“Bad Taste started out of a desire to see what I felt was missing in the food world. I burned out working in restaurant kitchens at a really young age. We talk about restaurant kitchen culture because of The Bear and that was very much the culture I grew up in—men with tattoos wearing bandanas and this obsession with meat. I learned very quickly that from a creative and physical stamina standpoint that I wasn’t going to be able to hack it in that environment for a long time. This was around 10 years ago and the food media landscape was so different from where we are now. Only a few people were starting to get more experimental with food on Instagram. It was a very narrow field, but I was trying to find a lane that made sense for what I thought could be really interesting and challenging about food. Around that time, I started throwing small dinner parties out of my apartment for friends. Eventually those parties turned into small ticketed events in Bushwick. I got a little bit of press, and it wasn’t long until brands came calling to work on projects that could tell their brand’s story through food.
I went full time with Bad Taste in 2019. I’d say it’s still a scrappy-feeling operation, but we’ve gotten to do all sorts of really exciting projects for brands like Simone Rocha, Coach, J.Crew x Christopher John Rogers, and Marc Jacobs. Schiaparelli was a white whale client for me because there’s so much play and irreverence in the clothing and jewelry. Last year, we made a massive 300-square-foot pavlova for the Public Art Fund’s gala. Large-format desserts are having this crazy Instagram moment right now, but at the time, it was a lot of, ‘Can we get it to be this big? Is it even possible? What would that look like?’ I was really, really jazzed.
You might think that I’m going out to fancy dinners quite a bit because I work in food, but that’s not really how my social life works. When I need to blow off some steam, I like to go dancing—sometimes all night long. I like Nowadays, Basement, Mansions, and Paragon. There are also a handful of recurring invite-only parties and raves that are really special, some of which move around in the city and some of which are upstate.
SKINCARE
My skin gets a little bit hormonal every now and then, but the real kicker for me skincare-wise is that I get eczema on my hands, which, when you’re a chef, is a disaster because you’re constantly washing them. I have to be really mindful about wearing gloves when I do dishes and making sure that I’m constantly slathering my hands in moisture. It gets so bad that in the winter I have to sleep with lotion gloves to prevent my skin from cracking.
I like to keep my cleanser simple. I’ll probably use Cetaphil forever, but if I notice my pores are starting to get a little grubby, I’ll do an extra cleanse with DHC’s Deep Cleansing Oil after I get out of the shower because I feel like that’s when my pores are the most open. I’ll give myself a massage with it for maybe 10 minutes.
In the summer, I find myself using Peter Thomas Roth’s Water Drench moisturizer, but during the winter, I like using the Nivea creme to lock in as much moisture as I can. It’s thick and rich. Skin Food is also heavy-duty, but I only really use it as an eye cream when my eye area is feeling a little bit dry. I use it on my hands, feet, and elbows, too. I love how it smells. Oh, and if it’s still light out as I get ready to go out, I’ll do a layer of Nivea’s UV Super Water Gel SPF 50.
MAKEUP
I find that if I try to get too ‘done up’ to go out, when I look in the mirror, especially when I’m two drinks in, I get a jarring, who-is-this feeling. Also, I feel like everything starts to run off your face and you look kind of crazy as soon as you start to get sweaty.
If I had to pick two beauty products to take with me to a desert island, I would take my Shu Uemura eyelash curler and blush. But before I get to either of those, I dust on CoverGirl’s Clean Matte powder in Buff Beige—I’ve been wearing it since I was a teenager. I feel like wearing tinted powder is pretty dated these days, but I prefer to be matte. That being said, I have very pale, cool-leaning skin, so it’s very easy for me to look washed out and dead. I tend to go pretty ham on the blush to make myself feel and look alive. I’ve been wearing Glossier’s Cloud Paint in Puff for years—it works really nicely on my complexion. When I was growing up, I was taught to smile as I put blush on the apples of my cheeks, but now I like to put my blush pretty close to my nose and, sometimes, even pretty close to my mouth. You remember when you were forced to run a mile in gym class? We would always be very pink after and it would sit really close to the nose. I always thought that was adorable, so I like to imitate that look.
I don’t wear brow pencil every day because it starts to make me feel very done in a way that doesn’t look like me, but if I have to go out to a fancy cocktail party for work, or if I have a photoshoot, I fill in the sparse areas with Revlon’s ColorStay brow pencil in Dark Brown. I do wear Anastasia Beverly Hills’ Brow Freeze gel pretty much every day to fluff up and lock down my brows though. And as for lips, Charlotte Tilbury’s Lip Cheat in Pillow Talk is a classic. It’s slightly darker than my natural lip color, which is what I’ve always wanted. There’s no universe in which I’m reapplying lip liner in the mirror when I go out dancing, so I wear this if I have to go to a nice cocktail party or somewhere else where I’m going to have my photograph taken. I recently discovered the Hourglass Phantom glossy balm in Haze. It gives you the most flattering, beautiful shine, and the color is the true sheer red that I’ve been looking for my entire life. I hold off on putting it on until right before I walk into a party so I can really maximize it. Oh, and I really, really love the ChapStick candy cane lip balm. I stock up during the holidays. I always have one on me.
HAIR
I never do anything particularly involved with my hair because it’ll end up in a grungy ponytail within the first half hour I’m out dancing. But I have really fine hair and I struggle with volume, so about six months ago, I switched to Hairstory’s New Wash and it’s helped a lot. It’s given me a ton of lift from the root that I didn’t even know was possible. It’s kind of expensive, but the advantage here is that you can get away with using it twice a week. If my hair starts feeling a little bit greasy in between washes, I use Living Proof’s dry shampoo.
FRAGRANCE
I don’t know too much about perfume. I grew up with the major players—Calvin Klein, Tom Ford, and Dior—but as I get older, I’m learning that there are so many indie and experimental perfumers. The Ghost in the Shell from Etat Libre D’Orange is a little bit harsh and bratty in the way it smells. It makes me think of Veruca Salt tearing the heads off of her Barbie dolls or something. I’ll put it on if I need to go out and I’m feeling a little bit insecure or socially anxious. I also catch myself putting it on before Zoom calls where I want to be a little bit more fearless and give a little bit less of a shit. It’s a fun way to trick your brain into being whatever kind of person it is that you need to be at that particular moment. Then I have this rotating cast of pretty straightforward essential oil roll-ons. I like to keep one in my purse because when you’re a couple of hours in on a sweaty, gross dance floor, throwing on fragrance is a very sweet thing to make yourself feel a little cuter. It can get a little stinky out there. [Laughs] Invariably, people who go dancing with me all know to stick their wrists out as soon as they see the roll-on come out. I’m loving the Gia Labs rose geranium roll-on. Aesop has a Ginger Flight Therapy that I really like, too.”
—As told to Daise Bedolla
Photographed by Alexandra Genova in New York on August 15, 2024
