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Cookery
From Page A1
of the Fbod Network.
“A lot of what I do is seasonal. which means it's going to be local, from the northern Piedmont. I use what’s available now from the orchard, the farm, the dairy the fields, and my garden." Rowand said in an interview at her Harris Hollow home. “I use a lot of herbs from my garden that people can’t find around here and don't know about."
Rowand uses these natural ingredients through her drollv named business. Laughing Duck, which caters private parties and hosts inhome cooking and gardening workshops.
Rowand moved to Rappahannock two wars ago. after living in Falls Church for 10 years, working in commercial real estate. She came to the United States as a student at Pi?nn State, where she obtained her MBA and met her husband. Keith.
Although she has always liked cooking good food for others, her passion in the kitchen and garden took some time to grow and mature.
“I don't think I knew I had it. I've been cooking since I was a kid. Both my parents cooked, so I learned by example,” Rowand said. “We always had a kitchen garden, so we always had access to fresh produce and fresh meat.”
After moving to Washington, the Rowand's found themselves surrounded by fresh, local goods. Along with the orchards and farms, selling everything from pears to organic pork, the couple decided to raise their own garden.
Tbday their house is surrounded by plants, herbs, and vegetables in two kitchen gardens fenced in to keep out wild animals. One of Sylvie’s gardens is affectionately known as "The Garden of the Americas” as all the produce grown within it originated in North or South America, including corn, peppers, and squash.
Using these regional ingredients, Sylvie started developing her own style of cooking, incorporating French techniques with local herbs and produce. Rowand likens her cooking technique to that of Thomas Jefferson, calling it “sort-of Jeffersonian”.
“I’m using ingredients that are here and using herbs and spices that may not be typically French, because where I grew up in France there were a lot of ethnicities, so the cooking was mixed ” Rowand said.
Thomas Jefferson loved a lot of things French, but he was a Virginian and he loved Virginia, so he used the best possible ingredients and grew seeds here that he collected from everywhere, so that’s what I’m doing. I'm using what’s here.”
Although she’s too humble to compare herself with the former president, she does pride herself on using his ideas. Rowand’s idea to start a business using this train of thought followed shortly after.
“I decided I wanted to take a break after retiring and I wanted to work in the garden and figure out what the next step was going to be,” Rowand said. “And we always had these parties where I would cook and they seemed to get bigger and
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