Odessa Piper, a 'Recovering Chef' Who's Working the Markets

Not everything she makes for him passes muster. A sour-cherry sauce served with pork recently to Theise and his 21-year-old son, Max, was a bust, Theise says. She has given up the way she used to make vinaigrettes.

Their circa-1970s kitchen with its almond-colored stove and refrigerator seems criminally lacking for someone so talented. Piper says she has made her peace with it since coming to live here in 2006; it's in a condominium with a glorious, tree-lined view and enough space to house 700 bottles of Theise's wine collection.

She willingly opens fridge and freezer for review, each a testament to good eating and resourcefulness. Ripe berries that might otherwise mold in a day or two are popped into her freezer's "potluck bag," from whence slurries for lacquering duck and interesting fruit crisps spring year-round. Cold red currants are kept on hand to be dragged through sugar and popped on top of ice cream desserts. Whole birds have been broken down into stocks and the makings of schnitzel.

"I put things away when they're plentiful and in season, so I can cook with them in the leaner winter months," Piper says. "There's no secret to it."

Pulling from a batch of cheese gougeres she had frozen, Piper composes canapes by filling the just-rewarmed puffs with a special lemon vinaigrette and a lightly dressed herb salad. A single, lacy cluster of fennel blossoms serves as garnish.

She crafts lacy Parmesan tuile cups using a "dumbed-down" toaster oven and uses the same herbs to create a fruity salad that will sit inside them, adding raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and flower petals. She pushes some berries through a strainer to make a gastrique that, when poured on the plate, becomes an impeccable wine-dark base for the presentation.

In minutes, she also cuts watermelon slices into bite-size diamonds that she tops with strips of the anise hyssop and a dab of chevre mixed with creme fraiche and lavender.

Easy enough for anyone to make, yet so distinctly Odessa.