Profile: Lindsay Sauve, Blue Palate
From Rice-A-Roni to Low-Key Foodie
Lindsay Sauve, Chief Adviser at Semiosis Communications, is on a mission: “to help people discover how to experience delicious and healthy food on a limited budget“. At our recent kitchen-table conversation, Lindsay summed up her journey from “eating all kinds of crazy things” to her new blog for the low-key foodie titled Blue Palate.
As a child, Lindsay experienced “food extremes”. The pre-school three-year stretch on her Sonoma County, California, mother’s macrobiotic diet brings the memory of seaweed. Her father, living halfway between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, was a more traditional cook; his chili won the Gold Oak Elementary Chili Cook-off, and packaged foods like Rice-A-Roni or Top Ramen were a staple.
Lindsay developed interest in preparing her own food while working at Food for Humans, a tiny Guerneville, California, health food store. Suddenly exposed to organic produce, healthy cooking, and people interested in both, she browsed the store’s small book section during down time. The book she bought, “Moosewood Cookbook” inspired her to make an entire Middle Eastern feast for friends. It was a dinner party hit!
Lindsay learned she really enjoyed cooking healthy meals for people. She shared the cooking responsibility with her roommates, and since all were on tight budgets, together they learned to make simple, inexpensive, and delicious food.
At University of Oregon’s School of Journalism, Lindsay nourished her love of writing. For the first time in her life, she lived completely by herself and cooked only for herself. “On less than a shoestring,” as she put it. “I ate a lot of salads.”
When she worked at the National College of Natural Medicine, her love of good food found a friend: health. Lindsay said, “Being around people who know that food is an essential part of a person’s health and wellness inspired me to study nutrition seriously.”
Indeed: Lindsay’s working on her master’s in public health at Portland State University; she works as health programs admissions advisor at Portland Community College; and she volunteers for Oregon Food Bank’s Nutrition Education Program, assisting low-income individuals and families to prepare wholesome meals on a limited budget or from an emergency food box.
Now, food, health, and writing have merged in Lindsay’s latest project: Blue Palate, the blog for the low-key foodie. “I believe great food is about more than simply the quality or origin of ingredients and the price one pays for a meal,” she writes. “A great food experience is about much more than lighting and place settings and the perfect wine pairing. Great food can be accessible and affordable to anyone.”
(November 2008)
