About North River Food

I started this website in part to preserve my family’s rich culinary history. My influences begin with my great grandmother, a Peruvian national born to northern Italian immigrants. Passing down the wonderful tradition of northern Italian cooking, she also adopted the local flavors of Perú.

In 1985 my family emigrated from Lima to Miami. Though today you would never consider Miami as part of 'the South', in the once rural outskirt of Kendall many locals still spoke with a twang. My neighbor’s mother often made chicken and dumplings or black-eyed peas. The smell from her kitchen filled the house with warmth and comfort. Oddly enough, as a young immigrant I considered American Southern Cuisine exotic. Southern food remains a part of my culinary repertoire— reminding me of those childhood days when the promise of a great new country forged the road ahead.

However, growing up in Florida I always felt that somewhere else there was a Real America. Real America had autumn leaves, apple trees, rivers, snow shovels, vinyl siding, and purple mountain majesties. I think this is what eventually drew me to the North East, all those years in history class imagining America's birthplace. I suppose the North East is very exotic to me as well, but really, as a Floridian, any pathetic lump in the grass akin to a hill is exotic. Upon encountering the North's rolling hills my mind turned to the pilgrims on the Mayflower. How exciting it must have been to discover such a majestic new world and a brilliant new bounty.

These days, I call Manhattan home. However, when traveling along New York State, I still feel giddy inside. Silly as it may seem, the local produce of New York excites me. Fascinated by the rich history of the Hudson River (or as it was once called, the North River), I've set out to explore its tastes and tributaries. My goal is to explore, document, and preserve (and of course nosh).

North River Food is Elise Roedenbeck