"I want to inspire people to live a more healthy, plant-filled life"
Daniela Gerson
I cringe slightly at this website, but really, if I'm honest, it's just because I'm not young and beautiful, and talented in more than one way. After all she describes herself as surfer, chef, food photographer and content creator. Californian of course. Venice Beach to be precise. It's all a bit of a caricature in a way.
The surfer bit - she has a video on her About page of her surfing - explains the title of the website I guess. As I've said before it's sometimes surprising why people don't always explain their blog titles. Not that they all need to of course, but some really, really do and often it's those that don't explain how they arrived at that name.
I'm not at all sure why I noticed this website enough to add it to my list of websites to look at. It might have been because I came across one of her stunning photographs, or maybe it was the title, which you have to say is different.
But back to glamorous and high-achieving thirtyish something California girl Daniela Gerson. Possibly the first thing that might strike you about her is that purple is her favourite colour - even the wave in her logo is purple - although nowhere does she say this. But as you flick through the pages there is indeed a lot of purple.
As I said before she is a food photographer and stylist, and maybe this is her major talent, for she is not just any old food photographer either. Her photographs are stunning and this one of watermelon and feta salad won one of the category awards - food portraiture I think it was - in those Pink Lady Awards, which seem to be the top food related photography awards. Another one won another category in another year. And it's not just an American award - it's world-wide. Again crucial amounts of purple here. I really would love to know why purple is so significant for her. Maybe it captures the light better?
Purple as far as food is concerned is important. Lots of health food advocates stress that purple foods are good for you - though some of those they quote veer to red rather than purple - but yes - aubergine, red onions, blueberries, beetroot that gorgeous purple cauliflower she has photographed above. I wrote a post about purple food a long, long time ago. It may have been one of my very first posts in fact.
What about her food? Does it taste as good as it looks? And it sure looks good. This is her Beet hummus - photographed three ways. It's American, so it's beet not beetroot.
According to the introduction to the recipe this was her very first recipe post and it was appropriate because: "I found my visual voice and it’s very, very, very, purple." Different shades of purple however for this particular dish, so it must have been made on three separate occasion with slightly different coloured beetroot. She has a list of things, that explain why she thinks her recipe is special - but only the roasting of the beetroot and the fact that there are almost equal amounts of chickpeas and tahini are relevant really - the rest is hyperbole.
Interesting to note that she does indeed recognise the visual voice of purple, however. even though she doesn't explain why. Could these two quotes about purple that I found, be relevant I wonder?
"When God made the color purple, God was just showing off." Mae Jemison
"I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it." Alice Walker
More food examples - just a couple.
This is Rainbow apple galette - note the purple again. Again it's a pretty simple recipe - pastry, apples sliced thinly and arranged however you like - she does say you don't have to stick to the gradation in colour although you have to admit that it looks good. Fold up the pastry to hold them in, sprinkle with spiced sugar - cinnamon and nutmeg, and bake. As she says in her introduction:
"Galettes: invented to make amateur bakers feel like pros. They provide all the benefits of pie, from the crust to the tender filling, without any of the fuss."
Which is actually pretty true, and she does also include some interesting information about apples, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Last one. Pomegranate chicken because although her emphasis is on plants, particularly red and purple ones, there are a few recipes for chicken and salmon.
You learn a few little things about why, and how she got into the blog thing as you go along with the recipes. For example her opening words for this particular recipe are:
"How did the food blog seed get planted you ask? When a whole lotta people started asking me for the recipe after seeing this pic on Instagram."
In her notes on the ingredients in the recipe she says:
"If pomegranates are out of season, simply skip sprinkling with pomegranate arils post oven. YES, I recommend skipping this step over buying those out-of-season de-seeded pomegranate arils in plastic containers."
Surely not quite true? I don't have any in plastic containers, but I do have some frozen ones. I bought them because pomegranate seeds are so often found in interesting recipes these days, so I think I would add them - they do taste of something after all. I mean look how many there are in the recipe. There are heaps of recipes out there for a pomegranate chicken tray bake kind of thing, but this one is probably typical of them all - a basic starter recipe if you like.
So there you go. A purple patch in the internet universe. Would God be pissed if you didn't notice it? I doubt it, but for the sheer beauty of the photographs it's worth a look - although I have to say that after a while they all begin to look a bit the same. The bright side of that is that her work is recognisable - in much the same way say - as you would recognise a Van Gogh. I am, of course, not saying that we are on the same level as Van Gogh here, but the style is distinctive. Which says something surely?
"Seek to be the purple thread in the long white gown." Epictetus
I wish I knew more about why purple though.
POSTSCRIPT
October 12
2023 - Tamarind can do anything
2021 - Nothing
2019 - Jerk from the Caribbean
2017 - Vanilla in Tahiti
2016 - Soup, glorious soup
I like the colour purple, rich and with promise of something special. The Romans liked them for their Togas, which led to the notion of Royal Purple in years to come. Thjere you are thinking of the Roman Empire, as all men do, all of the time!