#robert lyon

[frenchcurious]

G. D. Loane house, Kelowna, Colombie-Britannique, Canada - Conçu par Robert Lyon en 1937. - source Casey Dunham via Art Deco.

[artofbarbie]

Graphic design by Robert Lyon

[artofbarbie]

Graphic design and packaging design for Barbie Collector Avon Tea Party by Robert Lyon

[mood-harmony]

Model:  Katiusha Feofanova, @katiusha_feofanova Photographer: Jamie Nelson, @jamienelson6 Makeup: Michael Anthony, @manthony783 Hair: Robert Lyon, @robertdlyon Nail art: Fleury Rose, fleuryrosenails, @fleuryrosenails Photo edit: @ffllorenciiaa

[chairman-swagger-blog]

Lunch and Cooking Lessons with Sally and Robert

BY MELINDA // FEBRUARY 25, 2014 

My best friend Alexis was a major cooking influence on me – she was able to work magic and alchemy with whatever ingredients she could find around the kitchen. Alexis and I became best friends during our college years. We moved into the same house, and that was it — we instantly became best friends. She would make tea, and then play the harp for me until I fell asleep on the extra cot in her room. We would walk from sundown until sunrise along the sleepy coastal town of Santa Cruz. She’d tell me quirky stories of her talented family and their wonderful gatherings. Coming from a small family myself, I always envied people with fun large family events, and I often joked that I’d find a way to marry someone in her family just attend these family reunions.

It was no secret that I was honored when Alexis’s parents, Sally and Robert Lyon, were gracious enough to have me over at their home for a cooking lesson and lunch. Sally and I were intending to cook together for some time, and finally on January 19, 2014, we finally decided to go for it. She had me choose a dish to make and I chose duck confit since I never stewed meat in its own fat before. Plus, I had seen my friend’s restaurant, Broderick 1893, post a picture of a delicious-looking duck confit breakfast hash.

A significant portion of Robert and Sally’s culinary careers took place in Northern California. Sally eventually made her way into working at Chez Pannise where she became great friends with David Leibowitz during his humble beginnings. David eventually went on to become a fantastic dessert guru.

In the 1970s, Robert Lyon worked with Michael James and Billy Cross, two savvy businessmen who had teamed up with the up-and-coming Robert Mondavi winery to host the Great Chefs of France Cooking School.  The culinary school was instant popular as it was America’s shiny new euro-clad classroom; it offered classes with famous chefs such as Simone Beck and the media giant Julia Child (literally a giant because she was very tall at 6’2″). Despite it being the most expensive school at the time, people were willing to shell out the $1500 for a week of cooking lessons; it was a testament to Michael James’ cooking talent, Billy Cross’s clever marketing abilities, the bold investments of the Mondavis, and someone like Robert to help manage and scale the cooking projects for its expanding business.

Eventually, both Sally and Robert left San Francisco to start a family in the town of Fresno, California. Most Californians I’ve encountered, who live along the coastline, have mixed opinions of Fresno – because they typically pass through a lot of rural areas with the nose-hair wilting stench of fertilizer. Meanwhile, eBay CEO Meg Whitman considered Fresno “like Detroit” — whatever that meant. For a woman of an obscene amount of affluence, her statement could not have been a positive thing. If you look close enough, you have pockets of whimsy — old nineteenth century homes surrounded by trees similar to a small cottage from a painting.

Sally has always been the most outgoing personality of the family, overtly quirky and in your face. She is multitalented. She can sew elaborate wedding dresses (she made my best friend’s wedding dress from great great grandmother’s fabrics and lacy placemats), craft classic-looking dolls, forage for delicious ingredients in the forest and on local trees, write screenplays, and create furniture from the design to its construction. Meanwhile, Robert’s personality is typically quiet and reserved. His pragmatic ways complements his wife’s unabashed, whimsical nature. His face often lights up when you get on topic the about food. The first time I had ever seen him extremely excited was when he raved the magic of English breakfasts; this was right before my best friend and I flew out to London in 2008. My friend also noted that he once sent $200 with her to pick up as much candy as she could get from Germany for him. Other amusing characteristics about Robert is his selective memory. Sally insisted that her husband had a terrible memory about stories and their plots (an allegation he never chose to debate with her, or at least around me). After she had said this, Robert found a recipe for bear stew to feed an entire village, from the shelf row, to position of the book, to the specific page number.

Below are the pictures from our cooking day. I will post my adventures in making confit at a later time, but Sally and I made a garden spring greens salad with duck breast medallions, topped with kumquat zests and a homemade balsamic dressing. The meal was paired with Rombauer Chardonnay wine.

Kumquat zest:

Duck breasts sautéed  with kefir lime leaves:

The resulting salad:

At the table with Sally and Robert: