NEW YORK — Look carefully at the photo next to Lee Kalpakis’ recipe for hot dogs with fried leeks and sauerkraut, and you might notice a small intruder: A honeybee has invaded the outdoor dinner shot.
Other chefs might balk at keeping that photo or insist on Photoshopping out the bee, but not Kalpakis, who is all about celebrating cooking in nature, including its ups and downs.
“I wanted to show this unpolished version of the lifestyle, in hopes of giving a little reality check but also to embrace the fact that things shouldn’t be so perfect,” she says.
Kalpakis has earned the right to do as she pleases: She lived for just under two years in a 22-foot camper in upstate New York, refining the 75 recipes in her book “Out There.”
“It’s helped me to be a more efficient cook,” says the one-time food stylist, recipe developer and private chef. “You’re cutting out the fluff a little bit.”