New York City has always been a hive of creative talent, attracting folks from across the United States and the world. Linda Xiao is one such artist. The freelance photographer swapped her hometown of San Francisco for an apartment in Brooklyn, which she uses as a makeshift studio to capture enigmatic images of food. The results are chronicled on her beautiful blog, The Tart Tart. Xiao is a relative newcomer to the blogosphere (she launched The Tart Tart in 2012), but her moody aesthetic and rustic seasonal recipes have already garnered her a loyal following. New York locals can find her every Saturday at the city’s famed Union Square Greenmarket buying up produce and sourcing inspiration. For all of us in Australia, you can sample Xiao’s stylised fare right here.
“I often use the bounty of the season as a springboard for my recipes. Often, autumn feels a little bittersweet because summer's beautiful produce has come and gone. It's anticlimactic. At least that's what I tell myself until I visit the farmer's markets and I’m flooded by all the colours and flavours. They correspond with the increasingly crisp air, the crunch of the leaves and the slow retreat of life back into the ground. I breathe it all in, buy a cup of apple cider, then start planning what I want to make. These recipes are an ode to the tastes and textures of autumn.”
I started my blog…
“Because I've always loved to cook. I also wanted an outlet for my photography and writing, so a food blog was the perfect fit.”
The must-cook recipe on my website is…
I can’t wait to go back to…
“Montauk, New York (located at the very tip of Long Island) to eat the seafood bruschetta at Harvest on Fort Pond.”
My current food obsession is…
“Japanese comfort food: ramen, curry, donburi…”
Nugget of cooking wisdom…
“Write down your family recipes while there's still time!”
“When I go back home… to the Bay Area, California, the first thing I eat is an In-n-Out chocolate shake, picked up from the drive-through on the way home from the airport.”
Friends always ask me to bake…
The one thing I can’t make is…
“A cake that’s decently frosted. Mine always come out lumpy, uneven and homely looking.”
I always have…
“Soy sauce in my pantry, scallions in my fridge and frozen dumplings in my freezer.”
My most loved cookbook is...
“Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours by Kim Boyce.”
The most difficult food to shoot and make look tasty is…
“Poached eggs on toast.”
1. Yeasted apple cider doughnuts
2. Baked sweet potato fries
3. Rigatoni with butternut pumpkin, sage and pine nuts
4. Pumpkin ice-cream choc chip cookie sandwiches
Blog Appétit Editor Yasmin Newman
Yeasted apple cider doughnut stack Source: Linda Xiao
Source: Linda Xiao
