About Lauren Skardal
Iām Lauren. I started Elle & Pear in 2013 while living in Barcelona and completing my MBA. At that time, I explored the city, traveled around Europe on my free weekends, and experimented in my tiny kitchen.
Recipes shared here are our family recipes, ones we make and eat together; ones that are made with real, fresh ingredients, often inspired by our travels.
What You'll Find at Elle & Pear
- Family Weeknight Dinners, Soups, and Salads: Most of the time, the recipes shared here are ones that you can put together with little kids running around at your feet. But sometimes I like to dive into a project, like making pita bread (our boys like to help with this!) or a big dish that cooks low and slow and feeds a lot of people.
- Seasonal Recipes with Fresh Foods: I love using fresh in-season fruits and vegetables, and I aim to steer clear of ultra-processed ingredients.
- American, Mediterranean, Italian, and Travel Inspired Dishes: Spending two years living on the Mediterranean and growing up in New York, I have a deep affinity for Italian and Mediterranean dishes.
- Desserts and Baking: I love to share dessert recipes because I find so much joy in working with my hands and baking with and for others.
Philosophy
I test recipes over and over again to make sure that they are correct and repeatable. These are recipes that we not only make all the time but that have been honed over many years, and written for cooking success.
- Scientific Approach: I maintain a structured approach to cooking and baking. I test recipes, changing techniques and making adjustments as small as 1 tablespoon of flour to determine the impact on the end result.
- High Quality Ingredients: I believe in buying the highest quality ingredients that you can. No matter what you are making the end result will never improve the bottom-line quality of the ingredients that you have.
- If you are putting in the time to make something, it is worthwhile to use the best ingredients available to you. This does not necessarily mean the most expensive.
- Whole Ingredients: We generally cook with fresh, whole ingredients, and avoid packages and ultra processed foods where possible.
- Accessibility: When possible, I use ingredients that are readily available at a typical grocery store.
- Kitchen Minimalism: I keep my kitchen equipment to a minimum. Specialty tools are often unnecessary and costly. They take up valuable storage space, and they take time to clean and maintain.
- I invest in fewer, but higher quality tools, such as sharp knives, a high-quality Dutch Oven, two high-quality sautƩ pans, heavy sheet pans, a single set of hefty metal measuring cups and spoons, etc.
- Love of learning: I love learning about international foods, cuisine, and culture, particularly when traveling, talking with others, reading, and sharing in the kitchen.
- Connection: We do our best to eat as many meals as possible together at our kitchen table, though I know that this will shift and settle and shift and settle again as our family schedule changes.
My Story
During my MBA, I took classes in entrepreneurship while traveling around Europe, North Africa, and Asia, learning about the cities we visited through walking and food. I wanted to work for myself, and I wanted a change from the traditional Finance trajectory that I was on. I poured myself into the blog, not knowing where it would go.
While living in Spain, I traveled and spent my days soaking up the different flavors, smells, and sights of new cities. I walked and walked and walked. My camera, one of my most prized possessions, was always slung over my shoulder. I ate paella in Valencia, French onion soup in Paris, pizza in Naples, and spaetzle in Munich. I savored baklava in Istanbul, pastel de nata in Lisbon, and Belgian waffles in Brussels. On other trips, Iāve trekked through the Peruvian mountains, eating trout on the grassy banks of a river, ceviche in Lima, and mole in Puebla, Mexico.
When I graduated from the MBA program, I put a pause on the blog to pursue a finance position that enabled me to find steady financial footing and repay student loans. But the idea of creating recipes, cooking, and baking kept pulling me back. After my second son was born, I realized that Elle & Pear combined so many of the things that I loved and wanted to pursue: cooking, baking, photography, travel, and writing. I continue to grow Elle & Pear, along with spending time with my husband and our four young children.
My Experience:
I have lived all across the US and Europe, and I have cooked and baked in dozens of kitchens with dozens of different ovens, ingredients, cooking tools, and limitations. (one kitchen was just a sink and a hot plate, and another kitchen was 16 square feet with an oven that could only open 45 degrees and I cooked an entire successful Thanksgiving dinner for 15 people).
I have taken cooking and culinary classes in Sevilla, Prague, Rome, Barcelona, and Napa, CA. I have met and learned from wine producers in CataluƱa, olive and grape growers in Tuscany, and apple growers in New England.
While we love to eat out while traveling, we cook the vast majority of our meals at home. This amounts to over 18 years of experience cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner on a daily basis. I started this blog over 13 years ago and have loved every minute of it.
My hope is that you find something here that you and your family love and can enjoy together!
