Cooking & Clay Collaboration - 2022
From May 24-June 12, 2022, the Hambidge Center hosted the Cooking & Clay Collaboration at our Rabun Gap GA campus, bringing together a group of innovative chefs and ceramicists to explore the relationship of earth, fire and food. Leading up to and during this two-week collaboration, through conversation and hands-on experiments, the group explored the ancient techniques of cooking in and with clay while developing new, contemporary relationships between hearth and earth. Read more about the Collaborators below.
Details: On Saturday, June 11, 2022, we held a sold out experiential dinner as a unique opportunity to learn about – and taste! – the delicious experiments performed by the talented chefs and potters during their collaboration. All guests chose a handmade bowl, which they carried in short walks between chef stations. At each stop they filled their bowls with mouthwatering clay-cooked food while hearing about the particular process used for that course, as well as the experiences of the collaborators. There was casual conversations over dinner with plenty of room for questions, curiosity, and merriment. The food served depended wholly on the collaborative experiences, from a traditional pit barbacoa, local trout cooked encased in clay, flatbread seared on a newly created tandoor oven, and cocktails designed to take advantage of the minerality of unglazed clay, plus a variety of veggies and desserts, there was something delicious for everyone. As all dishes were created via “experiments,” they were expertly conceived by extraordinarily accomplished chefs & ceramicists, resulting in interesting and delectable! dishes. Afterward, many guests gathered around the bonfire for relaxed conversation and stargazing.
Scenes from the event…
Event Hosts
Rachel K. Garceau
Greg Head & Keisha Burnette
Melissa Bunnen-Jernigan and James Jernigan
Judy and Scott Lampert
Bari and Russell Love
Lynn Pollard
Belinda and Ken Reusch
Karen and Clay Rolader
Shawn and Richard Tomasello
Woodie and Steve Wisebram
Sponsors
Collaboration Participants
Tamie Cook, Chef
Growing up, Tamie loved to cook at the knee of her Mother. Little did she know, this early love for food would be re-kindled years later in Paris, leading her to the New England Culinary Institute and then to the Food Network show, Good Eats, where she worked as Culinary Director for 11 years.
Now, when she’s not working as the personal chef to stars such as Robert Downey Jr., Nick Jonas or Owen Wilson, she is researching, cooking or playing with food. Having worked on more than 25 cookbooks, Tamie Cook Culinary Productions is a much sought after culinary consulting firm specializing in recipe development, teaching, food styling and myriad other services. In addition, Tamie has cooked for many local and national organizations, such as The James Beard Foundation, Georgia Organics, Foodwell Alliance, Atlanta Food and Wine Festival, Georgia Ovarian Cancer Association, and Our House, among others.
In 2017, Tamie was recognized by the Community Farmer’s Market Lady Locavore team, as the Advocacy Leader of the Year. In 2018, Tamie was a Hambidge Culinary Arts Fellow. Tamie currently serves as the President of the Atlanta Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International.
Lisa Donovan, Chef
Lisa is a pastry chef and writer living in Nashville, TN. As the pastry chef to two of the South's most influential chefs, Sean Brock and Tandy Wilson, Lisa has been formative in establishing a technique driven and historically rich narrative of Southern pastry — unabashedly serving her Church Cakes and pies to finish fine dining experiences and creating a repertoire of desserts to redefine what it means to be a "Southern baker." Lisa is currently writing and producing content for cookbooks as well as working on her own writing, currently a memoir, Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger, released through Penguin Press 2020. In 2018, Lisa won a James Beard Award in Journalism/Media.
John Donovan, Ceramicist
John is a Nashville-based artist striving to maintain an active exhibition, academic and studio production career. John earned his BFA from Loyola University, New Orleans and MA & MFA degrees from Stephen F. Austin State University, Texas. John is represented by LeMieux Galleries in New Orleans and Zeitgeist Art Gallery in Nashville, with work regularly appearing in nationally and internationally juried and invitational shows, noteworthy among them include the 2005 World Ceramic Biennale International Competition in Icheon, South Korea. John received the 2011-12 Individual Artist Fellowship in Craft Media from the Tennessee Arts Commission. In 2016 John established Tenure Ceramics LLC, focusing on the design and production of custom ceramic tableware for restaurant and home. John first met clay at the age of six under the watchful eye of mentor-artist Peter King in the studios of Stonehaus Architectural Ceramics.
Norma Listman & Saqib Keval, Chefs
Norma and Saqib met in the kitchen tracing notes of ancestral recipes and community foodways. As the chefs of Masala y Maiz in Mexico City, Norma & Saqib have committed themselves to creating unique dining experiences using food as a means to tell complex stories of food migration through beautifully curated meals following the journey of spices, chiles, ingredients and cooking techniques between Mexico, South Asia and East Africa. Their menus present unique recipes and stories that explore the breadth and history of mestizaje. They are committed to using their restaurant and their access as chefs to fight for the critical social justice issues of our time and work hard to be leaders in bettering the labor conditions and quality of life for those working in the food industry. They work together in all parts of the project and have made Masala y Maiz a beautifully personal reflection of themselves, their families, and their community.
John Oles, Ceramicist
John was born in Wrentham, Massachusetts, and holds a BFA in Ceramics from the University of Massachusetts (1998) and an MFA from Tulane University (2008) in New Orleans, Louisiana. Over the past 10 years, he has been invited to lecture and teach Visiting Artist workshops at many prominent ceramics programs around the country, including Hartwick College, Louisiana Tech., Texas Women’s University and Harvard University. John taught ceramics at Loyola University from 2008-2013 and Tulane University from 2013-2015. Currently, John is Assistant Professor of Ceramics at Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, AL.
Adam Paulek, Ceramicist
Adam was introduced to ceramics at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake IA. This led him to Asheville NC, where he apprenticed under potter Hank Goodman. Adam attended graduate school at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, receiving an M.F.A. with an emphasis in ceramics. In 2012, Adam was the Salad Days Artist in Residence at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, ME. Currently he is an Associate Professor of Art at Longwood University in Farmville VA. Adam’s work, which is an exploration of form and imagery in ceramics, has been widely exhibited, including at the Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center (DK), Akar Design, and the Smithsonian Craft show.
Stephanie Rozene, Ceramicist
Stephanie is a ceramic artist who is dedicated to the advancement and development of the field of Craft History and Theory and in particular the use of historical ornament as a visual language. Rozene’s research and art making focuses on the exploration of personal relationships through use and the role that pottery plays in communicating meaning. She makes work in the form of the utilitarian pot but is inspired by and grounded in conceptual, historical and theoretical approaches to ornament, form, use and making. Rozene holds an M.F.A in ceramics and craft history from NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and a B.F.A from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in Alfred, New York. She is currently an Associate Professor of Art and the Ceramics Studio Head at Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY and serves on the board of trustees at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, ME.
Maricela Vega, Chef
Maricela is the owner/founder of a food enterprise known as CHICO that produces Mexican provisions, based in Atlanta. She is largely known for advocating ethical sourcing and interpreting Mexican cuisine in the Atlanta and Southern food scene. When serving as an executive chef during her 2-year tenure, Mari was given title by the Georgia Department of Agriculture as a 2020 State Executive Chef, nominated as a semi-finalist for a James Beard Rising Chef award in 2020 and later profiled by the New York Times for her many years of advocacy work within the social-food justice movement. In addition to her food career, Maricela has spent several years as an interdisciplinary student of the foodways and culinary education and has been a dedicated after school programmer for several public and private schools both locally and nationally. She has partnered with the non-profit Athena’s Warehouse and Cross Keys High School for over 4 years in volunteer after school workshops teaching the students about the connection within cooking diaspora cuisine, sourcing and practicing growing at home.
She is passionate about our foodway systems and how we share the education behind these systems with the youth and business clients. Her passion is met with unique and strong experience in both. As a Member-at-Large of Atlanta’s Slow Food Chapter and board member of Love Is Love Farm Co-Op, Mari brings over a decade of knowledge in our local Food system.
Kathryn DiMenichi, Bartender
Before taking on the role of Beverage Director and PA to Hugh Acheson, Kathryn DiMenichi owned and operated Cardinal and Third Street Goods, sister companies located in Atlanta’s Grant Park neighborhood. Third Street Goods was a market with a breakfast and lunch counter. Cardinal, a cocktail bar and restaurant nestled behind the market, was featured in the May/June 2020 issue of Imbibe magazine “Generation Next - Atlanta’s cocktail culture shifts into next gear.” Prior to opening her business she ran notable cocktail programs at Octopus bar and LEONs full service, and the food program at Spiller Park Coffee.
Alongside her 20+ years of restaurant experience in every front of house and back of house position, Kathryn has strong interest in design, art and gardening.
