For the Winter 2017 issue of Gather, we took a romp through the Seven Deadly Sins. You’ll find menus rooted in Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, and Envy; and concept chapters exposing a more tender side of Sloth and imagining the fanciful food aligned with Pride. There are essays exploring what is the greatest food sin of our time and the symbiotic relationship between lust and gluttony, plus musings on everything from supersize culture to ordering envy to Liz Lemon.
Cover: Photograph by Stacey Mark, Food Styling by Maggie Ruggiero, Prop Styling by Heather Greene
In the Middle Ages, possession by Asmodeus, the demon of lust introduced in the Book of Tobit, could be blamed for your wander- ing eye (or body). On Seinfeld, it was JFK Jr. who would be Elaine’s Asmodeus; so enraptured was she by the potential of a sexual encounter with the handsome rake that she lost the contest to be “master of her domain” (a euphemism about abstaining from masturbation coined by Larry David to appease prime time cen- sors). While for some, love and lust perch like a ctional angel and devil on opposite shoulders, they actually alter our brainwaves in much the same way, eliciting a similar (and addictive) high. Our lust menu—sticky, honey-coated monkey bread; a vegetable orgy with cheese fondue; a trussed-up lamb with pomegranates; and an aphrodisiac-infused blancmange—leaves nothing to be desired.
Toads and vermin. In Dante’s inferno, those are what gluttons would be force-fed—a grim ending for a sin defined by excess. Under “G” for Gluttony in her Alphabet for Gourmets, M.F.K. Fisher fesses up to the pleasure that comes with stuffing oneself to the bursting point. “I pity anyone who has not permitted himself this sensual experience, if only to determine what his own private limitations are, and where gourmandism ends and gluttony begins,” she writes. In American culture (a land of Dorito- encrusted tacos and Louis C.K. bang-bangs) that line can be a blurry one. It’s a line that we traverse in our own gluttonous menu: an abundant fritto misto, poblanos engorged with cheesy potatoes, the over-the-top wonder that is a swineapple, and a bundt cake that’s sauced in every sense.
“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms—for life, for money, for love, knowledge—has marked the upward surge of mankind.” So went the speech by Gordon Gekko, played to smarmy perfec- tion by Michael Douglas in 1987’s Wall Street. Gekko was taking a page from bourgeois novelist Ayn Rand; greed was a cornerstone of her philosophy, which espoused the virtues of sel shness and pure capitalism. And the table has for centuries been a venue for expressions of greed, food and drink the medium for showing wealth, class, and social standing. Our greedy menu—stacks of silver dollar blini, an imam bayildi, a platter of sa ron-threaded deuà, and a baklava ecked with gold—is, in a word, good.
Theologians traditionally see sloth, not as mere laziness, but as a sluggishness of the soul or deep indifference. But sometimes there’s beauty in the unhurried. as we learned from Aesop’s tortoise and hare, slow and steady can win the race.
A 2011 study in The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that anger can in fact stoke creativity. Irritated subjects excelled at unstructured, out-of-the-box thinking and were able to muster more (and more original) ideas than their mellow counterparts. Mad genius, the expression goes. In Catholic catechism, anger becomes wrath, and, in turn, sinful, when there is vehemence behind the sentiment or it’s directed at an innocent. Think of wrath as anger at its most destructive. And in the kitchen, while wrath has the capacity to go awry (see Fatal Attraction and a certain cooked pet bunny), harnessing its feroc- ity can prove to be a virtue. Our wrath menu—smothered grape crostini, a pungent garlic soup, a spicy bucatini arrabbiata, and a sizzling skillet crumble—is designed to stir the proverbial pot.
While used interchangeably in our modern vernacular, envy and jealousy are not in fact one and the same: Envy is the desire for something someone else has, while jealousy is the fear of losing something you have. To wit: You see a friend eating a juicy burger, you’re envious; you see said friend sharing that burger with your betrothed, you’re jealous. en there’s schadenfreude, the German word for harm and joy—it’s taking pleasure in the pain of those we envy. It’s a feeling so common—just consider for a moment social media’s ability to stoke it—that a 2013 Princeton study likened it to a basic biological response. Should you not be able to enjoy our envy menu—gochujang coated baby corn, escargot-style cauli ower, a seitan bourguignon, and a layer cake in the senti- ment’s signature hue—it will elicit the very feeling that inspired it.
Contributors
Winona Barton-Ballentine
Barton-Ballentine explores the idea of “home” through photography and writing. She is currently working on a book that combines interior still lifes with landscapes of upstate New York, where she lives with her husband and daughter. Her clients include Martha Stewart Living, Wilder Quarterly, Overly bakery, and Urban Outfitters. See her work at winonabartonballentine.com.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
Date cake with caramel sauce and a tawny port from Brooklyn’s Moto circa 2005.
Sarah Cave
Prop stylist Cave regularly plucks inspiration from her multi-faceted experience in the worlds of fine art, design, and fashion. After earning degrees in industrial design from the Rhode Island School of Design (BFA) and Milan’s Domus Academy (MA), she spent five years dreaming up window displays for Moschino under the tutelage of esteemed window designer Joann Tann before relocating to New York and embarking on a career as a style editor at Martha Stewart Living. Freelance since 2008 you can see more of her work at sarahcave.com.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
I’m more of a sinful thinker than a sinful eater.
Aimee Chang
The Taipei-raised, New York-based illustrator and animator is known for her quirky, surreal approach. Chang usually works digitally with mixed media including ink, acrylic, and collage. In her animation work she uses metaphors to explore subjects related to senses, relationships, and interactions between individuals. Her work has been selected in the Society of Illustrators Annual Exhibit, International Motion Art Awards, and ICON9 Motion Commotion. See her work at aimeechang.com.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
Peanut butter and jelly chocolate cake.
Grant Cornett
Photographer Cornett resides in the Catskills with his family, three standard poodles, and bees.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
Going back home to a Mississippi diet.
Bobby Fisher
Born in Virginia it was the siren call of the post-punk music scene that lured Fisher to Manhattan, and the Hotel Chelsea in the mid-‘80s. By the end of the decade, after assisting a number of photographers, he launched his own career behind the lens. Fisher’s clients include T: The New York Times Style Magazine, GQ, Condé Nast Traveler, Blue Moon beer, Avon, and Pepsi, among many others. His most recent books are Appetites: A Cookbook with Anthony Bourdain, The Red Rooster Cookbook with Marcus Samuelsson, and L.A. Son with Roy Choi. See his work at bobbyfisherphoto.com.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
Pan-fried leftover pizza with a sunnyside-up egg on top, 12-year-old scotch and a Monte Cristo #4.
Aurélie Garner
Garner, a French illustrator whose work is a mix of vibrant colors and pure black lines, counts, among her influences: French New Wave, American trash culture, Nordic fashion and 18th century painters. Her art has appeared in Neon, Cercle, Décapage, Confettis, and Street Press in France, plus Intern, Landjäger, and Horchata magazines. Garnier’s goal is to give a second and poetic life to small, insignificant things. See her work at aurelie-garner-illustratrice-tumblr.com.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
Gin and tonic, because it can lead me into bad ways.
Gentl and Hyers
Partners in photography and life, Andrea Gentl and Martin Hyers have been collaborating for over twenty years. Focused on food, travel, interiors, and portraits, their clients include Condé Nast Traveler, Coqui Coqui, Bon Appétit, The New York Times, and Häagen-Dazs. The pair have launched a workshop series called This is the Wanderlust, that focuses on visual storytelling and creative travel stories from the ground up.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
Martin: I feel sinful when I eat animals. Andrea: I would feel pretty sinful eating Puffin.
Heather Greene
Greene moved to New York in the ‘90s to pursue a career as a fashion stylist. After a job at Issey Miyake, she moved into production, and worked on projects for Fischerspooner and Vanessa Beecroft at Deitch Projects. Throughout her production experiences Greene often gravitated toward sets and props, which eventually led to her shift into set design and prop styling. Now a full-time stylist her clients include Saks Fifth Avenue, Marie Claire, Ace Hotel, and SWELL. Greene lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two sons. See her work at helloartists.com/stylists/heather-greene
and heather-greene.com.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
Since the Gather shoot and tying up that lamb with bondage knots, my sinful eating habits are torn between lamb and oysters.
Patricia Heal
Born in England, Heal studied art and theater, receiving a degree in photography before moving to New York to pursue a career in the field. Her clients include Glamour, Calvin Klein, Bloomingdales, Bon Appétit, Anthropologie, Pottery Barn, Samsung, and Martha Stewart. She has received Fuji film, Nikon/ PDN, Communication Arts, Graphis, and IPA International awards for her work, and regularly shows at New York’s Robin Rice Gallery. Heal currently splits her time between a studio in SoHo
and a farmhouse upstate where she lives with her husband, photographer Anthony Cotsifas and their bulldog Moses Oliver Dudley.
You can see her work at patriciaheal.com.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
A glass of chilled Chablis and raw oysters at lunchtime.
Beverley Hyde
After a long and successful career as a fashion stylist, Hyde switched gears to prop styling, seeing it as an expression of her personal passion for travel, food, art and design. The accomplished New York-based stylist’s clients include Gucci, Dior, Calvin Klein, Architectural Digest, Elle, Bon Appétit, and Williams Sonoma, and stories she’s worked on have been the recipient of ASME, AIGA, and SPD awards. See her work at beverleyhyde.com.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
Eating an entire jar of caviar with my fingers.
Janine Iversen
Iversen is an artist working in New York. See her work at janineiversen.com and janineiversen.cc.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
Eating fish and chips usually makes me feel like I’m committing some kind of crime… I certainly pay for it.
Stephen Kent Johnson
New York-based photographer Johnson has shot for Rizzoli, WSJ Magazine, and New York magazine. See his work at stephenkentjohnson.com.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
Eggplant.
Eugenia Loli
Before turning her attention to art, Loli, who was born in Greece but has been based for many years in California, was in the technology sector. Now a filmmaker and modern vintage collage artist, her art is constantly focused on the idea of building an engaging narrative. See her work at eugenialoli.tictail.com.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
Foie gras.
Stacey Mark
Mark logged time as a studio assistant for Steven Klein, as the photo director at Nylon magazine, and a photo-researcher at Vogue and Elle before turning her attention to photography full-time. Her collaboration with actress Asia Argento led to her first solo show, Some Girls Wander By Mistake. Mark’s clients include Purple, Lula, Russh, LADY, and Vice. See her work at staceymark.com.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
Ordering Indian food when I just went grocery shopping or a vodka martini after telling someone “I rarely drink, but…”
Richard Morgan
Before Morgan was an accomplished New York-based writer, he was a
missionary in China, hitchhiker in Costa Rica, and a ranch hand in Colorado. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Playboy, Rolling Stone, The Economist, ESPN magazine, and The Washington Post.
He is also the author of the 2015 memoir Born in Bedlam.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
I feel sinful when people ask if I have any dietary restrictions and I answer, “Yeah, the McRib isn’t always available” and they think it’s a joke.
Ayesha Patel
Born in India, Patel’s passion for and approach to visual storytelling has been influenced by the places she lived and visited while winding her way to New York. After studying art history and printmaking, and working in film, she became style director at Martha Stewart Living where she informed the brand’s aesthetic. Now, as a freelance stylist, Patel constantly strives to unearth beauty and to create worlds both familiar and unique. See her work at ayeshapatel.com
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
The ubiquitous potato chip.
Kathryn Peetz
Gather’s co-recipe editor grew up in the Cornhusker state, where most of her meals were comprised of beef, runzas, and bundt cakes. Then she came to New York to attend the International Culinary Center, where she learned how to cook fish and eat oysters. While the pastry chef of Roberta’s and Blanca, Peetz was named one of Zagat’s 30 Under 30, and Star Chef’s Rising Star Pastry Chef. She has been a recipe developer and chef consultant since 2013. See her work at katypeetz.com.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
The second dinner can put me over the edge and into sinful territory… but I rarely regret it.
Laura Regensdorf
The Brooklyn-based beauty editor at Vogue grew up on a steady diet of VHS-taped reruns of MacGyver and Murder She Wrote, Velveeta shells and cheese, and her mom’s calamondin cake made with Gobstopper-size fruit from their backyard tree. The last movie she saw on a dangerously empty
stomach was Tampopo and her perennial birthday gift request remains a bucket of Vietnamese 33 beer.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
I have been going without sugar and alcohol for a while, so I have bottomless glasses from a magnum on the brain.
Maggie Ruggiero
Gather’s food stylist and co-recipe editor entered the gastronomical world after selling her East Village bar and using the proceeds to attend culinary school. She logged time in some of the city’s most esteemed restaurant kitchens before shifting her focus to food styling and recipe development. See her work at maggieruggiero.com.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
Butter, the 8th deadly sin.
Gordon Stevenson
Born in New York City, Stevenson, who goes by the moniker Baron Von Fancy for his commercial work, is a graduate of Bard College. Working in a wide variety of mediums, he’s applied his distinctive sensibility to everything from sponges to bowties to lighters. Stevenson has collaborated with many brands including Rag & Bone, Reformation, Uber, Urban Outfitters, Elizabeth Arden, and Patagonia, and, most recently, TNT and Nike. The achievement Stevenson remains the most proud of is winning a handwriting award in 8th grade. See his work at baronvonfancy.com.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
If I’m being honest, whiskey, cause it turns me into a devil.
Martyn Thompson
The New York-based image maker created avant-garde clothes before deciding to document them instead, working as a fashion photographer in Paris before moving to London, where his scope broadened to include interiors and still lifes. Author of Interiors and Working Space: An Insight into the Creative Heart, he recently launched Martyn Thompson Studio, creating textiles, murals, and other works based on his photographs. See his work (and sign up for his newsletter) at martynthompsonstudio.com.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
Peanut butter and honey on toast.
Charles Wilkin
Wilkin describes his work as a collection of thoughts and observations, and he sees collage as the ideal medium for representing the frenetic and inherent collision of people, culture, and emotions we all experience. Born in
Buffalo, the artist and graphic designer has been featured in magazines like Metropolis, Rojo, Juxtapoz, and Emigre, and exhibited in New York, L.A., Berlin, Madrid, and Byron Bay. Wilkin splits his time between studios in Brooklyn and the Catskills where he also keeps bees.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
When I say yes to the question, “do you want cheese on that?”
Amy Wilson
Born in California and raised in a renovated barn in Pennsylvania, Wilson got her start as a financial reporter before becoming the style editor at Real Simple. Now a prop stylist, her clients include Bon Appétit, William
Sonoma, West Elm, Condé Nast Traveler, Whole Foods, and Vanity Fair. Wilson has worked on the books Bringing Nature Home, Gjelina: Cooking from Venice, and, most recently, Dinner at the Long Table. She also works as a garden designer with The Organic Gardener, focusing on rooftops and other urban spaces. See her work at amyelisewilson.com.
What food or drink makes you feel sinful?
When I eat a whole box of Puffins by myself.
