Nina Clemente: A Big Inspiration.

(Photo by Emily Hart)
After publishing my first blog post ever yesterday for The Skinny Chef, I was feeling pretty snazzy about my ability to follow through on something (I've been meaning to start a food blog for ages!), so I decided to celebrate by feasting my eyes on the pages of Vanity Fair, Portland Magazine and US Weekly while I did a quick load of laundry at the Eco-mat in the West End. I'm glad I chose to celebrate my anti-procrastination by hanging out in a laundromat because if I hadn't, I probably never would have come across the Vanity Fair issue that had a one page write-up about the beautiful and spunky personal chef/caterer in Los Angeles named Nina Clemente. Nina Clemente, in ten words or less, is who I want to be when I grow up.
You can learn all about her on her website: www.ninaclemente.com, but I'll quickly explain why she's my new favorite food enthusiast. First of all, she's young, only 28 I think, and she works for herself doing something she loves. Inspiration numero uno. Numero dos? She's obsessed with farmer's markets and promotes the benefits of utilizing local produce and supporting local agriculture as much as she can. Numero tres? She doesn't use measuring spoons or cups when she cooks, which makes my heart soar, because I don't either and I was always afraid that was the wrong thing to do. But heck, I doubt Anthony Bourdain or Wolfgang Puck measure anything either...
Anyway, Nina sounds like a neat lady not only because she works for herself, which is my biggest goal in life, but because she had the courage to explore something that she knew meant a lot to her. Nina attended Brown University for Anthropology, but felt after graduating that that wasn't her true calling. After going to a farmer's market in LA with her Godmother Lauren Hutton, Nina didn't have to ponder her vocation any longer. She knew she loved food and always had! So she started cooking for friend's dinner parties and plating up some really fabulous grub. People quickly began clambering for her services and attention and the rest is history.
Check out her website and be sure to click on the video tab. You can watch her make two delicious meals for her friends. Nina has a smashing sense of humor, too, and she cooks everything super fast. Not frantically, but efficiently. And she's so darn purty!