High Vibration Living with Chef Whitney Aronoff

The Cost of Creating Magic: Olivia Muniak on Luxury Events, Real Life, and Recovery

• Whitney Aronoff

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Olivia Muniak is the founder and creative director of Muniak Studio, where hospitality and creative direction meet with effortless ease. A self-taught chef raised in a New York restaurant family, Olivia coined the term “lazy fancy” to describe her signature style of entertaining: elevated, approachable, and rooted in connection.


What began as intimate backyard supper clubs in Los Angeles has grown into a creative studio trusted by culturally fluent brands and tastemakers alike. Inspired by Italian hospitality, Olivia’s world revolves around candle-lit tables, aperitivos, thoughtful details, and the belief that gathering around the table makes everyday life more meaningful.


Through her blog and Instagram, Olivia shares what she’s cooking, eating, and loving, alongside her favorite entertaining and kitchen essentials, all with the goal of making hosting feel beautiful, effortless, and fun.


In This Episode, Whitney Explores:

  • Olivia’s journey from hosting intimate backyard supper clubs to building Muniak Studio into a sought-after event design and catering business
  • Her favorite cookbooks, culinary inspirations, and how cooking became both a creative outlet and career path
  • Tips for creating memorable gatherings through atmosphere, thoughtful details, and intentional hospitality
  • The importance of sourcing quality ingredients, shopping at farmers markets, and navigating today’s food and wellness trends
  • Practical approaches to healthy eating, balance, and maintaining wellness while working in the food and events industry


Learn more about Olivia Muniak: https://oliviamuniak.com/


 Follow Olivia Muniak on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oliviamuniak?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D


Follow Olivia Muniak on Substack: https://lazyfancy.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=substack_profile


Stay Connected:

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/whitneyaronoff/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/starseedkitchen/

TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@whitneyaronoff

TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@starseedkitchen


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SPEAKER_02

Welcome to the High Vibration Living Podcast. I'm your host, Chef Whitney Aronoff, health supportive chef, founder of Starsea Kitchen, and creator of nourishing food rooted in real ingredients, intuition, and intention. This podcast is a space where food, wellness, spirituality, and everyday living meet. We explore how what you eat, how you live, and what you believe all shape your energy, health, and overall sense of well-being. You have a physical body, a mental body, an emotional body, and a spiritual body. And all need to be recognized and nourished so you can feel balanced and truly thrive. Only you know what your body truly needs. Let this be your reminder that you already have the wisdom to tune in to your food, your self-care, and your spiritual practices and choose what supports you best. Through personal insights and conversations with experts across food, wellness, and spirituality, we'll explore how to nourish the physical, emotional, spiritual, and energetic layers of who you are so you can feel your best and live with clarity, vitality, and purpose. Let's get started. Hi friends, welcome back to the High Vibration Living Podcast. Today I'm chatting with Olivia Mooniac. She is a self-taught chef and creative director, known for her lazy, fancy style, elevated but effortless, entertaining, rooted in connection and atmosphere. She started with intermittent separate clubs in her backyard and now produces beautiful high-end design forward food experiences for major brands from Maway Hennessy to Laura Piano to Nike. If you are on social media, you have seen the beautiful work that she does. And her core philosophy is really food is the vehicle, but the real magic is what happens around the table, the conversation, the memory, the connection, the full experience. You'll love getting to know Olivia in this conversation. I love chatting with people that are doing work that I admire and they're sharing the behind the scenes and how they're able to continue to show up and produce these incredible experiences. What are they really eating? How are they self-taking care of themselves after putting on these events? What is inspiring them? What are the things happening behind the scenes that we are unaware of? All those little things I just absolutely love learning. So I think you will too in this conversation with Olivia. If you haven't checked out her Substack, definitely take a look at that. She's always sharing her beautiful events on Instagram. Those are the two plus places to get to know her, follow her, enjoy the work that she does. But without further ado, here is my conversation with Olivia. Enjoy. Hi, Olivia. Welcome to the High Vibration Living Podcast.

SPEAKER_00

Hi, Whitney. Thank you so much for having me here.

SPEAKER_02

So it's a treat for me to get to chat with you because I consider you the entertainer extraordinaire. So you show us how to entertain in our backyard, at our neighbor's yard, at a special venue, beautifully and effortlessly. And so I'm hoping that myself and all the listeners today can learn a little bit from you so we can uplevel how we entertain and the experiences we have with food and friends for the summer season. Amazing.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I am very grateful to be here today. And I can share a bit about how I introduce myself because I think you know it's always interesting to hear people's like reflection of what you do versus what I do. So I have an event design and catering business based out of Los Angeles, but we do events mostly on both coasts in New York and LA. And then kind of seasonally we'll spread out from there, going up to Santa Barbara, Montecito, the Hamptons, and the summers. And I started my business very organically in my backyard, and it really was for the love of a dinner party. I started with a supper club, and I had been freelancing for Mo at Hennessy. So I was helping them produce events in the wine and champagne region of their portfolio. And so it was all of their luxury champagnes. And so, of course, anything within the LV Mage universe, each brand is so distinct. And I feel like I had a crash course in what is brand marketing through the lens of food and wine. And I was really inspired, having grown up in the restaurant business, to see a different way of working with food that wasn't just like on the floor at a restaurant, because I had tried that many times in my life. And it wasn't like it didn't make me sing and it didn't make me happy. I would feel exhausted and tired. And so the world of events just lit me up really when I discovered that. And so I started Supper Club, which now is this is my seventh year with my business. My company now is called Muniac Studio. And we specifically focus on brand activations. I'd like to get back to more personal and private events like you do. Um just because I like being in people's home and I like cooking and making beautiful food for people and the big events, like they're stressful, I love them, but um, you know, being able to do a small event is also like really creatively fulfilling.

SPEAKER_02

When you first started entertaining at home, the the early days as we were developing this business, were there cookbooks that you leaned on for inspiration and for menus, or did it just come naturally from you from just growing up cooking?

SPEAKER_00

There were there's definitely a few cookbooks that are, you know, dog-eared and like well-worn. The Jelena cookbook is a big, you know, that's that was a Bible for me. I actually worked at Jelena about like a year before I started Supper Club. And even though I was just working as a server on the floor, I worked the morning and afternoon shift. So when we were slow, I would just hang out in the kitchen and talk to the chefs and just ask how they were putting food because the food I was serving always smelled good and it seemed interesting to me. Um, and as a company, they are very passionate about education for their staff. You know, the menu has 88 items on it for lunch, and you had to know every ingredient because they don't allow any substitutions. So for guest allergies and things like that. Um, so you really got immersed in like you drank the Kool-Aid Angelina if you worked there. Um, and so that was a big imprint on my cooking. And I also love Athena Calderon's book, Cook Beautiful. Um, I just think she has some really great recipes that were just, I don't want to say like one pot, one dish, because that almost like always sounds like like a Midwest mom cooking, but they were really beautiful food that was really designed for like getting you to a beautiful table. Um, those recipes, I also like Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden. Um and my family, I grew up in the restaurant business in New York City, and I still love my family's cookbook. Oh, what's your family's cookbook? Um, so my family has a restaurant in New York City called Manja. Um, and that my parents started it in 1981, and um my dad still runs it today, and it's like 40, 1981, I can't do the math, but it's like 46 years that we've had this business. The book is just called Manja, and the book, the cookbook came out in the late 90s.

SPEAKER_02

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

And I like the cookbook, like I think the recipes need to be modernized, but I like the cookbook for like the approach and method of cooking. Um, and it's a cookbook that's really written for chefs, which is interesting. Like, I also think the Jolena cookbook is written for a chef, like it's not approachable as a home cook. And like 60s and Oz is also written. Like, most people won't go shop for like raw shelling beans and like slowly boil them and then reserve the stock for something else. Like, but when I read it, I'm like, oh, that's like Bible, you know. Um, so those are my favorite cookbooks, and I'm kind of a person who picks and chooses from cookbooks. Like, oh, that ingredient inspires me. What do I pair with this ingredient? Oh, but I want to cook it this way. Um, I also think Bon Appetit and New York Times cooking, like Melissa Clark, her recipes are amazing. Um, Allie Siegel, like those are also some just like, you know, if I don't know what to cook and I'm lacking inspiration, I'll just like go to the New York Times.

SPEAKER_02

You always have to have your places where you keep looking. Like for me, I always still look at Ina Garten, Martha Stewart for for like basics, and then I tweak the things in between, right? So if there's an ingredient I don't like, I make a substitution. Or if there's not enough green beans or celery or a veg, I add more to it. But having those cookbooks and those recipes and those places that you can turn for basic foundations, everyone, everyone needs that.

SPEAKER_00

Do you know what's a sleeper cookbook that I always forget to mention? The silver palette cookbook. It was like my mom's cookbook in the 90s. And my mom is the one who really taught me how to entertain. And she still to this day will go back. Like her, I don't, I think the book is out of print, like, and like there's pages falling out of it. But she's like, you know what? It's still the best recipes. Like I think during that time when recipes were written, there was a lot more like due diligence and testing done on the recipes versus like how I mean, even I can say that. Like people catch errors in my own recipes all the time.

SPEAKER_02

Like, thank you, editing. Oh, exactly. I have the same thing too. Um, I think the hardest thing is to write the recipe and then try to follow it to test it over and over again. Because so much of what cooks and chefs who cook regularly, they do it intuitively. We don't measure. Um, so having to force a recipe into measurement and then force yourself to cook that way over and over again is really hard to do.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, for sure. I my mom made a Romesco that was in my newsletter for Easter, and I tasted it and she's like, it's not right. And I was like, You have way too much garlic. She's like, I only put one more clove. But like she had made hers with the jarred roasted peppers versus I had made mine with fresh. And like, I know you can substitute it, but like you needed like double the amount of roasted peppers for it to balance like the flavors of the garlic, which was interesting. But yeah, y'all catch your own errors.

SPEAKER_02

All the little things make a difference on how the flavor turns out, and when you need one clove or two, if it's from fresh garlic, bag garlic, jarred garlic, it goes, it goes on and on. And um, it's one of those funny, funny things that you just don't know until you start cooking. For sure. Yeah. So, what was the turning point that allowed you to transition from your hobby of entertaining and using entertaining as a tool to meet more people in your community to you transitioning into a catering and event business? Because I think there's a lot of women that are thinking, how do I make my hobby my job? Or how do I turn what I love to do into my life?

SPEAKER_00

I'm gonna say one thing before I tell you how I did it. Um, because and I don't want to say like it's a cautionary tale, but it is a lot of people who are inspired by what I do and want to create something and build something and turning something that is a hobby and a creative outlet into work. Um, I had a big reset for myself because I turned the one thing that was this always this safe space and this creative outlet, um, which was cooking and entertaining. And but I really, I really quickly, and I'll explain it after, my period from it being like a little bit of a hobby, I like to entertain, like sure I did that before I moved to LA, but it wasn't, I like slingshot forward, and I'll go into that story. So I quickly lost something that was really like lighting me up because it turned into work. It was really long days. You know, I lost like 10 to 15 pounds my first like real summer where I was just booked solid because I just like never had time to eat, even though I was cooking food all the time. And like I was just like living off of like those, you know, those almond power bars. And it took me a few years to find out like what I had to replace things that were restorative for myself. And so when people say like they want to turn their passion into their career because they want to love what they do every day, at the end of the day, it's still gonna be work. And you're go and you just have to weigh up what's more important. Is it having a job that's sustainable? Like having your job rest on your career or your creative ability is creates a lot of pressure on your ability to create. We can talk about that more. So I just say that as like a I always say that when people ask how I did it, um, because I wish somebody had said that to me as a point of consideration.

SPEAKER_02

A quick pause to share something I truly use and love. I'm Chef Whitney Aronaff. And as a personal chef, I began sharing my Starseed Kitchen organic spice blends with private clients when I couldn't find high-quality seasonings that met my standards for their meal prep. My clients are people who care deeply about what goes into their food and how it makes them feel, just like you. Every Starseed Kitchen blend is made with the highest quality organic spices with no added sugar, no MSG, no anti-caking agents, and no fillers. Just clean, real ingredients that support your body and elevate your cooking. Two of my most loved blends are 11 Magic Herb and Spices, a go-to everyday seasoning that works on just about everything, and Starseed Kitchen Adobo, a light, bright, anti-inflammatory blend designed for modern, health-supportive cooking. Every jar is prepared with intention, charged with kundalini mantras, quartzgiza crystals, and blessed by a shaman. Because spices and the food you prepare with them are not just nourishment, they're a transfer of energy. You can find Starseed Kitchen Spices at all Erawan locations or online at starseedkitchen.com. Use code Starseed for 10% off your online order. Now let's get back to the conversation.

SPEAKER_00

How I built my business and where it became just a cooking, like it would just from Supper Club um into a full-scale catering and event design business. It actually happened in COVID. So I had started Supper Club and I was freelancing for Mo at Hennessy in 2018 and 2019. I had only done like under 10 Supper Clubs before the pandemic hit. Um and thankfully I was had a full-time job with a company called SeedLip, and I was really working with their restaurant partners doing education. Um, and it was kind of adjacent to the work that I was doing at Moat Hennessy because I really wanted to go in-house at Moat Hennessy. Um, and you had to have a lot of sales experience with like restaurants. So that was how I was still entertaining my work with Moat Hennessy and freelancing and being able to produce these beautiful events for them. And they arranged in size. And I started Supper Club, and Supper Club was a month, I was trying to do it monthly, but it was really like every six weeks. 30 people for dinner in my backyard. I sold tickets via Instagram, and then the pandemic hit. Like right before the pandemic hit, I had been contacted by a friend of mine who worked at a skincare brand. She was like, we want to buy out half the seats for our skincare product, and we want to have the product place. I thought this was cool, like this was interesting, and then the pandemic hit, that event never happened. And I really spent all of that first eight months of the pandemic cooking on my Instagram. It went from like 5,000 followers to like 30,000 followers. And um, during that time, I really talked about what it meant to gather and what it meant to like cook with people. And I think those early days of the pandemic, everybody was so missing getting together for dinner with friends, and restaurants couldn't do it, and like you couldn't dine inside at restaurants. And if you could go to them, the vibe, there was like no beauty, no, like it was like plastic silverware. And so I would host these really intimate dinner parties at my house, and I spent a lot of time cooking for myself, and I think that grabbed a lot of awareness. And in a time where brands couldn't activate in real life in a in a large-scale way with their communities, I got contacted by them to do smaller events. So I had a series of events in summer 2021 that were impactful. And then right in the fall of 2021, Mo and Hennessy came back to me and they asked me to produce one of the biggest events I'd ever done for them. Um, Folk Clico Polo, which is at the Will Rogers um park in uh on the Palisades. They wanted me to produce the VIP reception that would be before it. And they had had like another event producer that I was supposed to serve under. And my contact, Julia, who's still a dear friend, she called me, she's like, I don't feel confident in their ability. Can you take this on full fully? At the same time, they they ended up bringing another woman in, Chloe Bracca. And she's still to this day a good friend of mine. But we um co-produced that event together, we designed it. I learned a lot from her. She's kind of a mentor to me, and that was a big turning point event for me. Um and right around that time of that summer of events, so really two years after I started Supper Club from the first Supper Club, um, it was clear to me that it was more commercially reasonable to call the events I was doing catering. I don't like the word, we can talk about that more. I really hate the term. And um and I saw a gap in being able to provide full event and design services with catering because any event planner who doesn't really understand catering is at a disservice to themselves because most every event has a very large food component and a very large service component. And the two of them together are like the alchemy of a great event. Of course, absolutely. So that was a very long-winded answer, but it was really that summer 2021 that were things just um and it was just because I was getting the phone calls and I thought this was a great way to package what I was doing.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, well, it you know, some would say it's also divine timing, right? So you can for sure it was. Right? You know, so even if this was like your dream and your plan, and you had organized all your paperwork and were building towards that, um, you can still keep struggling in the weeds for months and years until that one deal comes in that sets you on the map or helps you keep going. Um, you know, you can only send so many emails, make so many calls, network in so many ways. Sometimes it's really is just divine timing and it's your time to take off. It is.

SPEAKER_00

And like, you know, I don't want to say that I got lucky because I've worked really hard. And so I like I think you get opportunities that fall in front of your feet that fall at your doorstep, and how you react and respond and perform during them is what is like that's what sets you apart, like that's what makes you successful or not. Um, and when I started Supper Club, there was a like a tiny little part of me that knew that I was like, this is never gonna be just a dinner party. Like I know that this will help showcase what I can do. And now it's grown, and it's like once the goalpost moves, it's a hard thing to realize. Like, I had a a childhood friend of mine saying to me, She's like, the Olivia from like 10 years ago would have never believed that you're here. And like just take a moment, you know, and like appreciate that. So I appreciate you know, it's great to have those friends who've known you for so long that make you like pause.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. It's always supportive to sit back and reflect to make sure that you're also like enjoying the journey, you know? Yeah. Just executing, which is so easy to get stuck into once you get into this business and the system of rinse and repeat, but everything that you create is also completely unique. So has there been an event that you've put together in this past year where you've thought, wow, I'm I'm really exceptionally proud of this one? This this took extra effort, but but look how incredible.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, there definitely have been. Um I was I cried when I got um, you know, something that when you start to play in these with these bigger brands and clients, you have to do something called an RFP, which is a request for proposal. And you basically have to completely design the event and take on the cost of graphic design and what your fabrication's gonna look like and to pitch for the project, but their um procurement process is that they have to get a minimum, most companies have to get a minimum of three different agencies pitching. And I'm not a big creative agency, like I'm I run a small creative studio. Um, but we did the Laura Piana Hamptons event last year, and that was you know, I knew who I was up against. Like I'm actually good friends with one of them. Um, and I admire his work so much in New York, and he does incredible, and he's like one of my brother's old friends. And I like just cried in a taxi in New York City when I got the email that said that I had gotten it, and you know, it was one of the most insane production days. We were like fighting rain, but we didn't want to move the event inside. Like fabrication was taking so much longer to build it out, and like at the end, it was so beautiful, and it was like it was a great one. And then um there's an interior, I don't want to call him an interior designer because he's so much more than that. Um, a gentleman named Ulysses DeSante. He had a he sources vintage furniture, mostly all Brazilian furniture because he's Brazilian from the mid-century. And then we'll also work with some. I like I can't say that it's furniture because it's really like their art pieces. And he had an installation at Christie's in this fall, and it was one of my favorite tables we'd ever done. Like, and the photography um just like we have the urban like LA skyline with this beautiful white table. You know, we sourced these um replicas of these mid-century chairs, and then we had this like chestnut-colored gonori 1975, not 1725 um plates on there and like brown little lamps, and then we had these like gorgeous tropical um fruits and plants, like there was like banana leaves, like they were like the table was like growing. It's just like one of my favorite events. Like it looks so beautiful, and I was so proud of it.

SPEAKER_02

When you walk away from events, when you're the guest, what is the number one thing that makes you remember the event? Is it the florals? Is it the furniture? Is it the music? Is it the guest list? Is it the food? What do you find ends up being like the your biggest? Oh my gosh, like that's why this event was my favorite.

SPEAKER_00

So are you saying for events mice that I design or events that I go to?

SPEAKER_02

What events that you go to, like when you're the guest, what do you realize is your number one takeaway, your number one thing that made it a special experience when you walk away?

SPEAKER_00

Or is it for me it's the like if it's a really great event, it just felt like a really great event. Like I enjoyed the conversation and the people and the kind of harmony of food environment and mixed with the people is what like if I'm like you know, when my boyfriend and I go out on a date and he's the one who like sources all the restaurants and finds like he's a great planner. Um, and so when he nails it with a restaurant, it's like for me, it's the atmosphere with the good food and our conversation, we're just having fun and laughing. So, like if I think about what are the best nights that I've been to, like I always think of my friend's 30th birthday in Mallorca. She did a white party, and I can't believe we're about to we're about to do her 40th, and mine's right after. Like, so we're about to repeat this party. But you know, it was like very European, like it was fun conversation. We were drinking Negronis, there were cigarettes and cups on the table, everything was just simple, white. Like I helped her mom do the flowers that day. You know, I can't say that it was the best food or the best versions of a cocktail, but it was all of the pieces together with the people and the conversation and who I was with that made it a great night. So though for me, it's like when all of the parts are singing in harmony, that's like what I remember.

SPEAKER_02

Have you ever walked into an event where you could feel like the vibe was off, where something was off? Is and then do you try to do something to uplift it or change it or shift it, or do you just like let it go?

SPEAKER_00

I think that depends on how much agency I have within that experience.

SPEAKER_01

Like if it's dinner with me and my girlfriends, for sure, like I have a girlfriend who's like not the right vibe, and she's just like quickly wraps it up, like, okay, we ordered a drink, but we're not gonna even finish in here.

SPEAKER_00

Um but for you know, I would say for other brand events that I go to, if the vibe is off, or if it's just not like I think the one of the most important things is like having the proper information on an invite to clearly like set yourself up so you set someone's expectations about what they're going for. Will there be food? Will it just be light bites? Is there valet? Like, you know, all of those things contribute to like the energy in which you like walk in the front door, and that dictates a lot of your experience. Um so I think properly and elegantly informing guests about what their invite is, but I don't think there's anything that I have power over that would change someone else's event.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, what do you think should be on an invitation more often than not? That's that can help set a good vibe or a good experience for the guest and the host.

SPEAKER_00

I think you need to know what's available food-wise. So is it a seated dinner? Is it past appetizers? You know, if you say light bites, like that can mean anything from food passed on trays to like a gr a beautiful grazing station. So like that's that's communicative enough for me. Cocktails, wine, like I don't think you have to get too descriptive, like you know, asking for, you know, there's of course there's gonna be a drink there. A tire, parking information, if you're outdoors. If you're if you know, if you're planning to be like that dictates shoe choice, bringing a second layer, wind for your hair, like all those things. I think that's like impact a woman's experience.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely, especially the wind and the hair. Um, I had a caterer party on the beach once in Newport. Oh my god. And it was all wind. And I just personally inside I was saying I'm never doing this again. Like I wouldn't want to be the guest right now. And you know, it's breaking my heart having prepared all this food, and no one's really gonna get to enjoy it. Um, because the ambiance, though beautiful, um is is is is attacking you.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, wind is deafening. Like if you're in a little windy space, it can be deafening. But I'm also I find myself to be extremely sensitive to my atmosphere and like environments.

SPEAKER_02

Me too. I actually like wind is the only weather condition that I actually despise. Like I'd rather, I'd rather be in an extremely foggy, you know, event. Uh, you know, I can handle you know moisture in the air, really anything but wind. Um but you know, you wouldn't be a chef and you wouldn't be an event planner, you wouldn't be a caterer, you wouldn't be in the service industry if you haven't experienced every element.

SPEAKER_00

I haven't done one in the snow yet. And like I've done some personal parties, but I'm really, if there's any brands listening who own a ski company, like I am dying to bring um Me too. Um like I want to do a dinner in the in the snow. I want to build a snow table.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's my dream. Literally, I posted on social media multiple times this winter. I was like, if anybody needs a chef in the mountains, please, like I really want to serve on uh, you know, an ice snow impacted table. Um, and everyone with their cashmere, you know, blankets around them are all bundled up in their cute little, you know, puffy jackets and vests. I think that looks like so much fun to me.

SPEAKER_00

Um to go back to what you say about like how you restore the mountains, are my big restore. And so like maybe I just I've I love to ski, and like maybe that's the reason why I've never had my it's like my angels watching out for me to make sure that I'm like I get my time to restore in the mountains.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I was gonna ask you, how do you choose to physically recover from your events? Um, I'm sure you've figured out a variety of tools at this point. Um, so what do you do? What do you have at home after an event, or what do you seek out the following days after events so you can physically feel better emotionally, mentally, because it takes a minute. Yeah. I want to take a moment to share how Team Starseed Kitchen can support you beyond the podcast. I'm Chef Whitney Aronoff, founder of Team Starseed Kitchen, my personal chef and custom meal prep service. This is for people who want to eat well, feel better, and be supportive of nourishing food without the stress of planning, shopping, or cooking. Through Team Starseed Kitchen, I work with a trusted team of health-supportive chefs who prepare fully customized meals based on your needs, preferences, and lifestyle. Whether you're focused on clean eating, hormone balance, digestion, energy, or simply having high-quality food ready for your week, we meet you where you are. All meals are made with real whole ingredients. No seed oils, no refined sugar, and no shortcuts. Just thoughtfully prepared food designed to support your body and make your life easier. This service is deeply personal. It's about having food in your fridge that you can trust. Food that supports your health, saves you time, and helps you feel grounded and cared for. If you're ready for consistent nourishing meals made just for you, you can learn more about our service and apply to work with us on starseedkitchen.com or follow the link in the show notes. We have chefs ready and available across the country, and we so look forward to nourishing you. Now let's return to the episode.

SPEAKER_00

I think there's like this month we have nine events.

unknown

Amazing.

SPEAKER_00

So I just know like I'm head down working, I'm not gonna get all the workouts in. It's not gonna be a thing. In the immediate at home, I have something, I even have it here. It's called a paracetter. It's like this long foam core, and it has a space for your spine, but it basically hits your spine on all of like your parasympathetic nervous system. And so you lay down on it and you like if you spend a lot of time on it regularly, like your spine goes fully flat on it and it really calms your nerves. Um, so I lay on that when I come home. Um, I can never unwind from an event immediately, like it's just I think an event thing, like the adrenaline's still really pumping. So I'll take a hot bath. I watch TV, not like anything special. Um magnesium salts, I really, and then if I have an opportunity the following day, if I'm not like right back into it, um I like I love a lymphatic massage to like flush the system, um, infrared sauna. Um and if I have an opportunity to like get away a little more, for me, that's horseback riding. Um, so I ride horses three times a week. I have the same horse that I ride. And um that is like my big, you know, that's like what's personally fulfilling for me outside work, but I had to find that. Um and I ski. I love to ski. Um and so those are like, but skiing in horses are a little bit, you know, that's I horseback ride like it's 15 minutes from my house, but getting on a ski trip, but I do get to have that escape regularly. Um and I'm very into being like physically fit, like I just need it. Um and I think as I get older, you know, I like lift more weights. I I like to be active and that exercise, but also there's just nothing replaces rest. It's just like being on your feet and vegging out and like knitting at home.

SPEAKER_02

Have you found that there are certain foods that you like to make sure that you have at home for the days after your event? Because I'm sure it's really easy to get burnt out on cooking or having to prepare a meal from scratch when you've worked so many days in a row. Is there anything that you like to make sure that's in your fridge or on your counter?

SPEAKER_00

Sure. Um, the funny thing is I don't really eat event food. Like I don't eat my food at events, I can't eat it. It doesn't taste good to me. Like, you know, my chefs will be like handing me bites to eat and I'll like approve it, but the food doesn't taste good to me. I don't enjoy it. Like sometimes my clients will have me sit like I'm in like an Oscar's seat filler, and it doesn't taste good. So what I like to have at home is very different from, you know, like we don't want food to go to waste soon as I take it home. I'm like, why did I take this? I don't want to eat it. Um, and it's such good, beautiful food, but yeah, I don't know, it has like a different energy for it. Um, but for me, it's just like masculine greens. I've really lately been into black lentils. So I make like a big pot of black lentils and I put um bay leaf and like a whole dried chili and garlic. And the bay leaf is like I've never, it's so rare that you can taste the subtlety of what a bay leaf does, but when you cook it that way, you really can. And it's delicious. Um, and a little bit of butter, um, whole like just short grain brown rice, like really simple. Um piece of fish, soft boiled eggs, like things like that. I I'm like I I'm my mother's daughter. I grew up like very healthy.

SPEAKER_02

I've been really into the gigantic beans. Um, big white ones. Yes, and I can only eat beans cooked from scratch. I'm really grossed out by canned beans. Um just well, and it's beans are so health supportive if it's done right, um, and it has to be cooked with a bay leaf. So I've been really into making like a big pot of like Greek-style gigantic beans marinated in olive oil and red wine vinegar and red onion and bell pepper and Greek olives. And then I'll make sure I have some really good feta of a variety of things. You know, and then it's just like no matter what, there's something for lunch. Um, and then I'll add some sort of protein on top. And oh, I've been loving it. And I've been really craving the black lentils too. I think the beluga lentils with a piece of fish is one of the most underrated meals. Yet when you go out to eat, like that's the dish you see across the room at a restaurant, and you're like, I need that. But it's really something that's completely approachable to prepare at home.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, for sure. Um I always overcook the gigantic beans.

SPEAKER_02

So well, they're challenging because they actually take about two hours to cook, and you always think it's gonna be an hour like every other bean. Um, so it it does, there's there's a lot of wiggle room. If if you guys were to Google how long to cook gigantic beans for, it gives you a two to four hour window. So you like you never know.

SPEAKER_00

You actually have to watch it. There are a few things that I always laugh at myself that I'm like, how can you call yourself a chef if you like still fudge this all the time?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, I know. But I think I think that happens to everyone because cooking is really there's so many variables, right? It's not like doing math. Uh there's the different pots and pans, there's the different temperature of the room, the temperature of the food itself, your attitude, how you're approaching the dish that day, right? Like we all can know how to scramble eggs, but how we show up that day and how much we're in a hurry or not is gonna change whether or not the scrambled eggs is gonna turn out today.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, for sure. Like also how many things also when you're out of practice a little bit, like I've been cooking a lot recently, and I feel much more confident than I felt like a year ago when I was just in living in New York and barely cooking, and I wasn't, I was like back in New York because events had because of the fires in LA had completely stopped. And um, and so like you just get out of practice, like you get out of the flow. So, like cooking is a muscle, and like the muscle memory is I think something that's important. I always try and people like, how do I get better at cooking? I'm like, do it more.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, absolutely. Is there a busy season in the brand event world? For sure.

SPEAKER_00

It is much to my dismay that it is very cyclical. Q1, there's no such, there's like very few events unless you are tapped in with some big beauty brands. Um, because like January, the first and second week of January are big beauty launch months, and we are doing a lot more beauty events now. So thankfully I'll I will have some of that work. But really, January and February and like middle of March are pretty slow for me. Um and then now through November, December, we'll be busy, and like there'll be little dips. Um, like the beginning of June is a little dip because school's out and people are concerned about getting guests to events because everyone knows like there's just this summer transition, and the same thing goes for Labor Day weekend, like getting everyone back in families when you know, like that's how the guest lists are. Um, and then brand events really stop December 10th, 12th. Um, so I'm not really busy over the holidays, which I'm totally okay with. I really like it's much more expensive to produce events closer to Christmas and New Year's. And um the like staff is just triple on those days. Yeah. So if you know, it's like people think of like, are you crazy, Olivia, with this? And I'm like, you want to do it on New Year's. Like, I'm like, it's it's expensive, like I'm like, you're asking an entire group of people to work to sacrifice like the biggest holiday of the year.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, absolutely. And it's funny that you always have to remind clients of that, but that's absolutely true.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and I think you you get it, like you are bringing the restaurant to them. Like it's more affordable to be at a restaurant. Like, if you know, it is more accessible to just cater food from a restaurant. But if you want to have somebody like a truly bespoke evening, you pay for it and like having somebody come in and create like create it exactly as you want it, with and you get to make every a choice for everything.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Martha Stewart said that just a few months ago on Molly Sims podcast that when she was in the catering industry, you know, she is building a restaurant every night. She is fully bringing it over in her car, building it, executing it, breaking it down, putting it back in the car, driving home, unloading. Um, and when she when she explained it, like you could actually hear the exhaust, the exhaustion that she had from doing that business. Um, and the frustration of people not understanding the weight of what she was creating for other people so they could entertain their clients and their guests. For sure. I still every time I hear someone bring it up, I'm like, thank God, someone that gets it and someone that's communicating it. So just so potential clients and hosts can just better understand why things are priced the way they are. No one's doing it to take advantage of you. They're doing it because that's the cost of the work. It's just a lot of work.

SPEAKER_00

It's it's very labor intensive. I catered a dinner party for a friend at her home, and we did it for another friend's birthday, and like you. No, I didn't charge them like any, like she was like, I can only have this. Like, and I'm like, sure, it's fine, whatever. And I was unloading boxes.

SPEAKER_01

And instead of offering to help me at the boxes, she goes, Your job involves a lot of manual labor. And I was like, I was like, Yes. Would you want to grab a box? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um the best clients are the ones who get it.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, for sure. Um, but I love like I don't want to, you know, I wouldn't be able to do this without the clients in the business and like the ones who trust me. Um, I said this to my coordinator today. I was like, we just did a series of events for um for a friend and who's you know CMO at a company and she's hired us for three events this year. And she's so lovely to work for and work with and collaborate, and she's so kind, and that makes it all when you have clients that are just so kind and understand. And even like if a client's asking for something big, if they can just preface it, like hey, hey, I know this is a big ask, and like I know we've been throwing a lot of curveballs, like just the acknowledgement of that completely shifts our energy in like a service-based business and in like in you know, where and also I wish always people give us more time. Like we could do so much more with a little more time.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and it is nice when just people can preface it because it just reminds you as the person that's trying to execute at the highest level that we're we're still on the same team. Yeah. And and you understand that we're trying to pull it all together for you. And and you know, uh, I think that's just like the little reminder sometimes that we need is that, you know, we're still all working together. Exactly. Well, let me ask you just a few rapid-fire questions as we wrap up. Um, some of them are about food and health and just things that you personally enjoy in your life. Um, what is one of your favorite superfoods? I don't know if I like, is coffee a superfood? It can be.

SPEAKER_01

I'm like, I definitely have an answer for that one, but it caught me off guard too much.

SPEAKER_02

Today it's it's coffee. What's one of the most underrated food people should be eating for their health or for entertaining?

SPEAKER_00

I'm gonna go with red bell peppers. They're super high, they're higher than oranges in vitamin C. They taste, they're one of my favorite raw vegetables to munch on. Like you can make beautiful Romesco. They are great in an aioli and so like they're great in sauces, they're great as like a sauteed side. Like beautiful. I'm I'm gonna that's that's a random pick, but it is my mom would say that's not random. It was my favorite vegetable to eat as a child.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and it there's endless colors, and so but I do think the red ones are the best. Flavor-wise, absolutely. Um, I kind of like the yellow ones a lot too. Um food everyone should avoid.

SPEAKER_00

I will just give this as a blanket statement on proteins, processed proteins, whether it's farm fish that has so much microplastics in it, meat, you don't know where it came from. Um, I met someone recently who just said she like she grew up in a farm in Austria, and she's like, I eat red meat, but only if it comes from my family's farm. Like, if in like in a few places, I've gotten really much stricter about even the salmon that I eat. And so I'm just gonna the blanket statement is where you're sourcing for any protein because now everyone's protein obsessed.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, absolutely. I have an extra freezer in my garage, and um, I've spent the past year ordering most meats direct. Um just because it's kind of it's kind of where we're at at the moment.

SPEAKER_00

For sure. I love to shop at the farmer's market, all of the small like farmers and their meat, like it's night and day taste-wise.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think you guys have more options in LA. Down here in Orange County, if you go to the farmer's market, when it comes to meat, there's usually only one stand. Um, so we're a little more limited.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So I I do think that there's a lot of you know, D2C companies that have really great farm raised meats. Small farms.

SPEAKER_02

There's a distinction there. Right. Farm raised meats. I gotcha. I gotcha. Organic regenerative farmed, you know, 100% pasture raised, yes, grass-fed, grass finished. I gotcha. Um, what is one of the um best health habits you've added to your life this past year?

SPEAKER_00

It's a good question. I'm gonna say just prioritizing sleep. Sleep is just the number one thing that we need. Like, I, you know, I knew it was a busy month, don't have a lot of social plans, I'm working hard. Like Saturday night I slept 12 hours. Last night I slept nine hours. Like, you just need it at this age, and like I'm turning 40 this year to protect my hormones. You know, if I'm lifting weights, you need to sleep for your bodies to build muscle. Like, sleep.

SPEAKER_02

What's a food trend that you're loving right now? I'm like, like we name five and I'll pick one. We'll come back to that. Maybe the next question will make you think about some things that you guys um have been eyeing. What's a food trend that you would pass on?

SPEAKER_00

I think there's like a balance between eating whole protein. Like, protein is like such a thing that's being quite literally shoved down our throats. And I don't subscribe to like protein water, like this packet is gonna break that. Like, you know, I was like, there's just no way your body can process it. That's like that's good on your liver, given how much else like our liver's detoxing us through. So if you want to incorporate more protein into your life, it's going to be through eating whole foods. And if you can't hit your 120 grams and like you only hit 100 because you ate whole vegetables, like I just have to think that's healthier than like meeting the 120 because you add this like packet of protein water.

SPEAKER_02

I completely agree. And that's one of the trends I saw at Expo West, you know, a few months ago was all these electrolyte packets having powdered protein or powdered fiber. Um, and not everything needs to be added to our water.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. You know, my mom raised us macrobiotic and like all on homeopathic medicine. And so, like, we were the weird household that like ate avocado toast and like drank green juice and carrot juice for breakfast. And now those things are all commonplace. Um, so I think I was raised with a real sensibility for it. And my mom, like, it's the same thing when if I can't have great homemade raw almond milk, like drinking the oat milk's really not healthier. Like, just drink the cow's milk, it's fine, like unless you have an allergy. Um, because all of the stuff in stores has like oils and gums in it and stuff like that for it to froth nicely.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, the other day I saw someone promoting um sugar-free maple syrup, and I'm like, we're back to this, guys. Like, just eat the maple syrup and enjoy, enjoy all the nutrients and minerals and maple syrup. Like, there's no such thing as sugar-free maple syrup. It's like saying sugar-free honey. It's just like, you know, just eat eat what nature gifted us and stop when it's too much, you know. Don't eat it if you don't like it. Like, just when is when are the substitutions gonna stop?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, I really like I think everything in moderation, even moderation. So, like, I just can't believe that anything that's chemical is going to be better for me. And like, just eat it and enjoy it.

SPEAKER_02

Have you enjoyed from a from an entertaining perspective, the way people have been displaying butter and using butter as um tablescapes and entertainment? Um, I've personally really enjoyed it, especially as someone who loves the Weston A. Price Foundation and the work that they do to see butter um back on the table. So I was curious from from the events that you do, how you feel about butter's moment.

SPEAKER_00

Well, if you ask anybody who sits with me while eating good bread and butter, that like the bread is just purely a vehicle for the butter. Um, I we have done, um, oh my gosh, sorry, I'm getting my phone is getting blown up for my event tomorrow. Um we have done like big butter towers at events. We did a goop event where we had like a two and a half foot tall like butter tower that had a chive like G for goop on it. It's one of my favorite, like we did, it was like their Christmas party, and we had Christmas trees around the butter. Um, so I really do love it, and we've done a lot of butter installations. Like I've done an entire bread table where we did it in the Hamptons, and the lovely team um at Alimentari out in the Hamptons, they baked um a hundred different custom loaves of bread for us, and we like shoved candles in them. Like, yeah, so I'm I'm very into a like large food display.

SPEAKER_02

I love that. That's so beautiful. And last question as we wrap up. Um, if for someone listening and they want to improve their health through food, what's one change or suggestion that they can consider adding into their life?

SPEAKER_00

I think going through your kitchen, pantry, and shopping habits and going for all of the big things that we know are, or maybe we don't know, seed oils, processed foods, and really start with like spend time at the farmers markets to like A, it's just like nice to interact with somebody who's growing your food. There's so farmers are so passionate and so excited about like the produce that they brought, like it brings me so much joy to talk to them. Um and even again, like talk to your butcher, even the your butcher at Whole Foods. He like these guys are getting excited about the meat and like how they cook it. And so I think it's important to interact with people that are responsible for getting food to grocery stores or for getting food to like you know, they're the in-between from how the food is grown to getting it to your house. Talk to them and see how they like to produce it, and then getting healthier at home, like there's so many great healthy snacks now, too. If like you're a snacker, but also just like trying to eliminate all of the unhealthy snacks and milks and everything, like just get simple um with it, and you I think most people will be surprised. Like, I write my recipes very simply because I'm like, I just cook seasonally and you don't need much, and that's what you learn when you travel internationally and you talk to you know, these little Greek old ladies and the Italian nonas, like they don't do a lot to the food, it's just pretty simple and good. It's just olive oil, salt, a little heat, a little acid, and like that's what makes the cooking good. So I think if you want to get healthier, stop with all the store-bought sauces and drinks and you know, keep it simple.

SPEAKER_02

I have to ask you one last question. What's your favorite farmer's market? I have two.

SPEAKER_00

My yeah, the Santa Monica farmers market is one of the best in the world in terms of, and I learned that when I worked with Jolina, like in terms of the growing season and variety of produce, it will stand up to farmers markets that I've seen in Greece and in Italy, because I think we have in California from all the creative chefs that are in LA, and I haven't been to a lot of farmers markets in San Francisco, um, but I'm sure they're amazing. It's the chefs are asking these farmers to grow really interesting ingredients. And because of our climate, and we have almost like a year-round growing season here. Um, and there are a few special things that you won't be able to find, but largely they can grow a lot. And there's a lot of um regenerative farms that are and like grain place, like grain farms, like the Hatchabee Green Project, they're all trying to cultivate kind of forgotten grains and ingredients and produce. Um, so I think Santa Monica Farmer's Market does a great job. I also love the Hollywood Farmer's Market, that's where Nancy Silverton shops. Um even talk about Nancy Silverton cookbooks. Like Nancy Silverton's amazing. Um, but the Wednesday farmer's market in Santa Monica is like the chef's farmer's market in LA. Like you see all the chefs. I saw so many friends this morning. And then the Sunday Hollywood, like that's Nancy Silver. Like, if you watch her chefs table, you see her like at the back of the trucks unloading, getting her produce.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. Going first thing in the morning is always a treat. And then going right before closing is always a treat. It's almost like you're timing. What's your favorite time to show up at the farmer's market?

SPEAKER_00

I never get it together to be like really that early because it's an hour in the morning. It's an hour drive for me to get to Santa Monica. And Sunday mornings, man, Sunday morning. Like, I need are there are there no things left sacred? Like when you work so much, like all of my time, like I work all the time. You know, I'm always accessible. Like, so I try and have like a little bit of a lazy Sunday morning, but I would like to get there early word. I'm just not there. I gotcha.

SPEAKER_02

Well, Olivia, where can people continue to learn from you, get your recipes, follow you, see what you're creating?

SPEAKER_00

Um, I would love and appreciate a follow not only on Instagram, but also on Substack. Um, I've been putting a lot of effort into a Substack. I've actually made my platform free for the rest of this year. So all of my recipes are unlocked. They were previously under a paywall. Um, so I have a Substack called Lazy Fancy. Um, and LazyFancy is my approach to hosting. It's how I cook. Um, and if you follow me on LazyFancy, you'll get a full description of what that term means. But it's something I've used to describe my ethos and my method around cooking for a long time. Um, so that's where you can follow me. And um, yeah, Instagram and Substack, that's where I put my extra energy.

SPEAKER_02

Perfect. And those two places is plenty. You know, we all understand how much energy it takes to do one thing. Um, so to be able to support and share, you know, all your knowledge and information creativity in those two places is wonderful.

SPEAKER_00

Well, thank you so much, Whitney, for having me here. I feel like we can have to have another offline chat to get to hear your side.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, any anytime. And hopefully you'll make it down to Orange County and I can meet up with you at um at the Ecology Center because it's a great place when I'm burnt out. That's where I go to refill my cup, um, to be in nature and to get inspiration again. So if you're ever burnt out and you're going down to visit your friends in San Diego, just stop there and it'll support.

SPEAKER_00

Will do. Well, thank you so much. I'm really grateful to have this conversation with you and um appreciate the support.

SPEAKER_02

Me too, and good luck on your spring and summer season. Thank you. Talk to you soon. Bye. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the High Vibration Living Podcast. If you enjoyed today's conversation, I'd love for you to leave a five-star rating and a written review wherever you're listening. It truly helps this podcast reach more people who are looking for this kind of support. And if something resonated with you, please pay it forward and share this episode with a friend or loved one who could benefit from it. To learn more about Starseed Kitchen and my organic spice blends, you can visit starseedkitchen.com. You can also follow along with me on social media at Whitney Arranov, where I share recipes, behind the scenes, chef life, and everyday inspiration. You can also follow Starseed Kitchen and Team Starseed Kitchen on Instagram as well. Thanks again for being here, wishing you nourishment, balance, and a vibrant life experience. I'll see you in the next episode. Cheers.