Hi, I’m Phoebe Lapine. Thank you for stopping by!
I’m a 26-year-old food writer, cookbook author, private chef, caterer, culinary instructor, and full-time freelance food hustler. A few years ago, I busted out of my cubical in Midtown Manhattan to work full-time on Big Girls Small Kitchen, the food website I co-founded with my best friend from high school. Our first cookbook was published in May 2011 by Harper Collins. Now, I’m addicted to over-sharing my food feats and disasters, and I haven’t looked back.
Feed Me Phoebe is where I document my kitchen confessions, semi-healthy recipes, snap shots of my professional cooking world, weird party ideas, miscellaneous shenanigans, and all the reasons why every dish tastes better when shared with family or friends.
Have a burning cooking question? Feed it to me and I just might feature your issue in my What’s Eating You? advice column. That’s what friends are for, right?
If you’d like to hire me to bring the food and the fun to your next gathering, find out more about my services here.
Last but not least, I’ll be competing on BBC America’s new food show Chef Race: UK vs. US premiering October 2nd at 9pm EST with back-to-back episodes. Check-in on FMP for behind-the-scenes gossip, dirty details, and my take on all the drama went down on and off camera. And please tune-in to cheer me on every Tuesday at 10pm EST!
Photo courtesy of Nick Onken of Onken Family Dinners
About Phoebe
I’m a born and bred New Yorker. I currently live in a cute little studio in Chelsea, where I constantly bang my head on the ceiling of my sleeping loft. I wish that was actually my kitchen pictured above.
My early childhood years were spent eating rock candy at the Cowgirl Café in Greenwich Village, and deciding which flavor éclair was my favorite in Paris. Later, I learned to cope with snack food sourced from the local health food store in Westchester County (where there were no éclairs), and, finally, discovered the magic of takeout on the Upper West Side at age 8, when I told my parents I never wanted to move again.
There are plenty of things that might make me, as my dad has put it over the years, kind of a “wacky gal.” The key to my heart, a close second to a good foot massage, is a parchment paper cone of very crispy French fries (classy, I know). I do a lot of things backwards. Like, I literally read magazines back to front. I enjoy animal impressions. I have a fear of fruit. I can’t sleep unless all the doors in the room are closed, tightly. I eat an unhealthy amount of mayonnaise. And I used to do musical theater (enough said).
The pictures above might lead you to believe that I am a Russian doll of very complicated emotions. But really, the most important thing to know about me is that I get really cranky when I’m hungry. Friends and loved ones have learned to never put their fingers in the cage.
Creamy Coconut Rice Pudding with Pistachios (Gluten-Free)
About The Food
If I had to describe my cooking, and I should probably try to do that, I would say it’s creative, rustic, and comforting. I usually combine influences from my travels in France, Italy, Spain, Thailand, Morocco, and Argentina, with fresh ingredients from the Farmer’s Market, to serve up dishes that are refreshing, fun, and semi-healthy, if not traditionally so.
Let’s talk about health for a second…
My diet philosophy is not to eliminate any aspect of your cravings. The dishes I make as part of my Balanced Diet column are main courses that not only hit all the food groups, but are also deeply satisfying. A little fat and a handful of carbs probably aren’t going to make you fat. Depriving yourself of the foods you love just might.
Since I found out I was allergic to wheat in May 2011, I’ve tried to find recipes that use ingredients that are naturally gluten-free. Some decent store-bought substitutions – like quinoa pasta and Udi’s bread – are great to incorporate. But since so many people these days eat gluten-free, it’s just as important for non-GF folk to have some great naturally gluten-free dishes in their arsenal that don’t require obscure ingredients or 10 different types of flour. The recipes in my Gluten-Free Is Me column are accessible to anyone, not just those glutards who have xanthum gum in their pantry.
Before quitting my day job to write my first cookbook, I worked in the beauty industry. I quickly became a product junkie. But now that I have to pay for these items myself, I’ve tried to find natural ways to beautify myself. Once you understand what vitamins have certain beauty efficacies, and what foods contain them, it’s pretty easy to create your own regimen to Eat Yourself Pretty, from the inside out.
Cookbooks and Things
My first cookbook, In The Small Kitchen, was published in May 2011 by Harper Collins.
You can buy it here.
I’ve been seen eating truffle pasta and blueberry muffins on Ina Garten’s The Barefoot Contessa.
My cookbook, recipes, and writings have also been featured in The New York Daily News, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and Glamour Magazine, and online by The Huffington Post, Serious Eats, The Daily Meal, LearnVest, Shape Magazine, Time Out New York, Saveur, Brides Magazine, Paper Mag, and Design*Sponge.
For a full list of Phoebe-related press, click here.
