I’ve written numerous pieces and interviewed many celebrated chefs, artists and designers, some of whom are pictured above, for publications including the Virginian-Pilot, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Eastern Home & Travel, Brick Weekly, Urban Views Weekly and more. I occasionally visit the Food Network Studios in New York’s Chelsea Market to interview Food Network personalities.
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Introducing Wabi Sabi: Simple Beauty, published Aug 2, 2006 in Home Style, Richmond, VA
Local chef to assist Bobby Flay onstage, published Feb 27, 2008 in The Virginian-Pilot
Hands of Dissent, Style Weekly, Richmond, VA, published Dec 13, 2006
Found: One Chic Team Creates a Cozy Home
When Friends Collaborate, Stylish Design is a Lakefront Breeze
published in Eastern Home and Travel, May 2008
When Mary Jean Tarentini peered through dust motes at a church bench forgotten by time, she saw the promise of an heirloom. Before she stripped oxidizing paint from an old Singer sewing machine ad, she knew what rustic charm lay beneath.
But in creating her lake front home using found objects and distressed items, her most valuable discoveries may have been trust in her own design instincts, and friendship with her designer, Mary Ellen Gianuzzi, beginning the day she apprehensively drew open the door to Gianuzzi’s store, Unique Feathered Nest.
Cultivating Values That Last
The home that Mary Jean and David Tarentini share is one of five original houses built at the turn of the century on a hilltop bank overlooking Harvey Lake, Pennsylvania’s largest natural lake and one of its deepest. Mary Jean came here as a child to swim. “I always dreamed when I was a little girl that I would be able to have a lake house. I guess it just always kind of stayed with me.” Once almost exclusively a summer retreat, today the area surrounding Harvey Lake is a year-round paradise, with events and breathtaking natural beauty that recall lasting values.
“There’s a real historical element to the house and that’s one of the reasons we bought it,” Mary Jean says. In a space redolent of history, the updated feel and fresh appearance of the interior are achievements. “It’s all just second hand stuff. I do have some serious antiques, but most of it is not.” Interior Designer Mary Ellen believes, “Old things fit in anywhere. It’s just a matter of finding the right place to make it fit. Mary Jean is unusual in that she has a real feel and amazing sense for old pieces.” Today Mary Jean embraces her penchant for pairing found items to create modern interiors. But before meeting Mary Ellen, she wondered if her passion was a disadvantage. “I knew it all came from second hand, so I had a kind of inferior feeling. Mary Ellen was the person who helped me.”
The designer reminisces, “I’ve known Mary Jean a number of years. She has wonderful taste. Her taste is changing a little bit now. Before she was very focused on more of that shabby cottage [look]. She still loves that, but she’s starting to incorporate a few contemporary things and more clean lines.”
She appreciates a little help from her friends. When they learn about Mary Jean’s passion for decorating with found objects, most of them join the decorating process. “That stained glass window,” Mary Jean points out, “my friend belonged to one of these social clubs, and he said I have to take this home to my friend. All of my friends bring me things. It gives you more eyes. Sometimes they go places I would never expect.”
Balance and Blend
A feeling of spacious comfort is consistent throughout the Tarentini home, yet Mary Jean makes clear, “It’s a very small house.” To meet modern standards of homey luxury, some structural changes were in order. “We took the ceiling out on the second floor because it was only seven feet high. Then we moved everything up to make this cathedral ceiling.” To retain cottage comfort yet ensure modern efficiency in the kitchen, Mary Jean suggests, “Keep everything really simple. That’s kind of our key word here.”
Mary Ellen points out, “There’s a real blending of this antique copper sink with some very updated appliances. We kept some of the old cabinets and added some new ones. They work really well together. I think it was just a matter of kind of finding the best collaboration of color and texture, and feel and fronts for the cabinets.”
“Everything is very comforting,” Mary Jean says. “We have this wonderful coffee maker, so we stand around this tiny island, have our coffee, and then go out on the porch.” With the lake central to every view, it’s no surprise that the wrap-around porch features fourteen rocking chairs, “all of which we found in the garbage,” Mary Jean says. Her father, a former carpenter, shared his expertise. “He would teach me how to take a piece from this rocker and add it to another. I firmly believe there’s a second life for everything, including me as well.” To maintain harmony of design while decorating with eclectic antiques, Mary Jean relied on a longstanding favorite. “I personally love all white. It’s extremely clean. It never gets old. I’m able to inter-mix my furniture. I’m always moving my things because everything matches.” Natural woods inject the crisp color scheme with warmth. “The wood floors and the beams are here from the original house, so it’s not as dreary as it might sound.” “Most of her wood is mahogany, although she has some oak pieces as well,” Mary Ellen says. “When we were looking at fabrics to use in the spaces, she really leaned towards neutrals and whites. But once you incorporate textures, they actually lend a lot of interest. That was really part of it, many gradations of neutrals, but also the textures.”
What Once Was Lost… Such cozy élan is a pleasing triumph for Mary Jean, who once doubted her design instincts. “She doesn’t think she has a good idea of what she wants, but she really does,” Mary Ellen says. “She has a real sense of what she likes.”
“The lake inspires me,” Mary Jean admits. “I really get my inspiration from the lake and from what I see around here.” In fact, no matter where she is, Mary Jean’s mind is on design. “I go to thrift stores all the time. I go to estate sales. I always go on the second day when things are half price. Sometimes some of the best things I find are from church sales.” She also recommends sales organized by schools. While the Tarentini home is rustic and cozy, it buzzes with freshness and updated aplomb, an effort of both home owner and designer. Yet the two women almost missed meeting, because Mary Jean thought she couldn’t afford a designer. “That is kind of a false assumption. Designers are very flexible in terms of how they work out their collaboration. You can really use them as much or as little as you need. As a designer, so many times, you’re actually saving them money because you can find the right product. There’s a tremendous range of products. Many times people see something in a magazine they think they can’t have because it’s so expensive, but there are a thousand different ways to do things. That collaboration is wonderful because you don’t only get an opinion, you also find that there are other things that you don’t know about that maybe fill in the blanks for you.”
Mary Jean’s organization was key. “She carries around this huge notebook. She’s so organized. She’s got like twenty pictures for everything she’s thinking about,” Mary Ellen chuckles. “If I were going to look for antiques for myself, I would take her with me because she has a real feel for that, whereas I don’t have nearly the sensitivity that she does. She brings that to the table and she does a great job.”
“The moral of the story is you really can have a beautiful house even if you find [items] in the worst places, like junkyards. I firmly believe if you keep your eyes open you can find beautiful things.”
“Interior design is a collaboration,” Mary Ellen makes clear. “If you collaborate well together, not only is it a wonderful process, but the result is fabulous.”
Local chef to assist Bobby Flay onstage
published in The Virginian-Pilot
When celebrity chef and restaurateur Bobby Flay mans the grill at Scope on Saturday, he’ll be joined by Norfolk chef Frank Lang.
Lang, 33, executive chef of Shula’s 347 in downtown, grabbed the chance to appear with Flay by winning an “Iron Chef”-style cooking competition late last year. Saturday’s event will be taped for one of Flay’s cooking shows.
Although Lang is delighted by the buzz, his attitude is relaxed. “It’s really not about what I can do. It’s about assisting him. I’ve read over the menu he made. For the most part, I’m just doing what I do every day in the kitchen. We’re going to try to make people happy.”
The dishes they’ll prepare include Lobster and Avocado Cocktail, which is from Bobby’s Bar Americain on 52nd Street in Manhattan, and Grilled Ribeye Steak with Chipolte Honey Glaze and Roasted Pepper Relish.
The two will be onstage Saturday for sessions at 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. as part of the weekend’s Downtown Norfolk Food & Wine Extravaganza.
Mixing maverick with modesty seems to suit Lang. He grew up in Winter Haven, Fla., and worked as a dishwasher at his first job, in Tampa. Although he enjoyed cooking, he said a career as a chef “wasn’t this big grandiose idea. When I decided to grow up a little, my dad said, ‘Why don’t you consider culinary school?’
” So he attended Ridge Technical in his hometown. After graduation, he worked at high-profile restaurants in Seattle, Richmond and finally Norfolk, where he’s lived for two years.
In his own kitchen inside Norfolk Waterside Marriott, Lang employs a daring style. “I pretty much try to find new ways to do old things. I take an item and try to turn it into a whole bunch of ways to do it.” On rare days free, he spends as much time as he can with his 2-year-old son and wife of three years, Gretchen.
With most of his days and nights spent overseeing the kitchen at Shula’s 347, what restaurants does Lang favor when out for an evening? “There’s really only one,” he said – Empire, at 245 Granby St. “I like the blackboard menu. I want to know what the guys are doing that night.” Featuring tapas, martinis and rare brews, Empire is a cozy downtown bistro with an open kitchen.
“I like to watch the guys. I like to see people passionate about somebody else ordering their specials.”
Asked about his own ambition to be among the growing crop of chefs achieving pop idol status, Lang laughed. “I’ll do pretty much anything for money,” he joked. “But I don’t know about being a celebrity chef.”
Salmon Currant Cream Sauce
Serves: 2
1 cup pinot noir wine
1/2 cup cream
2 tablespoons dried currants
4 ounces unsalted butter
Salt and pepper to taste
2 (6 ounce) cuts of fresh salmon
Place wine in a pan and boil until reduced by half. Add cream, and heat to reduce by half. Add currants.
Whip in butter and remove from heat. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Season salmon and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Serve with sauce.
Source: Frank Lang, executive chef at Shula’s 347 in downtown Norfolk.
Kona Rub
1/2 cup of ground Kona coffee
u215B cup kosher salt
1/2 tablespoon course ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Blend all ingredients together and generously rub on desired meat, such as a filet. Then grill.
Note This is a recipe I learned while living in Seattle – coffee capital of the world. I tweaked it a little and made it my own. It’s fun for summertime on the grill.
Source: Frank Lang, executive chef at Shula’s 347 in downtown Norfolk.
The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, VA, Feb 27, 2008
Introducing Wabi Sabi: Simple Beauty, August 2, 2006
Home Style, Richmond, VA
When is a Southern city just Japanese? When it’s wabi sabi. A growing design trend, wabi sabi embraces elegant earthiness and simplicity. Today, wabi sabi brings a touch of solace to frenzied lifestyles and hip homes.
Richmond has no shortage of either. Dotted by groves of trees and flanked by the James, Richmond often embodies wabi sabi, which acknowledges change in life and in materials while finding quiet beauty in what might initially appear to be imperfect. It emphasizes nature, but balance is essential. A room decorated wabi sabi can buzz with technology and modern efficiency, so long as elements of the outdoors bring it equilibrium.
Designer Chris McCray has created cutting edge design throughout Richmond and for local retail mainstays like Pink and promising newcomer Lift Café. Known for his maverick style and for arrowing in on coming trends, he resists influence.
Yet he admits his reliance on Asian design. Before wabi sabi were buzzwords, McCray designed a bed using its principles. The striking piece features a bold and sinewy scarlet flower that brings balance to the visual heft of a rock on the bed’s left. Though wabi sabi remains a young trend, McCray believes, “Richmond is open to it.”
Hope so, because it’s here: Our streets feature cement poured yesterday as well as cobblestones placed when horses trod them. Throughout town tattooed hipsters ride beach cruisers while bankers idle inside Italian sportcars.
From Brown’s Island floats modern music where text messaging revelers groove. But jutting from the James beside them is evidence of a bridge long gone. Some of its remaining posts seem to slumber while others stand at attention, proof that time and materials move on. McCray agrees, “Transition is everywhere.”
This month the he leaves his thriving business to relocate to Rhode Island, where he will study industrial design. He calls the move “bittersweet. I love Richmond. It’s my home.” But he is making the change, he says, “Because I’m hungry for new design.”
The transition brings us Marci Blau, who is poised to take over McCray‘s clients with her company, Blumarc. McCray says, “I’m really excited about Marcy taking over. I think she is going to do a fantastic job.” Her months apprenticing with McCray promise a similar aesthetic.
But Marcy, who met McCray last year when she stood up in a VCU classroom to disagree with his critique, has her own approach. “I understand and appreciate his clean lines,” she admits. “But we are different in our style.” A respect for asymmetry that itself honors wabi sabi.
One local space winning with wabi sabi is Friend House Gallery and Studio in Petersburg. It is named for Nathaniel Friend, who built the house in 1816 and who served as the city’s mayor from 1812 to 1813.
Carol Meese has reclaimed it. While her son Mark and his musician wife, Regan, tempt palates in the first floor restaurant, Carol turns to palettes of a different sort. Showcased throughout the gallery above is the work of area artists, including Meese’s own surreal and psychological mixed media pieces.
Mark purchased the building in 2003, beginning restoration a few months later. The couple read about wabi sabi in an architectural magazine. Regan says, “We thought about it and said, ‘That’s what we’re trying to do.’”
Its principles were ideal, because Meese says, “We didn’t want it glitzy and slick looking. We wanted it natural, honoring its history and our ancestors.” Looking around, she says, “I like to think the building is a composite of all that came before.”
Attention to recycling and salvaging original materials is consistent throughout. In the restaurant, a shelf lining the wall evokes days the building was occupied by a shoemaker, and echoed with the sound of cobbler’s mallets. Meese says the building also served many years as a hotel.
To be wabi sabi, Meese says, “Materials have to be organic. Stone, some metal, wood.” In the restaurant, yellow pine radiates gently throughout, including at the service bar, which was constructed with boards from the original floor.
The effect is comfortable elegance. Meese insists, “Things in decline are just as good. Things are always deteriorating, really. Go with it.” But she emphasizes, “This is not shabby chic. It’s uncluttered and clean. It’s about simplicity.”
In keeping with the theme of balance, Meese points out the gallery’s state of the art lighting. Serrated cracks in the nearly two hundred year old walls work with the patina finish to create a soothing, smudged effect. Balancing the bustle of color here, is the hushed comfort of residential apartments on the third floor.
In the snug tavern and music venue in the basement is currently featured, “Skyscape,“ an exhibit by Rebecca D’Angelo. The Richmond artist finds the space’s adherence to principles of wabi sabi ideal, saying, “The walls aren’t crisp and clean. It works for this show,” which she says is about the beauty often found in impermanence.
Across the river, departure imminent, Chris McCray passes the helm to Marci Blau and Richmond continues to usher in the new while embracing change.
Very wabi sabi.
SIDEBAR
5 Ways to Bring Wabi Sabi Into Your Home
Clear out the clutter!
Bring elements of nature into the room. Peeks of the earth bring balance at the office.
An old pillow on a new couch? Mohair seat covers on a French chair? Yes!
Reclaim and reuse.
Relax. Dust can wait. Company can’t.