Furthermore from Equinox My Holiday Dinner Party: Whitney Otawka

This story originally appeared on Furthermore from Equinox, the official wellness partner of The Related Life.

For the past few years, Whitney Otawka has lived on a remote barrier island off the coast of Georgia. As culinary director of Greyfield Inn, Cumberland Island’s only commercial establishment, Otawka has created an acclaimed menu based on the hyper-local ingredients found in the area. Working there, she fell in love with the region’s vegetables, seafood, and distinct flavors, which inform her recently-released cookbook of 125 recipes, Saltwater Table: Recipes from the Coastal South.

“This wild place I call home has always inspired me to live a life less ordinary. Its influence has been an undeniable force in the chef I have become and I wanted to share that,” Otawka says. Her book includes dishes like steamed clams in fennel, lemon, and cream and winter root vegetable soup with ham hock and turnip green pistou, as well as guides to big, traditional Southern meals like low-country boils. “I like food that is rustic, comforting, and altogether unfussy,” she explains. Furthermore asked Otawka to dream up her ideal holiday dinner party.

Click here to learn more about how she would celebrate.

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