Ginna BB Gordon

Ginna BB Gordon has owned businesses (Ginna’s Café, The Book Studio, and Ginna & Co.) and managed kitchens and cafés in other folks’ businesses (Rainbow Ranch, Calistoga, CA; Chopra Center for Well Being, La Jolla, CA; the Thunderbird Bookshop & Café and the Cornucopia Café & Market, both in Carmel, CA).

She has also managed large-scale special events for non-profits (Carmel Music Society; Carmel Bach Festival; American Tall Ship Institute) and for many private clients (including Steven Seagal at his home in Southern California, where Tibetan monks roamed the halls and created fire pujas in the backyard while Ginna prepped dinner for six, or eight or 20, depending upon the star’s whim).

Throughout her busy 30-year career in the food and event business, Ginna has entertained herself and friends with art and garden parties, ceramic workshops, gifts from the garden and kitchen and herbal products for the body and table. Ginna is a dedicated Maker, DIY Artist and Upcycler.

Ginna has (so far) authored four books about cooking: A Simple Celebration – the Nutritional Program for the Chopra Center for Well Being (Random House/Harmony Books 1997); Bonnebrook and The Gingerbread Farm, glimpses of the many teachers and styles of cooking Ginna experienced on her journey as a retreat cook and café chef; and First You Grow the Pumpkin, which shares favorite tricks for growing, preserving and creating in the kitchen. The Soup Kit continues this “how to” series.

Ginna studied Ayurveda and the Ayurvedic cooking style with Drs. Deepak Chopra, David Simon and Shamali Joshi.

Her studies in the arts included UCLA Interior Design, the Guild of the Books Arts Carmel, Monterey Peninsula College and privately with myriad artists in and around California, including Alison Stillwell Cameron (Chinese calligraphy), Tulku Jamyang Rinpoche (Tibetan thangka painting) and Louisa Jenkins (collage).

Currently, Ginna and her husband, singer, lecturer and author David Gordon (www.spiritsound.com), are partners in Lucky Valley Press, a pre-press and indie publishing company. (www.luckyvalleypress.com)

When Ginna is not cooking, writing (sometime, ask her about her novel series), or digging in the dirt, she builds tiny shrines, upcycles paraphernalia otherwise on the way to the “heave-ho heap,” knits afghans and enjoys myriad other homey tasks and studio arts. (blog.ginna.com).