All About Food: A publicist with a passion for food

Some of the nicest people we meet in our job are publicists who often invite us to all kinds of interesting events. Only last week we met Melinda Morgan, a longtime Laguna resident and avid cook. Her agency, Morgan Marketing and PR, focuses on the food business. Her first big client was Winchell’s Donuts. She wrote a heartfelt pitch to the company, saying that she had been eating their donuts since she was 2. They were her special treat every Sunday after church. She got the job and was so successful at it that word of mouth has been keeping her busy ever since. The companies she represents include: King’s Hawaiian Bakery, Wildfish Seafood Grille, the Rusty Pelican, Wienerschnitzel, Daphne’s and Panda Express.

Her newest client is True Food Kitchen, an Arizona-based restaurant, which is the brainchild of Andrew Weil and restaurateur Sam Fox, who are about to open their second True Food Kitchen in Fashion Island, featuring delicious food that happens to be healthy and affordable. Weil is the author of many books on living and dining healthfully. You probably will recognize him from his frequent appearances on “Oprah,” “Larry King Live” and the “Today Show.” He is also a columnist for Prevention and Time magazines.

Fox is building an empire, which consists of 38 restaurants. A while ago, Weil invited Fox and his family to dinner at his desert ranch and prepared a delicious healthy dinner including fresh veggies from his large garden in an attempt to persuade Fox that healthy food could be wonderful (as well as a great new restaurant concept).

Fox, a meat-and-potatoes man, and Weil, a pescatarian, decided to collaborate and struggled for a long time to put to together a menu that satisfied both of them. They hired chef Michael Stebner, who said his cooking style has always been “healthy without trying to be healthy” because he uses the best quality organic food available. He is also proud of the fact that at True Food Kitchen he uses only about three pounds of butter a day to feed 700 to 900 people. The restaurant’s menu is based on a combination of Asian and Mediterranean cuisine. The staff also has adopted a healthier lifestyle, and the restaurant has the lowest turnaround of any of Fox’s other establishments. Unlike most restaurants, they are happy to give out their recipes because they want people to be healthy. Best of all, the prices are moderate.

The Phoenix restaurant is a beautiful space, using eco-friendly building materials; the Fashion Island location, taking over the former Blue Coral space, will be as green after its $3-million makeover.

The team’s first foray in Arizona has been so successful that customers stop and hug Fox in the streets to thank him. Some of their regulars eat there five days a week. Kids love it, too, and they have their own special menu.

In order to introduce her new client to the local food writers, Morgan arranged a luncheon at the test kitchen in her office. When we arrived, Weil, himself an accomplished chef, was tossing a lacinato kale salad with lemon juice, olive oil, Parmesan and bread crumbs. His secret for eliminating the bitterness of kale is to toss the salad at least 10 minutes ahead of time. It really worked and kale, unlike other greens, won’t wilt. At the other end of the kitchen, Stebner was busy preparing the rest of the delectable meal, which included a quinoa tabbouleh salad, edamame dumplings, miso glazed black cod, Thai chicken curry and banana chocolate tart. All of the dishes left us eager to dine at the new True Food Kitchen sometime this summer.

After lunch we chatted with Morgan. She does recipe development for clients in her test kitchen and at home for her family and friends.

When she was a child, her mother instilled in her children a serious work ethic that sometimes took the form of outside yard work, a job that Morgan abhorred. As the youngest, she devised a way of getting around it by making cookies and lemonade for her hardworking family. She has always enjoyed baking and makes a signature chocolate chip cookie, which she often packages in newspaper and gives as gifts. As an adult she has taken classes at Laguna Culinary Arts. Nine years ago she remarried. Her husband, Mike Kartsonis, is of Greek ancestry and that has inspired her to add Greek cuisine to her repertoire.

Giving dinner parties for her friends is one of her favorite pastimes. She is a loyal patron of the Laguna Beach Farmers Market and often shops at the new Stephen Frank Gourmet for specialty items like Maldon sea salt flakes. Morgan does great cheese boards with the help of Sapphire Pantry and the truffle cheese from Café Zinc. She completes these presentations with dark chocolate, pots of honey and pecans broiled with butter and brown sugar.

A recent menu for friends began with a layered Mediterranean salad of hummus, thinly sliced red onions, kalamata olives, feta cheese, spinach, tomatoes and cucumbers. Next came shrimp served on a block of Himalayan red salt, followed by lamb lollipops (lamb chunks marinated in Greek spices, then grilled by Kartsonis). He also barbecued chicken breasts stuffed with sun dried tomatoes, feta and olives. Morgan admits to being a dessert freak. On this particular evening, she served homemade salted caramel ice cream topped with her own hot fudge sauce and whipped cream.

Morgan is a busy lady. She is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier International, the National Assn. of Women’s Business Owners, and the Women’s Food Service Forum. She is a blogger for OC Metro magazine’s website and has received more than 50 industry awards. Aren’t we glad this delightful foodie/entrepreneur lives in Laguna?

ELLE HARROW and TERRY MARKOWITZ were in the gourmet foods and catering business for 20 years. They can be reached for comments or questions at themarkos755@yahoo.com.