Ali Larter Knows Her Way Around a Kitchen. No, Really
Every week, we’re spotlighting a different food blogger who’s shaking up the blogosphere with tempting recipes and knockout photography. Today, we chat with actress Ali Larter, who helms an impressive food blog documenting her love of dinner parties and fresh, seasonal cooking. Swing back all week for a new recipe from Larter every day.
All photos courtesy of Ali Larter
Before she was an actress, starring in films such as Varsity Blues and the television show Heroes, and before her days as a leggy model jetting to photo shoots around the world, Ali Larter was just a girl with an appetite.
“I grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and my grandfather loved to garden,” Larter told Yahoo Food. “He would come with these big baskets bursting with big red tomatoes. There’d be corn, too — bushes and bushels of corn — and green peppers.” The two would sit outside on the grass, husking corn. “He would drink his Heineken and take warm tomatoes and slice them open with a little salt and pepper,” Larter recalled. “It was just magical. This perfect bite. That was the start of my love for seasonal produce and eating things at the right time.”
Food was never far from Larter’s mind all through her careers in the entertainment and fashion industries. As a young model, nomadic life could get lonely. “When I would travel, I would be in these new places and I used food as a way to meet people,” she recalled. “People were making miso soup when I was in Japan [and I learned how to make it]… I had a Polish roommate, and I asked her how to make pierogis.”
Larter’s simple roasted chicken.
When work took her to New York City, Larter wanted to put the recipes she’d learned to good use. At age 24, she began hosting dinner parties in her tiny fourth-floor walkup apartment, although things didn’t always go smoothly.
"Once I did a shrimp flambé with ouzo in the middle of summer, and I had no air conditioning,” Larter reminisced. The hot dish ratcheted up the heat in her already stifling hot apartment, and she watched with dismay as guests began fanning themselves. To make matters worse, she hadn’t timed her cooking very well. “I thought it was chic to do dinner late, but it was 11 o’clock by the time we ate!” she said with a laugh. “That was really my attempt to be a grown up, to make myself more comfortable in the city that I was in. I would put this pressure on myself to be perfect — I did all the things I thought I needed to do, instead of following my instincts.”
A decadent flourless chocolate hazelnut cake.
Eventually, Larter learned to trust her gut. That meant simplifying her menus and favoring rustic presentations over fancy, intricate plating. After she landed in Los Angeles in 2005, Larter began honing her dinner party hosting skills.
“L.A.’s night scene isn’t the greatest,” she said by way of explanation, adding that she quickly found she preferred to invite friends over for dinner. “It always turns into a really fun party at my my house,” she said. “If people leave around 10 p.m., you’re not doing something right.”
So how does Larter choose a menu? It always begins with a single ingredient spied at the market — recently, it was perfectly ripe cherries, which ended up in a custardy cherry clafoutis. From there, she adds dishes that complement her initial inspiration; perhaps lamb chops simply dressed with mustard and rosemary, served alongside crostini topped with fava beans and burrata cheese.
But planning a dinner party isn’t just about figuring out a menu. "What I wear to the dinner party is a huge part of setting the tone for the evening,” she explained. “And when I send out invitations, I like to use sumptuous words. I think that really gets people excited for the evening.”
In 2013, Larter decided to write a cookbook, Kitchen Revelry, based on her years of hosting dinner parties. She’s since continued writing on her blog, Alilarter.com, which documents her home cooking and frequent meals with friends. And there are a lot of them.
“I do dinner parties twice a month, and I cook dinner at least three nights a week,” Larter divulged. “Also, I usually bake one or two mornings a week. The things that are on my blog are things going on in my house.”
Larter has dreams of cooking on camera, and maybe writing another cookbook. Still, she’s openminded as to her next step, so long as it’s authentic and doesn’t put her into a box. “I don’t want to just stand there and chop an onion,” she said, adding sweetly, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
Circle back to Yahoo Food for a new recipe from Ali Larter every day this week.
More bloggers who should be on your radar:
How This (Completely Healthy) Food Blogger Has Her Cake and Eats It, Too
Why getting laid off was the best thing that ever happened to this food blogger
How a 20-year friendship blossomed into a gorgeous food blog
Who’s your favorite food blogger? Tell us below!
