Hanna Geller - Founder of Building Feasts
Introducing you to Hanna Geller - founder of Building Feasts.
We met at the Supper club for Goop London with recipes inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow's latest cookbook.
Hanna is the founder of Building Feasts, host and cooking teacher of London's Supper Clubs. An interior designer who applies core principles of simplicity, logic and style to the recipes she writes and the meals she creates for everyday life. She loves cookbooks, taste feasts and gatherings.
Her aim is for guests to leave talking about the persons they met - with good food - to have it be inviting and the food be something you can go home and cook like a quick lunch in the kitchen.
You can find many inspiring recipes as well as her ‘fridge basics’ on her website.
As Hanna shares her passion, we agree that cooking is a creative outlet - when we cook with joy & ease we share that energy. So when it comes to change of season, entering Spring, anticipating summer, being body conscious Hanna's take on dieting is this:
“We spend so many years trying to have a body we probably are not supposed to have.
Seasons bring new ingredients, trying to eat new foods, brings anticipation, nourishing yourself and eating food you want to eat.
That moment when you are deciding what you want, aligned with the season is magical.
For me the best way to eat is to think about what you want - on an emotional level with consciousness of the outcome.
No two people are the same - so if we follow a regimented diet we will most likely feel dissatisfied.”
Hanna recommends that we ‘don't look outward so much - look inward.’
As she shares her own experience on diet:
Some diets can affect you so much mentally it can make you question everything you do. A diet I recently did during covid made me depressed.
With a stressed body, your body will possibly gain weight.
I am in my mid-40ies and ready to embrace the body I am in.
Her advice on how to step up and move forward with joy & ease is to decide to turn off the noise, and reconnect with your desires which are your personal needs.
For Hanna for example, she loves to eat salad for breakfast but I need to add something warm so my body feels warm. She would eat and reduce foods that may cause inflammation or give mood swings like coffee, and so by tuning into her needs, shed the weight that wasn't supposed to be there effortlessly.
Get to know yourself
Hanna’s energy is pure, raw and real. As we talk about receiving guests, seasonal changes, motherhood her words of advice based on her experience and care is :
Once you know yourself it permeates through everything.
Figure out really how you want to look & how you want to be.
Embrace it and allow time to figure it all out - trial & error is amazing.
The more you allow yourself what you need, the battle in your head stops.
What do I want today?
What do I feel like?
If you are feeling stressed, you may not eat something that makes you feel more stressed. It does require a positive relationship with food.
I grew up in a home with emotional eaters - showing love with food, satisfying your emotions with food. Imagine living life with suitcases made of these memories that may become unconscious automations?! You simply allow them to be there since shaking them off creates stress.
Bring joy into your plate naturally -
How to create a welcoming vibe
Making everyone feel comfortable at a dinner date works well when you start with a drink in the kitchen, a few casual dips while finishing the meal, having something to do and sitting down to the main meal right away, you serve yourself. Keeping busy is a distraction to ease discomfort.
Always having dishes that are vegan and having the alergenes on the side so that no one feels exposed because of their choices and restrictions.
Without highlighting someone's differences - simply letting everyone do their own stuff, food choices, the amount they want, keeping control is really empowering and more enjoyable.
Just be you.
You are coming into someone's home to see them - not to have a restaurant experience. You are there to see them - it's a shared experience. It goes from the minute you are invited.
How to manage cooking for yourself
It's the same when you are feeding yourself- make it a date with yourself.
Clear 20 minutes to make and to savour.
Prepare it spontaneously depending on your desires at the moment.
How to overcome the stress of cooking?
Dedicate 1/mth one hour or 10 minutes a week to make fridge basics. Like pickled red onions, marinated feta, a good vinaigrette, toasted nuts...Whatever feels like a chore but adds quality to your daily meal.
Colour flavour texture feeds your soul.
Be excited with what you've got without buying the same things each week.
Make sure you are receiving the food the way it feels good for you.
A mantra Hanna’s mother shared with her is this:
I am enough
I have enough
I do enough
Check out Hanna’s original fridge basics:
Marinated feta - https://www.buildingfeasts.com/blog/2018/4/18/marinated-feta-the-original-fridge-basic?rq=feta
Wild garlic pesto - https://www.buildingfeasts.com/blog/2021/4/25/wild-garlic-pesto
Umami anchovy dressing - https://www.buildingfeasts.com/blog/2018/2/4/winter-leaves-with-an-umami-anchovy-dressing
https://www.buildingfeasts.com/