{"id":4239,"date":"2011-12-03T09:23:17","date_gmt":"2011-12-03T16:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eataspen.com\/blog\/?p=4239"},"modified":"2011-12-03T09:23:17","modified_gmt":"2011-12-03T16:23:17","slug":"welcome-to-the-princess-eat-em-weep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eataspen.com\/blog\/welcome-to-the-princess-eat-em-weep\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the Princess!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Eat ’em & weep<\/p>\n

ONLY A FEW PEOPLE KNOW THE REAL STORY behind \u201cThe Princess\u2019 Palate\u201d my weekly column that has been running in The Aspen Times since June 2002.<\/p>\n

The truth is, I\u2019d originally hoped to become Aspens\u2019 food critic.<\/p>\n

The concept for the name\u2014and the use of the word \u201cpalate\u201d\u2014was intended for my \u201ctaste in all things Aspen.\u201d I wanted to write restaurant reviews<\/a> and go from there, maybe start to broaden it to other things I love as much as food. That\u2019s exactly what happened, though it didn\u2019t go exactly as planned. The editors at the Aspen Times couldn\u2019t risk offending advertisers over a columnist who was new to town and, at least for the first six months of her career at this particular paper, was not getting paid.<\/p>\n

So it ended up being about my life, about all aspects of my life, and nothing but my life so help me God: Every private little detail that no one really wants to hear but can\u2019t help themselves but read on \u2026 sort of like a traffic accident or a bad smell. I have been able to write about all the things I love, which ended up being (in no particular order) boys, shopping, parties, and clothes.<\/p>\n

The one thing I probably didn\u2019t end up writing enough about was food\u2014unless of course I was on some kind of kakameme diet trying to starve myself into whatever ideal I thought the Boy of the Month was interested in at the time. As much as I hate to admit it, there were times that food itself wasn\u2019t on the menu. At one point I actually bragged about what I deemed \u201cThe Mary Kate Olsen Diet\u201d of caffeine, nicotine and alcohol.<\/p>\n

Now that I have a man who loves me for who I am those days are so o-v-e-r. I know that sounds superficial and shallow, but it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

Believe it or not, I do actually have a career as a freelance magazine and newspaper journalist that has afforded me a few opportunities to delve into the foodie world.<\/p>\n

In January 2009, I was invited to attend the Cayman Cookoff in Grand Cayman, where I got to rub elbows with famous chefs like Anthony Bourdain (exactly the same as he is on TV), Eric Ripert (as good looking in person as he is on TV) and Ingrid Hoffman (who I\u2019ve never seen on TV but loved the the most). I finally got my first press credential to the Food & Wine Classic that same year to interview Top Chef winner Hosea Rosenberg for The Boulder Daily Camera. He was as cool as he seemed on the show, with dimples that could melt an iceberg.<\/p>\n

But most of my food experience happens at home with my honey where we love to cook and we love to eat. I\u2019ve gone from party girl to foodie nerd, swapping late nights at Eric\u2019s for hours of Food Network shows, reading food magazines and cookbooks instead of Us Weekly, watching \u201cJulie and Julia\u201d on HBO and counting recipes instead of calories. We love to entertain friends with elaborate preplanned menus we\u2019ll prep all day, never skimping on homemade touches like our own bread or the best possible quality ingredients we can afford (and are available).<\/p>\n

That means when we go out to dinner we\u2019re going to be as critical as we are appreciative. Our rule is it has to be better than something we could cook ourselves, and it has to be worth the money. Aspen probably has more amazing food per capita than anywhere in the world, but it also has the most expensive food (we have literally cried on the way home from dinners we wished we hadn\u2019t had to pay for).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what this new media series<\/a> is all about: to take the same no-hold-barred approach I took to my column and bring it here. It won\u2019t just be about the food, but about the amazing people in this town who have a hand in preparing it. It\u2019ll be part personality, part culture, part recipe, and part local flavor, so to speak. Better yet, I hope it\u2019ll be interactive. Unlike the print medium, a web magazine can offer a true dialogue, and we want to hear what you have to say. I only want to enhance the forum that EatAspen has already created, \u201can honest and true representation of everyone to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I really hope we can talk over dinner someday soon.<\/p>\n

Like I wrote in my first-ever column on June 16, 2002, \u201cMy palate is clean as a whistle and ready to savor the juices Aspen has to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali Berkley Margo<\/p>\n

Read more of the Princess’ Plate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ONLY A FEW PEOPLE KNOW THE REAL STORY behind \u201cThe Princess\u2019 Palate\u201d The truth is, I\u2019d originally hoped to become Aspens\u2019 food critic, writing restaurant reviews..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[250,437,460],"class_list":["post-4239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aspen-bars","category-aspen-restaurants","tag-food-writing","tag-princess-plate","tag-reviews","author-ali-berkley-margo","aspen-bars","aspen-restaurants"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1aUGV-16n","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eataspen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eataspen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eataspen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eataspen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eataspen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eataspen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eataspen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eataspen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eataspen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}