CHSO August, 2011 : Page 58
the RadaR | people 58 | Chef de Couture A longtime New Yorker returns to her Chicago roots and dishes on food and fashion. | By Katie Schroeder | Photography by Jeremy Bustos | Standing in the closet of a former Vogue and Marie Claire accessories editor is like viewing a “Best of the Best” lookbook: a Dior saddle bag, a first-collection Marc Jacobs wristlet, a Fendi baguette gifted from Anna Wintour. So what’s the catch in Melissa Skoog Dunagan’s Gold Coast pad? It reeks of garlic chicken. The 38-year-old fashionista-turned-foodie apologizes for the lingering smell of lunch, but we can’t blame her. She recently launched onmyplate.com, a website that highlights the connecting trends across different industries, particularly in food, design and fashion. “I realized food is one of the biggest common threads we share,” she says, noting that what shows on the runways often impacts décor and food trends. “They are all so closely knit together that I may as well tie a little loop between two big worlds in my own way.” Skoog Dunagan weighs in on her must-have items for the kitchen and home entertaining with On My Plate. Plus, the site spotlights everyone from celebrity chefs to designers to jet-setters through interviews, guest blog posts and favorite recipes. “The idea of creativity... it’s all around them—from what they put in their bodies to what they put on their backs,” she explains. And with her background, she serves up the inside scoop. After college, the Hinsdale native moved to NYC for her first job as Anna Wintour’s assistant at Vogue . Though at times it was reminiscent of The Devil Wears Prada , it led to promotions and eventual moves to Marie Claire , Banana Republic and Prada USA, where she was the VP of PR. But fast food Melissa it was during her time in San skoog dunagan in her Francisco with Banana Republic kitchen, wearing jewelry by Van Cleef & arpels that she learned to cook. and her own Cacharel “My friend Rachel and I dress with hair by Cari would talk about what we did Kalvelage and makeup by Laura Robenhorst on the weekends, and she said, for sue devitt ‘I went to this amazing farmers market and cooked.’ I was like, ‘You do that?’ She took me by the hand... and the first meal I ever [cooked] was pasta Bolognese. We started a food dialogue, and I became obsessed.” These days, her kitchen holds a library of cookbooks, and she craves Gwyneth Paltrow’s slow-roasted tomatoes. So what’s her take on the fashion industry’s alleged chicken pot pie craze? “I was going to ask Anna’s chef Hank, who is a dear old friend of mine. It’d be great to have him verify that Anna actually served something like chicken pot pie.” | August 2011
The Radar People
Katie Schroeder
Chef de Couture<br /> <br /> A longtime New Yorker returns to her Chicago roots and dishes on food and fashion<br /> <br /> Standing in the closet of a former Vogue and Marie Claire accessories editor is like viewing a “Best of the Best” lookbook: a Dior saddle bag, a first-collection Marc Jacobs wristlet, a Fendi baguette gifted from Anna Wintour. So what’s the catch in Melissa Skoog Dunagan’s Gold Coast pad? It reeks of garlic chicken.<br /> <br /> The 38-year-old fashionista-turned-foodie apologizes for the lingering smell of lunch, but we can’t blame her. She recently launched onmyplate.com, a website that highlights the connecting trends across different industries, particularly in food, design and fashion. “I realized food is one of the biggest common threads we share,” she says, noting that what shows on the runways often impacts décor and food trends. “They are all so closely knit together that I may as well tie a little loop between two big worlds in my own way.” <br /> <br /> Skoog Dunagan weighs in on her must-have items for the kitchen and home entertaining with On My Plate. Plus, the site spotlights everyone from celebrity chefs to designers to jet-setters through interviews, guest blog posts and favorite recipes. “The idea of creativity... it’s all around them—from what they put in their bodies to what they put on their backs,” she explains. And with her background, she serves up the inside scoop. After college, the Hinsdale native moved to NYC for her first job as Anna Wintour’s assistant at Vogue. Though at times it was reminiscent of The Devil Wears Prada, it led to promotions and eventual moves to Marie Claire, Banana Republic and Prada USA, where she was the VP of PR. But it was during her time in San Francisco with Banana Republic that she learned to cook.<br /> <br /> “My friend Rachel and I would talk about what we did on the weekends, and she said, ‘I went to this amazing farmers market and cooked.’ I was like, ‘You do that?’ She took me by the hand... and the first meal I ever [cooked] was pasta Bolognese. We started a food dialogue, and I became obsessed.” These days, her kitchen holds a library of cookbooks, and she craves Gwyneth Paltrow’s slow-roasted tomatoes. So what’s her take on the fashion industry’s alleged chicken pot pie craze? “I was going to ask Anna’s chef Hank, who is a dear old friend of mine. It’d be great to have him verify that Anna actually served something like chicken pot pie.”
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