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Chef Clara Moore will soon prove that creativity and talent in one area—cooking—often transfer over into other areas, like writing. Moore, the former chef at Local Harvest Café, has co-authored a book, Shop Like a Chef: A Food Lover’s Guide to St. Louis Neighborhoods, with Matt Sorrell (authors both at left), an area food writer and owner of Cocktails Are Go. Thanks to a successful recent Kickstarter campaign, Moore and Sorrell’s book will be available in October.
We spoke with Moore by phone because she now resides in Seattle, where she’s cooking at a catering company and working in sales for Blue Lotus Chai. Regarding her move, Moore said it was “a hard decision to make,” but she needed a change of pace. And, her mixologist boyfriend, Ryan Wilmsmeier, formerly at Sanctuaria, decided to head west, so Moore embraced the “change of pace and scenery.” Regarding that change of pace, Moore is “relaxing after being the boss.”
Relaxation is relative, of course, as evidenced by the fact that Moore travels back to St. Louis once a month—she’s still a partial owner of Local Harvest—and there’s that whole book thing. Begun in 2007 after returning from living in Mexico, the book was initially two years in the making. “I always wanted to be a writer,” Moore said, citing a love for “the written word, books, and the exchange of knowledge.” When she submitted the manuscript to her editor, Sharon Woodhouse, however, she was told it was “boring,” and then the “economy tanked.”
Devoted to revising the book, Moore tweaked its angle and brought Sorrell on board. Specifically, he contributed sections on area neighborhoods to complement Moore’s recipes and grocery store reviews. One goal was to “tie the regionality of St. Louis into the book,” Moore explained of its purpose. The companion blog to the book, studded with pictures, videos, recipes, and a narrative of the Kickstarter campaign, provides a preview of what the book will offer; the “30 Days of Recipes,” in particular, gets you started on cooking with local ingredients, ordinary and esoteric alike.
When asked what she likes best about Seattle so far, Moore mentioned the stunning landscape and, perhaps surprisingly to some, the weather: “You know that one perfect day in St. Louis? You get that every day in the summer in Seattle, and the sun stays out ‘til 10 PM.” She’s also enjoyed entering into the food scene through various chefs’ groups.
Follow the companion blog or the book’s Facebook page for the exact publication date and upcoming events. Moore will be back in St. Louis at end of the month, leading hands-on cooking classes at The Kitchen Conservatory:
- “Plugged into Raw Food” (June 26)
- “The Vegan-Omics of Spanish Tapas” (June 30)
- “Treasures of the Pacific Northwest” (July 2).
When we told Moore we were looking forward to seeing the book, she said, “So am I,” underscoring how the publishing process proceeds, in which even the author must patiently wait to see her or his finished product after so much hard work.
Photo credit: David Craig of FoodTalkSTL.
