“you had me at paella. you had me at paella.”

those would be my seal the deal words to convince my beloved friend, patty harding, that she was my friend for life. 

my posts already border on the wordy and need for an editor, so to list this dynamo’s full resume and accomplishments would send wordpress into a crash of epic proportions. in patty, i have found my headless-chicken sister. when we’re together we’re able to speak in unfinished sentences, hand gestures, eye rolls, and sighs, and it’s some of the best communication i’ve ever had with someone. 

chef, public relations aficionado, event planner, market researcher, radio personality, and overall rock star. 

meet my patty:

name 5 bottom of the jar products?

clarins lift-minceur haute definition, fresh sugar body oil, chanel lift lumiere #30, jo malone vintage gardenia cologne, and moroccan argan oil.

who is your style icon and why?

vogue’s editirix, anna wintour. the uniform is vintage chanel and manolo blahniks, accompanied by that signature bob and sunnies. her style is called: power. what wintour struts comes from deep, deep within; influential, demanding and relentless. her sitting in a conde naste boardroom draped in a husky garbage bag will make the NYT’s style section.

what is your fall fashion must have item?

black burberry riding boots … has been for six years and counting. these puppies will out live you, me and keith richards.

finish the sentence….i can never leave the house without:

… wondering if i should shut the front door.

ok, working woman…literally. let’s talk resume.  your agenda reads like a multi-tasker’s bible:

pastry chef to the stars at morton’s for vanity rair’s OSCARS after-party, you were prescient…or lucky… enough to predict the julia roberts best actress OSCARS’ nod before the envelope. you had roberts’ and the statue on the cutest little VF cookies.

you organize discrete or massive events all around the country… launching housing developments and cars, unveiling fashion shows, benefiting Alzheimer’s causes, celebrating life milestones for luminaries, or pharma conventions at many of the world’s premier resort casinos, or mixed martial arts events.

a radio show on playboyTV and sirius, in which you do keep your clothes on, but you keep your censor off.

now a publicity firm, Pitch by Patrician, where you increase the reach of homebuilders, casinos, yoga studios, Special Olympics and other groups! 

and every night you manage to make these exquisite, 5-star, restaurant-quality meals, {follow patty on instagram to see folks., prepare to be ashamed inspired.}

 how do all these unrelated ideas relate to each other?

each deals with a basic human emotion and need: hunger, violence, aging and celebration, success, sex, money, health, housing, or charity. if you think about it, they are not really so different from each other. fashion, events production and product launches all come together like sauces come together for a chef.

we put in all the ingredients, add heat, increase heat, reduce heat, reduce, refine, cool, strain, purify, spice to taste, adjust, rest. now, repeat, about 10 times. while every saucier is an artist, she is also a scientist, measuring and observing. and, while each time she creates a sauce it is VERY similar, even at Le Crocodile, my all-time favorite restaurant, a sauce can be repeated but never cloned.

i put into each endeavor the same passion as do their most ardent devotees.

at any of the patrician company business channels, we are the unexpected player. we take an early seat at the client’s table. embracing their priorities, then adding energy and focus while we make that sauce.

if it’s important for our clients, it’s mission critical to my team. no room for error.

when it has nothing to do with food, our clients need to know “the Chef is IN.”

 how do you manage to do it all?

take a look over my right shoulder, you’ll find there is an army behind me. david and my team’s support is paramount. i am nothing without them. nothing. i put my life in their hands.

your spin class, katie-boo. in as much as it is good for my ass, it’s even better for my head.

brain dumping is awesome. journaling keeps me sane, at least tries to. a for effort? every feeling, goal, idea, to-do, must-do, must have, don’t do, can’t have, phone number, news clipping, goes in there. i can’t function if there’s stuff in my brain. so, i empty and start anew.

5-seconds: any idea to gain legs must be acted upon in 5 seconds.  light bulb moment, 5-4-3 … take action. whatever that action is, it’s as simple text or VM or in my journal. when i do this, that idea has a chance of becoming real by a factor of 10.

 what does your ideal 2 weeks off look like?

off? sorry, had to look it up. per wiki it is defined as “in absence from or suspension of regular work or service” M’ not familiar with the concept, miss katie.

but, when i was 18. no, 17. no, 18. 17 would make it illegal. def, 18……during college in europe, i spent a solid 12 days living in a bikini in ibiza. 99 pounds, no money, hardly any spanish armed with my lust for everything. i turned clockwise under the mediterranean sun like a rotisserie chicken, dove deep into the turquoise sea with complete abandon, danced night after night after night on white powdered beaches embraced by the winds of valencia only to be high-fived by the dawn. if i were to come up with my ideal 2 weeks off, it would look like that. only and hopefully at the four season’s or its ibizan equivalent.

what is your favorite smell?

 bread, 1 minute of out the oven.

 what are your vices?


 tall, dark and handsome.

wait one hot minute? this is piece is going public? my vices are words, wine and coffee.

 in what historical era would you most like to have lived?

 can we get a tiebreaker?

 era # 1: during the renaissance as an intern to machiavelli. i would be machiavelli’s and the medici’s fetcher. fetch me espresso, 500 gold coins, the head of _______________.  fetch me some carrots! you know, it’s not like they had a trader joe’s back then.

era # 2: prohibition. underground and discrete. a time when breaking the rules was in vogue. this requires no further explanation.

thank you miss patty. i’m so happy you are in my era. i think you are utterly timeless and i love you.