Sybille van Kempen, LOAVES & FISHES FARM SERIES

[1:34]Zibby Owens: Hi. This is Zippy Owens, and you're listening to the award winning podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. I'm also the host of Moms Don't Have Time to Lose Weight, and I'm the editor of the anthology, which you should run out and buy, called Moms Don't Have Time to A Quarantine Anthology. All proceeds of that book go to COVID nineteen vaccine research. And I'm the editor in chief of Moms Don't Have Time to Write, a new publication on Medium, and we're accepting submissions, so please send your personal essays there. And if all that isn't enough, you can follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens, and my website is zibbyowens.com. Okay. Now back to this amazing podcast. I could not be more proud to announce today's sponsor and why they're sponsoring the podcast. Citizens of Humanity, which you may know as this amazing denim company, decided to do stay safe t shirts. They're available on Monday, May 3, and you can shop them exclusively on the Citizens of Humanity website, citizensofhumanity.com. A 100% of the retail selling price of every t shirt sold supports the Susan Felice Owens program for COVID-nineteen vaccine research at Mount Sinai Health System, which I founded. I am over the moon grateful and excited that Citizens of Humanity is donating their proceeds of their Get Vaxxed shirts which are long sleeved unisex t shirts available in white or black and the retail price is $34 Go to Citizens of Humanity. Please go get one of these t shirts. And again, every t shirt sold supports vaccine research at Mount Sinai and the program that I founded to honor my late mother-in-law. Thank you Citizens of Humanity for choosing my charity to donate the proceeds to. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I am just so excited. So go check out Citizens of Humanity, the shirt, buy some jeans, go crazy, and just thank you. Sibella Van Kampen is the author of the Loaves and Fishes Farm Series Cookbooks, which are available at their website on loavesandfishes.com. Sibella is the owner of the Bridgehampton Inn and Restaurant, Loaves and Fishes Cookshop, and the revered Loaves and Fishes food store in Sagaponic, New York, which by the way, my family has been going to since it opened. For over forty years, Sabella has devoted her career to preparing delicious seasonally minded food and encouraging people and families to slow down and gather around the table for meals together. Sabella is the author of the Bridgehampton Inn and Cookbook, Look and Cookbook released in 2019, and now the Loaves and Fishes Farm series cookbooks, which she wrote with chef Licia Kasim Householder. Welcome to today's moms don't have time to read books episode where we're discussing these amazing loaves and fishes cookbooks. It's a farm series cookbook with 12 editions, three for each season. And I'm here today with Sibella Van Kempen to talk about all this goodness. And I am so hungry just looking at these pictures. Talk about how you got involved in this project, how you started the project,

[4:39]Sybille van Kempen: your relationship to Loaves and Fishes and all of that. Okay. Yeah, it all started, I would say about two springs ago, exactly at this time of year. And we're always planning at Loaves and Fishes, which I own. I own Loaves and Fishes food store and the cookware shop and the Bridgehampton Inn and the restaurant. So I'm a busy girl and I'm involved in food from morning till night. The farmers made such an impression on me. Every spring it happens, but it was just that first time I had a chance to really talk to them and zero in on what they specialize in growing and just stopped for more than a moment to actually celebrate them. And I thought, wow, how about we do a book for one farm for every month? And then we just started and I thought, started with June, July and August, our summer, and we're busy and there's lots going on. And we went right ahead with photoshoots, did it on a very concise timely basis, so as not to interfere with any of their work or our work. And I have a team of three others that are just amazing. The photographer, Connor Harrigan, and Maria LaBezo is our graphic designer. And my partner in this book series is Lisha Kassim Householder. She's been my pastry chef for, I can't count, more than a handful of years. And I really couldn't do without her. She is an inspiration ever since my mother passed five years ago. I've always been looking for someone to bounce off of, someone that is excited about food, has a passion for it, definitely has an affinity for it. And we can bounce off each other, she's that girl, which has really been amazing. So that's how it started. All the contributions from the farmers, it just pushed us further. We went from one farm to another farm. And then in the winter months, I'm thinking, well, there's not a lot of farming. There is winter farming, but not so much, which I think, by the way, I'd like to see more of. But we focused on the animals. And so the goats from Goodell Farm. And then we went into, well, what else do you do? They're making beer all year long. They're making wine from the October harvest. But we're drinking it in January and February and March. And I thought, well, let's bring that correlation back together. So I also had Merrily Foster grows these amazing tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes. So I had the East End kitchen preserve hundreds, like a thousand pounds of them from the summer. So it's another thing that you really want those ingredients from the summer in the winter. So now if you open one of my jars of those tomatoes, it literally smells like summer in January. Or what are we now in April? Not a tomato in sight. Yeah.

[7:41]Zibby Owens: So that's a little bit of the backstory. So I loved how unlike any other cookbooks I've seen, just the design of how every cover is a different color. And, of course, this is a podcast that people can't see, but it's like a pink and a pretty green and a pale blue and then like a teal and an orange. They're beautiful.

[8:00]Sybille van Kempen: Absolutely. Being very informal about this, but it's there they are. I love Starts with loaves and fishes in January and goes all the way to December, where we have the Goodell Farm and their goats and their goat cheese and all the other stuff that farmers do. Leisha and I quickly realized that we had to wear our boots, our gardening boots every time to a photo shoot because, yeah, that's what you need. Major equipment number one is to walk on the farm.

[8:32]Zibby Owens: I know that you mentioned the photographer, but honestly, the photography in this book is insane. Mean, it's gorgeous. Like, I'm holding this double page spread of a whole bunch of bulls and cows and, you know, even the bread, the worker, I mean, the pigs and the stuffing. Anyway, gorgeous. Plus, of course, the shout outs to all the different local venues. We just had a ball. We just had a ball. And going straight through the pandemic,

[9:00]Sybille van Kempen: everything shut down, but we were photographing outside on the picnic table. What we did was we took six ingredients from every farm, brought them in our kitchen and photographed those dishes. That's what's in the book. Yeah, super, super fun. Yeah. And Loaves and Fishes has been opened throughout the pandemic. Our customers are extremely loyal. Of course, we had an influx of new customers last spring, which was so welcome. Out here in the Hamptons in the winter, you're usually kind of sleepy. We always say, oh, summer's coming, get ready for it. Well, here it was March 16 and I felt like I had a store in Manhattan. I saw all our customers back in and I thought, wow, this interesting. Yeah. And with everybody cooking at home, it's just the timing was so perfect for the books to come out. And because there are just 20 recipes in each book, they're not overwhelming. You can start in the season that you're in with one little book, and then as the month progresses, look in the next one and it just fills your year. And I think seasonally, a lot of The United States can use this as a guide for what is available when,

[10:16]Zibby Owens: yeah, to go to. And that's it's so important too to eat the things that are in season at the time. I mean, my husband is an amazing cook. Lucky. Yeah. Before we even really started I know. I'm so lucky. But before we even got together, we were like chatting one day and about what would our perfect meal be because he had been to culinary school and this and that. And so he was talking about his favorite meal. And then he asked me my favorite meal and I said, well, I think it really depends on the season. And he thought that was like the greatest thing. I think that's why he started dating. Because I'm like, you have to see what's available, you know, because if it's summer, I might want blah blah blah. Anyway, so it just speaks to the importance of seasonal ingredients. Did you grow up with a with a mother who cooked as well or a father who cooked? Was there a lot of cooking going on? He did. He grew up his family his family cooked nonstop. I did not I mean, my mother my mother shops at your store. There you go. Yeah. Well, we like to have when we can. Yeah. Yes. There is cooking from cookbooks, but, no, Kyle's family was much more you know, they come from a family of of restaurant owners and and chefs and that's like, you know, they're Italian and anyway. Oh, and they're Italian. Wow. And they're Italian. Yes. What my passion is, you know? Oh my gosh. All this pasta, this pandemic, I don't even know. I can barely stand up. So I'm really interested. When did Loaves and Fishes start and how have you managed to keep it current, although still in its, you know, physically very reminiscent of of its origins. But how do you keep a business in business for so long throughout all the things just like this past year? How did you how are you able to do that?

[11:52]Sybille van Kempen: Well, Loaves and Fishes is in its forty second year. We started in 1980. My mother bought it from two gals who had it for five years. And then they were done, lovely gals. And so two years after that, I joined my mother and I, we were partners for thirty eight years, something like that. So yeah, and you know, the way to stay current is to always have conversations. Keep the conversations going with your staff, with your customers. I think they are the ones that motivate me the most. They literally come in and say, you know, that coconut crusted fluke, you haven't had it on the menu for a while and I'm really craving it. And I have some people coming for the weekend in two weeks. Can you put it on the menu? So, you know, that's where a lot of the inspiration comes from. And of course, we are totally driven menu wise by what's available and what's available locally. Makes so much sense. You don't have to pay for it. The truck, the transportation, the truck pulls up at the back door and there are the apples from the milk kelp farm. There's Jen, palsy and there she is. I'm like, okay, great. So it makes so much sense. Know we love fresh raspberries in February, but sometimes there's something better that tastes more authentic. Yeah,

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[15:46]Zibby Owens: And what about at the Bridgehampton Inn about that restaurant and keeping you know, being a restaurant owner in today's world with all these restrictions and and even

[15:57]Sybille van Kempen: you know? Yes. How has that been going? Yeah. Really great. I helped the staff through the first two months when we were closed with a pandemic loan from the bank, which was brilliant. And it did exactly what it needed to do, support everyone so that when we reopened in June, my staff was there, everybody was ready to go, ready to dig in for the summer. So yeah, the restaurant is really pretty fabulous. It's the same kind of conversation we have with our customers. They're so important. And what I also find is that we love to change things by changing the menu every week at the food store. And I would say about 70% of that menu is new. At the restaurant, we have sort of a foundation of favorites. And then we pepper that up constantly every other day, whenever chef feels motivated. So yeah, that's really how it works. It works the same way, same motivational from the inside. And I can tell you one thing, if your staff isn't tasting it and saying yummy, if they're bored with it, you need to move on. And so my staff in all locations, they drive us forward. Even the girls in the cookware shop. Yeah, we've been selling this whiteware forever, but Rosenthal has a new collection, why don't we go look at it? And customers will ask for a certain wine glass. We all get together and say, hey, you know what? We like this too. Let's bring it in. And they'll bring customers with them. So yeah, that's how to be retainer. Retain your brand, retain your message,

[17:37]Zibby Owens: but always edit it forward a little bit. You have to be a little bit ahead of the pack so that when everybody wants what they're looking for, you already have it. Yeah. So what are what are some of and by the way, I know when I first started chatting with you that my mother has been coming to your store forever. We started going to the Hamptons in 1979. Oh. And I was three years old and you opened the next year and I think she must have started going like right then. I think that must have anyway, it's been so that's why I did when I got this, like, the Kuklex, I was I'm like, this is part of my family. I don't know. Was just so exciting. Wonderful. Anyway, so what are some of your favorite, you know, go to things from this, the, you know, in the food containers and those glass cases? What are some of your, oh, guess favorite recipes but also prepared foods? Yeah, the January book, which starts out in Loaves and Fishes, and we celebrate all the farmers that have a book of the month.

[18:30]Sybille van Kempen: And we're sort of in a collage format. And yeah, you know, I love them all. Even the ziti salad, which has been there for forty two years. And a chicken curry salad is also. We have customers like your mother who started and they started with the chicken curry and ziti salad. And they still come and their kids come and their kids' kids come. And they still, when the family gets together, come for the chicken curry and the ziti salad. I tried to motivate them to try something a little different. We've now started sesame noodles, which are exciting. But we've had those for years already. So I had a recipe for scallion and capellini, literally making a puree of raw scallions and a little salt and pepper on the very thin spaghettini. Well, that just flew. It was just one of those things. And those recipes of my favorites are all in the Loaves of Fishes book. And they are all in the menu at some point during the season. That's how it works. Straightforward, So

[19:38]Zibby Owens: what did you learn from producing this series? What did you I mean, at this point in your career, like what did you not expect when you produced all these cookbooks? Like what are you most excited to have gotten out of this project? Well, I can compare in hindsight.

[19:51]Sybille van Kempen: The first book about the inn and the restaurant took me three years to write and produce. These books take about less than a year, I would say, were about six to eight months from original photographs on the farm to a book on the shelf. That taught me something, you know, I think, and I think it's happening throughout the world. There are a lot of steps that have been put in between. In other words, a publisher. So I'm self published. And I looked at that when I decided how to produce these books. I thought, wait, there's a publisher out there that knows nothing about me, or my ambition, or my mission, or my message. And I have a very dear friend who shared his production team and said, Well, Sibilla, why don't you do it yourself? So yeah, that's what I did. And so after producing the first book, as it took so long, I thought, how can we get the message out in smaller sound bites that are not so intimidating, like a recipe book with 150 recipes? That's the traditional method. But a lot of people were walking into the kitchen for the very first time. And that's kind of daunting. Gosh, where do I start? So I thought it was a great introductory method to say, okay, it's June. This is where you start. Go to a farm like this, purchase these kinds of ingredients because they're fresh and level. And then let's move forward from there. So yeah, that's sort of what I learned. I learned how to tone it down, how to bring it all back. We have a lot of distributors that could bring lamb from Australia and New Zealand. But what are our local ingredients? They are less expensive, not always, but in general, by the time you pay for the transportation, and the wear and tear on the food coming from wherever. It's all it all degrades the actual quality of the ingredient. So yeah, this is all the project was ingredient driven. And I think I am ingredient driven. And changing the menu every week at the food store gives me that, allows me that outlet. Yeah. So that's the fun part for sure.

[22:08]Zibby Owens: That's such a it just gives me so many ideas because part of publishing, part of the issue is people's attention spans too, right? Do they have time to, like, get involved and invest it in a big heavy book? And, you know, the way you've done this is almost you've taken one cookbook and sliced it, you know, almost like a round of cheese into these, like, little segments and, like, put it on a beautiful fabric. Right. Right? Right. Exactly. And it's much more consumable that way. And I wonder how other content could be packaged in the same way, not just for cookbooks but, you know, topics and essays. Anyway, it's a very clever way of doing it. Just it's very neat. Very cool. Well,

[22:50]Sybille van Kempen: cooking is tangible. You know, you can't cook on the video. You can't social media cook. Cooking is a physical activity. And I think people were looking for guidance and help in that area. And social media, that's another reason why I self published. Social media was so swamped already. And then we went into the pandemic. And that was the only medium left. There was nothing happening in person anymore. Everything was viewed on a screen. And our, I think our attention span is probably reduced to a nanosecond at this point. And so that definitely drove the size of the book and the content of all the visual activity. All of the beautiful photographs are you open the book and you say, oh, look at this, you want to share it? Oh, let me show you. Look at the cows. Wow. You know, they really were there on the forum. So that is a product of our time now. Social media is now going to have to recompete with in person. And in person is a cookbook in your hand to give us a beautiful gift. Yes, I think I got that right.

[24:01]Zibby Owens: I think you got that right as well. Yeah. And it was a matter of timing. You know, the timing was so perfect. Yeah. And what parting advice would you give to aspiring authors, particularly those who are interested in writing about food or cooking or restaurants or Well,

[24:17]Sybille van Kempen: yeah. Well, I would say if you're cooking at home and or even in a restaurant and you really love your food, I mean, really love your food, then start taking photographs of it and see how it looks from that perspective. And then if you really love it enough, you will share like all the grandmothers in the kitchen used to do. You will want to share. And I guess they say too, everybody has at least one book in them. So I would encourage it, even if it's a documentation of family recipes. Those can all be made now even just one book. And I would say embrace that technology. The memories are in the tangible. They're in the solid book. That's the thing that you can give and share and grow. Yeah, grow your own skills. Yeah, and it should be fun. So for us producing these, it was really fun. Fun to meet the farmers, fun to do the dishes, fun to present them. A lot of times we'd have a photo shoot right at Loaves and Fishes and we would take the new dish, put it in the case. We take pictures of it and in the case it went. So even during that process, food was evolving, listening to our customers and yeah, so much fun. Welcome to my playground.

[25:35]Zibby Owens: Amazing. I'm coming in. All right. Well, thank you so much. This has been so enjoyable. Thank you for these amazing cookbooks. I will be giving them as gifts all summer and beyond.

[25:46]Sybille van Kempen: Yeah, you can order them at loavesandfishes.us. So loavesandfishes.us. Us as in the family. My kids are all working in the business. I have three children and my husband as well. So we're surrounded. We're knee deep in it.

[26:02]Zibby Owens: Loavesandfishes.us. Perfect. Amazing.

[26:06]Sybille van Kempen: Alright. Yeah. Okay. See you at end. Wonderful. Bye bye. Bye. Thank you. Bye.

[26:12]Zibby Owens: Thank you again to citizens of humanity for sponsoring this episode and for donating all the proceeds of your long sleeve unisex t shirts that are available for getting vaxxed, the retail price is $34 to the Susan Felice Owens program for COVID nineteen vaccine research at Mount Sinai Health System. Go to citizensofhumanity.com, Chad, and check them out. Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens and at moms don't have time to read books. Also sign up for my newsletter at zivvyowens.com, and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texture Sound for the sound editing, and thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and outro music.