About.
A few things became clear: I am a glutton for farmers markets. I love to preserve the best of one season’s produce so I can continue cooking with it the following. I like bright, punchy flavors and evolving tradition. I cook with generous amounts of acid, really good olive oil, and all kinds of herbs. New ingredients leave me starstruck and then obsessive, like an anxiously attached lover. I will surely pack my bag full of smuggled treats from any new place I visit to add to my progressively unhinged larder. I cook produce-forward, and I source locally, wherever I may be.
Today, LA-based Little Hat is a representation of all these things. It’s where I get to dream up culinary projects in collaboration with my community of farmers, purveyors, fisherpeople, sommeliers, and chefs. Together we host vibrant parties in backyards, private homes, and friends’ borrowed restaurant kitchens. We produce hyper-seasonal food events and design menus around the cream of the local crop. We bring private clients the comforts of their favorite dishes, plus those obscure ingredients we can’t wait to introduce. Our favorite memories involve food, and we want to create some new ones with you.
- Chef Olivia
Looking back, the breadcrumbs of Little Hat began to start following me in 2020. My insatiable desire to learn about new ingredients, techniques, and culinary compositions was demanding so much attention that it was impossible to ignore. My fascination for storytelling and culture—which, at the time, was driving my work as a podcast producer for digital fashion publication Who What Wear—was pulling me further and further towards the world of food. The years to follow were spent staging in restaurants in NY and LA, traveling to Italy to study regional cuisines, and throwing dinner parties for friends and clients. Along the way, my culinary identity started to take form without my even realizing it.