Every great meal begins with the same questions that drive great products: Who is it for? How should it make them feel? What details matter? How do you create something memorable?
Long before I was designing brands and products, I was learning another kind of design. As a design intern with Panasonic in Japan, I quickly discovered that if I wanted to eat, I’d better learn how to use chopsticks. Hunger turned out to be a pretty effective teacher.
That experience sparked a lifelong appreciation for Japanese culture, craftsmanship, and the rituals that surround food. What began with one pair has grown into a collection of more than 500 pairs, gathered from travels, gifts, and memorable meals around the world.
Helping shape a fresh, savory snack bar designed to blur the line between nutrition and convenience — often described as “the salad bar you can carry in your pocket.” Branding, product development, storytelling, and food innovation rolled into one delicious challenge.
An idea still waiting to happen: a small self-serve freezer at the edge of our Ojai property, stocked with handcrafted seasonal sorbets — blood orange, Meyer lemon, strawberry, peach, fig, persimmon. Simple ingredients, small batches, an honor system.
What started as a backyard pizza project has become an ongoing exploration of fermentation, dough science, branding, handmade serving boards, and creating memorable evenings with friends.
More than 500 pairs and counting — 50 on display. Collected over decades from travels around the world, each pair reflects a different culture, material, style, or memory.
Endlessly fascinated by well-designed kitchen tools: a knife that feels perfectly balanced, a clever citrus juicer, a brilliantly engineered peeler, a beautifully machined pepper mill. The best tools don’t ask for attention — they quietly make every meal better.
Food has a remarkable way of bringing people together. Some of my favorite conversations have happened over homemade pizza, around a backyard table, or while introducing friends to something they’ve never tasted before. It’s about generosity — about creating moments people remember long after the plates have been cleared.