Hello, and thanks for visiting! My name is Alex, I’m 26, and I live in Syracuse, NY as a recent transplant from Brooklyn, with my boyfriend, Rene, and our cat friend, Fred. Delicious healthy recipes are my jam and this blog is my outlet for sharing them.
A bit about me: I’ve been obsessed with food since I was tall enough to see the top of the stove. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of helping my mom make varenyky (Ukrainian dumplings) in our Odessa kitchen. When I was nine, my family and I immigrated from Ukraine to New York, and almost immediately after, I discovered the Food Network.
I would run home everyday after school to catch Rachael, Giada and Ina doing their thing, which is how I learned to cook. As I got older, I went to a “regular college” so I could get a “real job”, all the while knowing my heart belonged in food. So, in 2016, I quit said job to pursue blogging and freelancing full-time. Since then I wrote a cookbook, co-wrote another one, and got to meet and work with some amazing people and brands—it’s been nothing short of a magical adventure so far.
My philosophy: Today’s food world can be difficult to navigate. As a modern society, we’ve strayed so far from the source of our food, how to cook it at home, and the basic understanding of what’s healthy and what isn’t. We’re bombarded with commercials and advice from TV doctors about the newest “superfood,” the latest weight-loss solution, etc. We are led to believe by the pharmaceutical industry that as long as we take a Lactaid pill here or some Prilosec there, we can continue to eat food that is not wholesome—all while sowing the seeds for poor energy, weight issues, and disease. Let’s face it: most of the food we eat in America is packaged, processed, and sometimes just straight-up chemicals in a shiny package.
My passion for healthy cooking materialized after reading Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Diet. Kris was diagnosed with a rare form of inoperable cancer in her early thirties. After her doctor recommended that she “watch and wait” to see what happens, she took matters into her own hands. She spoke with various holistic healers and decided to transition to a vegan diet. Within months her condition improved and today—over a decade later—Kris is alive and well, glowing from the inside out, and continuing to share her journey with others.
Her story did not turn me into a diehard vegan or anything, but it did teach me about the connection between food and health. After years of struggling with a love-hate relationship with food, counting calories, and trying to decipher whether it’s carbs or fat that’s really the bad guy, something finally clicked. The answer to feeling great wasn’t a trendy workout, cutting out carbs, or eating less calories—it was eating a diet rich in plant-based whole foods. And it’s ain’t just me. Time and time again, medical research shows that a diet rich in plant-based whole foods is instrumental in healing illnesses of all types—this means eliminating processed foods, focusing on fresh produce, whole grains and legumes, and limiting the consumption of animal products.
The best way to start exploring this lifestyle is not by just removing the meat and dairy from your plate, but by thinking about food in a completely new way, and moving whole grains, legumes, and fresh produce to the center of the plate. With this in mind, my goal here is to share simple recipe ideas for busy home cooks, ones that I’ve grown to love in my own kitchen. (Though most of the recipes you’ll find here are plant-based, meat and dairy are sometimes used as garnishes or flavoring agents.)
Why “The New Baguette”? A baguette on the table is considered a given during almost any meal in France. For me, The New Baguette refers to more wholesome, nutritious, vibrant foods that I hope will soon become staple items on more tables everywhere. The baguette is also a convenience food—oftentimes in Paris, you’ll see people walking down the street with a baguette under their arm, tearing off small bits and eating them on the go. Thus, The New Baguette is a symbol of a modern way of eating that goes beyond convenience to ask what are we eating and what is it doing to us? (Admittedly, I’m also one of those people who’s obsessed with all things French and wanted to pay homage to my favorite culture.)
Press and other published work:
Headshots by Michelle Fidman
Logo design by Yevgeniya Ryaboy