Kismet

Meet Chef Taryn

• A Kismet Life

I've been cooking since I was a little girl, mostly because my dad is a fantastic cook. On his weekends, we'd go somewhere uber grown-up on Fridays—the Pump Room or the Cape Cod Room in Chicago— then spend Saturday and Sunday shopping for ingredients to cook at home, often trying to re-create what we’d been served the night before. Saturday mornings were for Jacques Pepin and Julia Child, notsomuch cartoons. I received my first wok in 3rd grade (it was red and electric) and tried to take over the role of chef in my mom's house. 

Twenty years of professional cooking have provided incomparable experience. I’ve cooked in California, Colorado, up and down the East Coast, The Dominican Republic, South Africa, Hawaii, Morocco, Cyprus, and for a Russian oligarch on a super yacht, somewhere in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea (that’s an interesting adventure I’ll be writing about!). As if my decade cooking for Oprah Winfrey isn’t reward enough, I've had the incredible honor to cook for many of her high-profile guests including former President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama, The incomparable Gayle King, Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, a bevy of the Hollywood elite, and of course, my absolute idol, Dr. Maya Angelou. I’ve led cooking classes at the Oprah Winfrey Academy for Girls. I've had the opportunity to inspire so many others to want to cook: to be imaginative and fearless in the kitchen- that part I love best and look forward to providing the same encouragement for all of you.

“When you have the feeling that you're exactly where you are meant to be: That is Kismet. That is what I try to create with each event I produce, each recipe I write, and each meal I share”

I’m always asked to define my style of cooking and I struggle with the answer because I’m fluent in most any cuisine and there’s nothing I don’t love to cook- or eat for that matter! I love mint and cilantro and bright, unapologetically loud food and I love mellow, indulgently rich dishes. I love when you find the perfect combination of sweet, spicy, tart, and earthy. I love finding new ways to use smoky Urfa chilis and I love the way a bit of sea salt on top of a sweet and intensely chocolatey cookie transforms it into something that is out of this world. I’d describe my cooking as: bright, adventurous, balanced, innovative, unexpected, and sentimental. I tend to stray from the mundane, opting instead to put my own spin on tradition.

I love those weeks right between summer and fall, when the farmer's market is exploding with perfect produce. I’m currently obsessed with black garlic, could eat some iteration of beans every day, and am always working to perfect my homemade ricotta. Oprah’s favorite thing is my turkey burger and it has become a bit of a cult classic in her circle. I make a sublime Moroccan braised lamb, and our family recipe for meatballs & Sunday gravy has been known to cure anything from a broken heart to the homesick blues.

We've all had one of those nights where you sit, looking around the table and think: this is truly the best night ever! All of your favorite people are laughing, happy, the music is making you sway a bit, and the food is simply perfect. You have a feeling you are exactly where you are meant to be. That is Kismet. That is the feeling I try to create with each event I produce, each recipe I write, and each meal I share.