Tableau Vivante

Tableau Vivante is the blog of a farmers’ market/local food fanatic and wandering gastronerd who lives and works in Southern California. I cover a lot of territory here - local markets, bento lunching, adventures in preserving, entertaining, foodie tourism, food culture, art, other blogs I love, wine (Though I tend to leave that mostly up to the uber-refined palate of Inspector Vino.), and whatever crosses my plate.

I don’t do restaurant reviews all that often. For one, taking pictures of the food with my giant DSLR camera tends to attract attention and has the potential to (negatively) impact other diners’ experiences. If a place really dusts my doilies though? I shall endeavor to praise it to the skies. Two, I just don’t eat out all that often and I really like to cook. I just have to remind myself to document it. I made a fabulous peach/rhubarb/rose petal jam once that I never got pictures of, and still it haunts me.

What to expect? Many pictures and many typos - editing is just not a strong suit of mine, plus I’m usually in a hurry. Blogging isn’t my career. Also, I don’t consider myself a real food writer (an assertion I’ve been asked to reconsider a lot lately). I am definitely not a journalist - we have plenty of fine professionals out there to provide that. I do consider myself a budding photographer, though. To me, good camera settings are like a good recipe - you bend the rules when the situation calls for it. Every once in while, I’ll manage something in lovely psuedo-literary journalese and I’ll be quite pleased with myself.

In a nutshell, I am passionate about fresh, local produce, the farmers who produce it, and the food that you can make from it. I also love small, local producers who wow me with flavor and quality. I try to do them justice by making sure that more people know about them. That’s the birthplace of this blog’s raison d’être. At first, these long, picture-filled posts were crowding up a small, friends and family-locked blog. In August 2006, I moved the food natterings to a separate blog. Since then, a few highlights on Tastespotting, Serious Eats, and a mention in an LA Times article have helped make Tableau Vivante a semi-popular destination for foodporn addicts, wine lovers, and market fans alike. I moved the blog to its own domain in the spring of 2008.

I live just outside of L.A. (eastside, yo) with my husband JJ and my dog Emma. People interested in chatting with me about photography, writing, or food in general are encouraged to e-mail me at tvivante at yahoo dot com.

Also, I have a mean menudo recipe and have a good biscuit hand. I share both when asked.

A question that has come up: Why did you call your blog Tableau Vivante? Great question. The name came from the Cicely episode of Northern Exposure. Ned Svenborn, played by Ed Chigliak, played by Darren E. Burrows, was in the ’salon’ and asked Cicely’s lover, Rosalyn, if she wanted the French or Viennese roast for the tableau vivant that night. I just liked the intersection between art and culture with fine food. And I also really loved that show. I added the ‘e’ on the end because someone had already taken the user ID ‘tableauvivant’ over at Livejournal. I ended up saying something like “the e stands for eating” but really it was just me trying to keep the name without compromising too much. I didn’t correct it when I moved here because I already had enough of a following that changing it might have been problematic. So there you have it.