Three Stone Hearth and our CCTP program, and is interested in exploring the possibility of cooking in a more holistic and nurturing setting.