New Development!
Drive By History: Eats
I’m proud to say I’m a Chef co-host on a show called Drive By History: Eats!
Feel free to poke around and see what we’ve been cooking up.
Hi, I’m Melissa Fairchild Clark.
In 2013, I left my job in the textile buying end of the furnishings world in NYC and moved to the Bay Area to pursue a culinary career. Nagging feeling to fruition, this transition happened in the span of six weeks, and I have the good fortune of finding that my most irrational decision was also my best (I won’t be pushing my luck there).
I spent the following four years graduating with honors from culinary school as one of twelve in the countries first farm to table focused course curriculum, working in restaurants, exploring the world of food startups, studying under seasoned personal chefs, teaching cooking classes, launching What Clark Cooked, and drinking in the joys of the bay area with the abandon of a hedonist at a bacchanal.
After wondering how I’d grown four years older when I’d only existed in a perpetual springtime, I realized that I’m a gal of seasons, bean boots, and coming to the brink of my sanity with winter squashes only to have ramp season save me. I brought What Clark Cooked back east with me to where I grew up in 2017, and have since rebuilt and grown her (once in NJ and now in CT), adding my second brand, Fairchild’s Fromage, to the family, with much grander plans to come!
My Approach
What I do revolves mainly around the perimeter of the grocery store during the week, and at farms and the farmers market on weekends. I believe in eating locally, sustainably, within the season, and from the solar food chain rather than the fossil fuel chain. I endeavor to support small farms and local businesses because they’re what creates and sustains community. I believe in full fats, natural sugars, and that all things grown and sustained within 1-2 degrees separation from the sun and the dirt are superfoods. I believe that the more color diversity you have on your plate, the better you’re doing at fueling your body. I believe we should do away with words like “good”, “bad”, “cheat”, “treat”, “earn”, and “clean” when we talk about eating, and instead pay attention to what makes us feel good, in the many forms goodness can take. For these reasons I also believe that a BLT in late September, sandwiched between bacon-fat-fried sourdough, with a generous squeeze of kewpie and some sliced peach if I have it, is buttressed up against nirvana.
My Goals
My goal in the next 3 years is to shift into a heavily events-driven work focus. I find myself feeling the most free and creative when working with clients on dinner and cocktail parties, and I love the ability I have within those settings to execute every tiny detail of my vision for that event down to the table-scape. Eventually, I’d like to have my own space to have these events in, so I can retire my mom joke of “full time chef, part time sherpa” and return my trunk from a chaffing dish transporter to it’s original intended form: dog bus.
As you can tell from my photographs throughout the site, I love styling and photographing food. In fact, I originally went to culinary school in the hopes of becoming a food stylist. My long term goal, let’s call it a ten year plan, is to find myself in the position of testing a forthcoming cookbooks recipes, giving notes, and styling those dishes for the book. I’ll leave the photography to a professional because wow, that’s an impressive craft!
So, if you find yourself in need of an events chef, or a great space up for rent/sale, or have a cookbook but no desire to zhuzh a sprig of basil - please reach out! I’d love to talk about it.