Lisa Fielding can often be found doing one of 3 things:
Writing. Cooking. Or writing about cooking.
The woman who grew up everywhere — her family bounced from San Francisco to Europe to the Middle East to New York to Chicago for her father’s international banking career — finally landed in Hollywood.
Fielding became a film executive, working with big-name producers. But she eventually grew tired of developing projects for “lazy writers who got all the credit” — and began writing herself.
She’s not the type to sit at a desk all day, though. Besides, every fledgling writer needs a “real” way to put food on the table.
A friend suggested she do it literally — by cooking.
Lisa Fielding
Fielding was already known as a fabulous entertainer. All those youthful moves had given her an international repertoire.
She launched her business in 2009. A story in a local paper provided the push she needed.
Her first gig was scary — “like being on stage,” she recalls.
But Fielding had hosted parties since she could remember. Overseeing the details of a sit-down dinner for 12, or a birthday celebration for 50, was second nature.
In the film business she’d traveled often to New York. As her personal chef career boomed, she realized she wanted to claim the East Coast as home.
Now that’s entertaining!
When she discovered Litchfield County, Fielding says, “I decided to become a Yankee.” She loved it. The commute to New York was a bit much, though.
She found Westport: a perfect match.
“It’s like Litchfield — but it’s not,” Fielding says.
“It’s bucolic, green, verdant. You don’t have 8 acres, but you do have a proper place, with things to do. It’s enchanting.”
She moved here August 1. She’s already moved her company — Secret Ingredients — to town
It’s more than just private cooking. After attending the Hidden Kitchen in Paris — multi-course tasting dinners, served at a communal table in a private apartment, with guests who don’t know one another but bond over delicious food and great drinks — Fielding decided to bring the concept to “car-centric L.A.”
She launched in 2010, with a 9-course sit-down dinner for 24 in a beautiful Hancock Park villa.
Fielding followed that with a Malibu beach party; a feast for 150, served at one long table in a Napa winery, and more.
She named it The Secret Table — “where intrepid foodies come to meet and eat.” She took it Litchfield and New York.
Now, Fielding plans to start her “secret” events here too.
“Westport has a collective love of the aesthetic. It’s everywhere I go, ” she notes. “I look forward to tapping into it.”
The Secret Table is a great way to make new friends.
Lisa Fielding has been in town for just a month.
Her many new friends are already old — and well-fed — pals.
(For more information, email lisa@secrettable.net)
