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Published on 08/11/1999 All articles from this issue

Art you can eat

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By Carolyn Barnes

Special to the Town Crier

Amy Whelan styles food into 'mini-dramas'

The new dessert cookbook, "Sweet and Natural," by Bay Area natural foods chef Meredith McCarty, has a Los Altos connection through food stylist Amy Whelan.

Whelan, a 1974 graduate of Los Altos High School, styled the cover photo (Tri-Berry Pie with heart cutouts) and central photo section of the handsome book, illustrating naturally-sweet and dairy-free desserts that are healthy as well as delicious.

"We ate all of the desserts after photographing the pictures, and they are really good," Whelan said recently, recalling a sugarless nut tart as her personal favorite. "The whole assignment took three days in San Francisco. We had wonderful fun, the kind of good time you have when you work with people you really like."

Nationwide reviews of the book have praised the author's meticulous explanations of how to cook with natural ingredients and have also mentioned the photos. One reviewer calls them "Martha Stewart pretty."

Whelan even managed to turn one photo of gingerbread cookies into a mini-drama, with two astonished-looking cookie people standing over a fellow cookie that has fallen down beside them.

Whelan and author McCarty baked a few of the book's specialties to serve at a recent book-signing event at Heintzelman's Bookstore on State Street in Los Altos, presenting their platters with the same elegance portrayed in the photos.

Marcie Levine, a Los Altos vegetarian consultant, described McCarty as "the vegetarian dessert person in the Bay Area. She (McCarty) has presented local cooking classes and workshops for 20 years and researches every ingredient back to where it was grown and even which seeds are used," Levine said. "Sweet and Natural" is McCarty's second cookbook; "Fresh from a Vegetarian Kitchen" was her first.

"Sweet and Natural" opens with an introduction explaining the origins and benefits of the natural dessert ingredients, such as arrowroot, sea salt and nut milks, listed in the recipes that follow. Resource lists at the back of the book provide information on how to reach natural foods mail order companies; food, health and environment-related organizations; and a bibliography of books, cookbooks, newsletter and magazines that focus on natural foods.

McCarty's Web site offers additional recipes and natural foods information at www.healingcuisine.com.

Whelan's interest in natural foods developed in college, where she studied recreation therapy at Chico State University, earning a bachelor's degree in parks and recreation administration with an emphasis on therapeutic recreation.

"I worked in Chico for a two-woman catering business, which featured its own fresh produce," Whelan said. "I also worked in flower design and flower raising and learned a lot about color."

The gardening skills required to raise fresh foods and flowers combined well with her interest in recreational therapy, and she eventually founded a senior "gardening as therapy" program in Chico before finishing her degree.

Whelan now runs a therapeutic gardening and animal husbandry program at Cedars of Marin, a non-profit foundation in Marin County. She teaches cooking and gardening to developmentally-disabled adult clients, providing a lunch made of natural foods to a different group each day.

"It just seems natural, timeless and satisfying to prepare a good meal made with organic foods, to sit down and enjoy together a meal made with love," Whelan said.

Whelan also works as a chef for yoga and meditation retreats and for Comforts, a San Anselmo cafe that provides catering services to George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch, among other clients.

Recently, her talent for styling fresh flowers, vegetables, herbs and gourds into works of art was recognized by a long-time San Francisco food stylist, and she added "assistant food stylist" to her list of career descriptions. The cookbook, "Sweet and Natural," is her first solo assignment.

"My mom has always been a great inspiration to me. In cooking and in life, she's a creative spirit," Whelan said. Her mother, Pinky Whelan, contributes her time and enthusiasm to many Los Altos community organizations, especially the Los Altos History House, and works at Patt's Greenhouse, Inc. on State Street.

"Sweet and Natural" is available at Heintzelman's Bookstore, 205 State St., Los Altos.