Beauty and the Feast

Natalie and I have known each other as acquaintance-buddies for years - ever since I lived here in LA and we were all crazy young twenty-somethings acting like idiots around Hollywood.

We had a bunch of mutual friends (her BFF Jess dated William forever ago), and I distinctly remember a handful of times I've run into her because she's always such a warm welcome sight.

There was a night out at Les Deux w/ Smershy where she happened to be doing bottle service.

There was a delicious dinner w/ Bobbo at Gjelina, where she happened to be the hostess.

And there was a really fortuitous encounter at the Dave Matthews Concert in 2006 where she saved us from having to wait in a thousand-person line to get in.

Over the past few years we've become Social-Media BFFs.

Even though we rarely see each other, we are always up to date on each other's activities and are constantly "like"-ing each others posts on Facebook/Instagram etc. and are generally just huge fans of one another's work and lives.

So FINALLY we set up a date to bring our mutual admiration for each other off of the interwebs and into the real world.

Since Nat is the host of numerous food shows, and since I just LOVE food...we decided that for our first official date, we needed to go make some porn.

Foodporn!

Natalie chose Milo and Olive, an awesome little spot in Santa Monica with communal dining tables and beautiful delicious food.

Meatballs were on the menu, so OBVIOUSLY we ordered those...

(Loves me a pretty girl that appreciates a good meatball!)

We also had the Wood-Fired Butternut Squash with honey date butter, vanilla, sea salt, crispy sage, and hazelnuts...

Parmesan Cauliflowers...

And THEN (no "and then"!)...

Sausage and Kale Lasagna which was SOOOOOOOO DELICIOUS.

After lunch we drove around West LA and took some photos. .

Nat is so bubbly and smiley...sometimes she has a hard time doing fierce face...so I coached her a little.

But mostly we just chatted and giggled and gossiped because over the course of her career she's gotten the inside scoop on tons of amazing things (e.g. The Katie Holmes / Tom Cruise contract. OMG.)

One of my favoritest photos from our quickie shoot is actually an outtake.

Probably because it reminds me of my favorite One Direction lyrics:

"Cause when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell, you don't knowwww---oh--oh....
"You don't know you're beautiful..."
"Ohhhh---ohhh-ohhhhh...."
"That's what makes you beautiful!"

Wanna see more Natalie?

Here's her hosting reel. I CHALLENGE you not to fall in love.



I guarantee it's only a matter of time before she has her own Food Network show that makes her a household name.

You can also view her food blog here: The Food Magician