Food for Thought: Summer 2026
“We eat with our eyes as well as our mouths.”
These words were spoken to me in 2014, as I helped a local chef at an event in Ojai plate a brunch—a reminder to make food as beautiful as it was nourishing. Over a decade later, I have never forgotten that. Whether it’s a sit-down gathering or eating by yourself, it can take just a moment to add visual appeal. And therein lies a small joy that’s now yours to consume.
When you eat out, chances are the prep team has put effort into plating. At home, you have the ability to switch from “eating to live” to “living to eat” by looking at your ingredients, smelling them, thinking about them and considering all the work our farmers and growers have put into bringing that bite into your life.
The theme of this Summer issue is the Cherry on Top. It is about that final flourish, the finishing touch, the attention to detail, that little extra something that makes a good thing a little bit better.
In this issue, Pascale Beale starts with the memory of eating a Sungold cherry tomato. It’s not a dream; it’s a delicious reality of summer abundance. Her recollection is also my own, and if it’s not already yours, visit your nearest farmers market and try one. Just one is all you need.
In this time, every dollar we spend with local food producers counts. If enough of us do it, the conscious effort to invest our grocery money locally keeps our own financial ecosystem healthier and more resilient.
Hana-Lee Sedgwick’s article about conservation efforts at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is timely not only for the garden’s 100-year anniversary but also in light of the sudden fire at Santa Rosa Island. For an island ecosystem, which is already vulnerable, fires can mean the end of its endemic species. Wiped out. Forever. But conservation efforts at the botanic garden try to save these rare genetics to keep events like these from total destruction. Just this past spring the botanic garden debuted its Torrey Pine conservation program, giving us hope that the ancient stand of the island Torrey Pines is not completely lost from the fire.
I still ruminate on the idea of third places. Santa Barbara County is a destination, yet those of us who live here can sometimes forget that it’s a paradise people yearn for. In my own travels, I flourished when I could sit quietly in a café and let that little world drive my experience. Studying overseas included a month of immersive research in Morocco. There, I gained a better understanding of the hospitality shown to travelers. The locals who stepped up and guided me—while I sat in cafés, observing their world and reading Travels with a Tangerine—those were my influencers.
When you welcome a traveler, you can change their trajectories and perceptions and affect outcomes. For this, I still enjoy a meal at our own hotels—our own Interzones—where people seeking an experience can cross paths.
And speaking of tangerines, Ojai gets an honorable mention in this issue. Go, if you can, and experience another paradise just next door. It’s similar but different. You know what I mean.
