Eat, meet, discover

Life summarized in three words. We eat to live, we meet to love, we discover to develop. Everything is related to food, one way or another. Kitchen Table Food is a site by Tal Maes and explores the relationship between food, people, and places.

Vegetarian, organic, healthy food

I have always been a strong advocate for healthy food. I think a happy and healthy life is firmly related to the way we eat. I have been brought up that way, since nutrition and healthy food choices were important topics in my family. My parents cooked everything from scratch and used a lot of vegetables, we did not eat many sweets (my dad was a dentist, that surely helped), and almost everything we ate was organic (which was quite exceptional in the 1980s). At school, kids sometimes joked about our healthy green lunches that my mom used to make for me and my siblings. But look where we are now…

As a logical step and for environmental reasons, I totally skipped meat and fish from my diet. My youngest daughter Flo became a vegetarian when she was 16 years old and gradually we all followed her. I have always been fond of vegetables and fruits, so I do not feel that I’m missing anything at all, nor does my family. As a result, this site has become fully vegetarian over the past few years.

ktf-about-tal-keuken-1-2951tal-bergen-5758

The story behind Kitchen Table Food

Kitchen Table Food started in 2013 as a site run by two Dutch friends with a passion for food, photography, and traveling: Petra de Hamer and me. We both moved abroad around the same time some years ago. Petra went to live in Berlin, I left for Washington, DC. Both photographers and text writers, we wanted to share our new exciting lives with each other and started Kitchen Table Food.

We both moved back to the Netherlands in 2015. Petra moved to ‘the Berlin’ of the Netherlands: Rotterdam. I went back to the Dutch equivalent of DC and my former hometown: The Hague.

Moving to another country after years of living abroad, even if it is back to your mother country, means starting over. Petra is no longer contributing to Kitchen Table Food, but we are still good friends! We work together on books and projects and still share our food experiences with each other in private. More info about Petra at http://www.petradehamer.com

What I do for a living

Back in the Netherlands I continued Kitchen Table Food and my work as a food writer and photographer. My recipes and photos have been featured in the Dutch culinary magazine ELLE Eten (ELLE Food) and I have even made a cookbook for this glossy: ELLE Hitparade. In the past 20 years, I have created recipes for different kinds of magazines, including the magazine of Albert Heijn, Holland’s largest grocery store. Additionally, I published many cookbooks, travel guides, and hiking guides. Since a couple of years, I’m also working as a commercial photographer. I’m currently a freelance photographer for Holland’s largest organic brand EKOPLAZA. See my portfolio: http://www.talmaes.com

I couldn’t do my work without my family. My husband is a passionate bread baker, and both my daughters, Rosa and Flo, love to cook, bake, and eat. We discuss recipes, cook together, and influence each other. Flo even posted some of her scrumptious baking recipes here on Kitchen Table Food.

ekoland-pompoensoep-roeren-1-3116-2

2 Comments on About

  1. Lori
    July 5, 2016 at 2:46 pm (8 years ago)

    Such a great find this blog of yours!

  2. Tal Maes
    August 8, 2016 at 1:32 pm (8 years ago)

    Thanks Lori! Your site is wonderful too :).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment *