Mina Stone - Lemon, Love & Olive Oil

Dedicated to my parents, James and Evgenia Stone

What sustains me is knowing we exist in duality. It is not just one thing thats happeningclearly so much is happening. Being present to pain and joy, trauma and potential, crisis and purpose, darkness and light, life and death. To tune into whats underneath the surface? whats beyond the five senses? and connect to the depths of the heart.

Daphne Lopez

Katerina, my friend Ioannas mother, was cutting up out-of-season, watery tomatoes from the grocery store down the street. Earlier that evening she had specified clearly, Pick out the tomatoes that smell like tomatoes, those are the ones I want for our salad! Ioanna called her from the store to announce that, in fact, none of the tomatoes smelled like tomatoes, but she bought them and brought them home anyway.

I watched my friends mother quietly cook an elaborate meal in her daughters small, rickety Brooklyn kitchen, making herself at home in a foreign town by calling on the familiar ritual. The joy and warmth emanating from Katerina was palatableshe was reunited with her daughter, she was witnessing Ioannas new life in New York City, and she was meeting her friends for the first time. She set the table with lots of wine, bite-size spinach pies, Greek salad, and pasticcio (a delightful Greek pasta dish with meat sauce and bchamel) and ushered us to sit and eat.

We laughed throughout dinner, drinking and eating in happy excess.

We marveled at Katerinas ability to transform mediocre, corner-store ingredients into the comforting and familiar deliciousness of a traditional Greek meal. The tomatoes were flavorless, the cucumbers were soft, the feta was dry and spongybut we tasted something else beyond all that, something that can only be described as love.

The dinner Katerina made for us that night remains vivid in my memory. My theory is that her confidence and serenity in the kitchen and the fact that she was cooking for her daughter, for someone she loved, had magically elevated the meal to utter deliciousness. It tasted like home, like there was time and energy infused right into every bite, even though the ingredients had tried to fight against her.

How I view this cookbook could be most accurately described as a journal. A record of what I have been cooking over the years for my friends and family, and in my work as a chef.

Over time, the recipes start to take shape on the page, and I find that my life, past and present, weaves its way into the pages of the book, traveling seamlessly alongside the food.

I titled my first cookbook Cooking for Artists, because that was what I had been doing over the yearscooking for different artists and recording those recipes. It was a title aptly describing that period of time and the freedom I was given to develop my style of cooking: one I describe as simple food with an attention to detail. Its purpose is to be direct, uncomplicated, and soothing.

Throughout these past few years, I have continued cooking for artists and galleries. I partnered in the opening of Minas, a restaurant at PS1 in New York City. I also gathered around the dinner table with my partner, Alex, my stepdaughter, Sophia, and my son, Apollo.

Cooking has started to take on a different meaning for me; its become even more important than I could have imagined. It has become a necessity as well as a source of familiar comfort. A place to connect with my family, friends, and community.

Ive seen cooking soothe and strengthen people during times of crisis, and Ive seen it serve as a form of activism and dissent. Cooking and eating are, after all, a glue that holds us together in tough times and gives our days hope. It is the place we come back to in order to replenish. It is how we honor the essence of ourselves, and it is how we show love.

This book documents the recipes from different avenues of my life. They weave the web of who I am and continue the traditions of what was taught to me by the generations before me. The most important thing Ive learned from the women in my family is to cook with love, abandon, and an absence of fear. Its OK to not have all the right ingredients: you can substitute another one. Its OK to not have the right cooking equipmentmy yiayia made the best food, every summer, out of a toaster oven.

The most important thing is understanding that experiencing good food is a sum of its parts and nothing should get in your way. It is the intention you bring to the table that ultimately makes the difference between an average meal and a memorable one.

Mina asked me to write an introduction to Lemon, Love & Olive Oil, her second cookbook. I am both flattered and a little overwhelmed by this task. I am not a chef; I am not a food writer. I know very little about the culinary arts except what Ive learned, here and there, by watching Mina cook and dance at the same time. In the kitchen her limbs flail, intertwining, at times indistinguishable. She communicates with a wink and a nod, waving a hot pan in one hand, holding a chunk of fish in the other.

You cannot curb this young womans enthusiasm, or love, for what she does. In this book, it bubbles over into the recipes.

Followers of my daughters creations over the years may be interested to know a little about the evolution of Minas career. As I was leafing through old manila folders from her elementary school days, I came across this fragile document:

MID-YEAR REPORT

Student: Mina Stone

Mina was twelve years old at the time. Apart from its amusement value, the yellowed school report revealed much about the history of who she has become and the engaging, radiant, good-humored character she brings to Lemon, Love & Olive Oil.

While Mina has been quite successful in her science experiences this year, at times she allows silliness to keep her from succeeding. Examples of this include several instances of disruptive, uncontrolled giggling...

The powerful thinking represented in her literature homework has been of the highest caliber; however, she needs to pay more attention to proofreading and overall neatness on these assignments.

The most memorable moment of Minas work in vocabulary came during the SSAT. There was an analogy that read: sugar is to vinegar as... There were a variety of choices. She called over the teacher for assistance. The teacher, who was unable to offer any real help, said, Relax, its just an analogy... youve done those before... Mina sighed and said, Yeah, but how am I supposed to know if these test people think vinegar is sweet or sour? As usual, Mina had a good point to make!

Throughout this book I see markers of who Ive always known my daughter to be. Creative, serious, compassionate, thoughtful, and without fail humorous and fostering connection.

For Mina everything is about relationships. From the initial spark of connecting with the other to the sharing of thoughts, personal anecdotes, recipes, and preparing and serving foodeverything designed and enacted for the sole purpose of pleasing people and bringing them together to enjoy food, share stories, lean in, and listen closely to one another. To feel warm and content.