Food, Entertaining and Sustainability

The Maria Liberati Show

In this episode of The Maria Liberati Show, host Maria interviews sustainability expert Cheryl Leutjen and chef Dennis Littley about sustain

Key takeaways

• Sustainable entertaining begins with using seasonal, locally sourced ingredients and natural elements like gourds, pomegranates, and herbs for decor.
• Reducing waste at gatherings can be achieved by avoiding single-use items, opting for reusable or compostable materials, and encouraging guests to bring their own utensils and containers.

Main topics

• Sustainable entertaining
• Seasonal and local cooking

Notable quotes

"Look to the season, look what's at your farmer's market, look what's in your garden... nature is your guide."

Conclusion

The episode concludes by emphasizing that sustainability is a practice

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:01) Hey, it's Maria and welcome to the Maria Liberati show, your weekly escape into the flavor stories and simple joys of the Italian lifestyle. This is where we slow down, gather around the table and remember what really matters. So wherever you are in the kitchen, on a walk or easing into your day, I'm grateful you're here. Let's begin. And my special guest today is Cheryl Lujan. She is an author, environmental attorney, geologist, and activist that's known for blending environmental awareness with dark humor, personal essay, and spirituality. Cheryl, welcome to the show today. Thank you so much. And I do want to mention, so she has this really interesting book called Party on Purpose. It's your complete guide. to echo chic entertaining so we're going to talk a little bit about that and and how you say I guess echo chic when you're entertaining and um so sustainability so how did you get the idea to do this book for you know entertaining in an echo chic way well Speaker 2 (1:20) that's that is interesting because I Let me say at the outset, I wrote a book about partying, but I am not a stylist. I'm not a chef. I am someone who hears deeply about what's happening on Earth. And I read about that a lot. And I know it's hard to get people to read about hard things. And in the process of writing a different book, I was interviewing someone. I said, ask them that. How do you get people to talk about hard things? And she said, you invite them to a party, not a workshop. Not a lecture, a party. And that just stuck with me. And I thought that's exactly, number one, what we need right now is because people are feeling so isolated and so lonely. Speaker 3 (1:58) And that's Speaker 2 (1:59) all over the news. I mean, that's not me. That's Bloomberg ran an article called The Great American Fund Shortage. And it wrote, Americans need to party more. So I thought that's just so timely. And also it's a way to, what I call, live our values out loud. You know, what's important to me. we tend to throw things out the window when it comes to parties. It's like, oh, but just for this occasion, I'm just going to do this. And on the other hand, I'm thinking, no, it could actually be an inspiration to try something new and different and, and, and sustainable and beautiful. Speaker 1 (2:32) So Speaker 2 (2:33) what types of tips would you Speaker 3 (2:35) give us if we're. wanting to have a party, but keeping it sustainable and echo sheet? Speaker 2 (2:41) Well, first of all, I say for me, let nature be your guide. Look around happening in the season that we're in. Fall happens to be such a time of great abundance and not only fruit and vegetables, but colors and tastes and so many ways. I mean, you can just put... pomegranates and some gourds and some rosemary branches across the table. It's beautiful. It's simple. And it's, it speaks to the season. Speaker 3 (3:08) So Speaker 2 (3:09) look to the, to look to the season, look what's at your farmer's market, look what's in your garden, look what's in your neighbor's garden. Maybe you, I borrowed, I borrowed some flowers from my neighbors right there. And that'd be your guide. I know it's tempting. I have done it myself. I know it's tempting to just go out to Michael's and buy the latest, cutest thing for the season. And then, you know, I have a Halloween platter that I use. I store 364 days a year. I might use it one day. I have a honey party this year. But if I don't, I'm just storing this for an end. So this stuff accumulates and piles up too. And I know most of us do not need more stuff. Exactly. Speaker 3 (3:51) And the thing that I'm finding out more recently is it's really difficult and sometimes costly to get rid of all that stuff because now even like thrift stores are limiting certain things they take and all that. So if you accumulate a lot of that junk, it's costly to remove it. And it's not a lot of it is not recyclable. So it only junks up the earth. So you're absolutely right. It's really good if you I mean, Mother Nature makes it so easy for us. Speaker 2 (4:27) So if Speaker 3 (4:28) you just look around and Speaker 2 (4:29) I also think like capsule wardrobe, we're all about capsule wardrobes, having a few pieces you can intermatch and still be stylish, but but not have so much stuff. in our closets. I think I did that for my decorating and partying things. I collect things like little wooden boxes that are really cute. I can just put those pomegranates and oranges in Speaker 3 (4:57) there. Speaker 2 (4:58) But I can also weave ribbon around it and put Easter eggs in it. I can stack them and use them, put a cloth on it. It's a riser. It's versatile. That is something you can, I could pull that anytime, pull that out anytime I'm going to have people over as opposed to that one thing that I'm just going to use. Speaker 3 (5:19) Exactly. Use once and then have to figure out what am I going to do with this? Speaker 2 (5:24) And you're right. The thrift store doesn't want Halloween decorations in November. Speaker 2 (5:30) Exactly. There's a lot of things they Speaker 3 (5:32) won't take. And then you have to either end up trashing things that are not recyclable. Or if you have too much, you're going to have to end up getting like a junk service to come and remove everything. And that's becoming very expensive, too. Speaker 1 (5:47) So, Speaker 3 (5:48) you know, it's really not in your best interest to accumulate a lot of unnecessary things. Speaker 2 (5:55) Yeah. Speaker 3 (5:56) I like I like definitely like that idea. So what about so you're saying sustainable. So things like pomegranates or fruits to use as decoration. Speaker 2 (6:08) And also they can be your surfing pieces, you know, hollow out those gourds and pumpkins to serve things. That's really cute and and aging and represents the season. And also, I mean, they're compostable. You can put them in your green bin. You can put them in your garden. Give them to your friends who have backyard chickens or tortoises. They love them. Speaker 3 (6:30) Exactly. It Speaker 2 (6:31) also can be, they can also inspire your entertainment or activities. You can have a guess the squash bar, you know, because there's so many different kinds of squashes. Can you guess? And you get this flavor of apple because there's so many varieties of apples and it's interesting. And so you can incorporate them into nature, into your decor, into your food and in what you do. Speaker 3