Pink of Perfection

I know Twitter isn’t a completely useless media development because it brought me to Tea. Known more formally as Tara Austen Weaver, Tea & Cookies’s namesake is warm and utterly real. If you can sense a kind, salt-of-the-earth nature in 140 characters, you know it’s the real deal. And today is a huge day for Tea. Her book, The Butcher and the Vegetarian, just hit the shelves. It seemed like a more than fitting time for a celebratory chat.

Tell us about Tea & Cookies. What made you decide to do the blog? What are the biggest challenges? What inspires you, your food, and your posts?

Tea & Cookies was a total accident. I was sick, I was bored, I had been reading a lot of food blogs. One day I started one—but I never put my name on it or told my friends. I didn’t plan to keep it up once I was healthy and back at work, but by that time I was hooked and couldn’t stop.

The site has always been about what is inspiring me at that moment. It’s a personal place where I talk about what I love—food, travel, tea, pretty things, amazing people. The name for the blog was an accident as well, but now I think of it as my tea party where I get to chat with lovely people about things that make me happy. It’s a joy.

The hard part is staying motivated and finding the time for it all. I burnt out after finishing the book and had to step away for a little while. I thought about stopping entirely, but the site has brought so much that is wonderful into my life—people who have become dear friends, a wonderful community of other bloggers, amazingly kind and generous readers. I would miss it terribly if I gave it up.

How did your experience blogging affect the process of writing a book? Do you approach the two forms differently, and if so, how?

Writing a blog is like going for a lap swim each morning—a slight effort, but ultimately a nice little workout that leaves you energized. Writing a book is like swimming the Atlantic. There are sharks, there are storms you couldn’t have predicted or prepared for, but there are huge triumphs as well. A regular writing schedule like blogging is good practice for a book, but I’m not sure anything prepares you to lose sight of the shore.

In my case I knew the book was going to look very different from the blog, as it covered material I had never written about. If my blog is about putting forth what I want to write about, the book pulled out things I was scared to write about. It was much harder, though ultimately more rewarding.

What’s your ideal day look like?

Hard question! My ideal day in Paris? My ideal day in Thailand? My ideal day in the mountains? I have many ideals.

I love to wander, I love to talk with interesting people, I love to try new things and taste new flavors, I love to be surrounded by beauty and people I enjoy. Any day that combines all that sounds like a good day to me.

Now that you’ve written a book, what’s left on your life list of things you want to accomplish?

I recently found a list I wrote as a kid of what I wanted to do with my life. Now that I can cross the book off, the next items were to learn how to repair a car and travel to Africa!

I recently wrote a new life list and was surprised that dance figures prominently: tango in Argentina, set dancing at small country fairs in Ireland, attending the Flamenco Academy in New Mexico. I think I’ve been stuck behind the computer a bit much lately. Need to move.

Mostly I want to continue to explore the world and my life with good people along for the ride.

What’s some of the best advice you’ve ever gotten?

Can I give you the advice I wish I had gotten? I wish someone had told me when I was younger not to worry so much about other people liking you—worry more about liking yourself.

What’s your sure-fire way to undo a bad day or a crummy mood?

Exercise, though I don’t always do it. Phone conversation with a good friend is pretty good too. When all else fails, I make a list of ten things I’m grateful for. That usually snaps me out of it.

You’re going to be stuck in an elevator for 8 hours. Which Food Network star do you pick to keep you company?

That’s a tough one. Could I choose to be stuck with a Food Network executive instead? In eight hours maybe I could explain that America needs inspiring meals that are convenient, healthful, and full of flavor—America doesn’t need Semi-Homemade. Why dumb down food when you have a chance to educate and raise the dialog while proving that it is possible, and worthwhile, to eat well?

Give ‘em an earful, Tea!