Katina Connaughton Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe, and I'm your host, Kerry Diamond, coming to you from Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center in the heart of New York City.
Today's guest is Katina Connaughton, the co-founder of SingleThread, the celebrated restaurant and farm in Healdsburg, California. Katina is so many things, a regenerative farmer, a mom, floral artist, and hospitality visionary. I got to spend time with Katina and her husband, Chef Kyle, earlier this year at The Lodge at Blue Sky in Park City, Utah for a special food and film experience that they created called ThroughLine. It was a beautiful exploration of the artisans and farmers they work with, and Katina is going to tell us more about ThroughLine during our chat, but even more amazing is their personal story. They met at a punk rock concert, became high school sweethearts and young parents, and are still together decades later. And together, they're changing the world of fine dining. The journey wasn't always easy for Katina. She joins me in just a minute to share how she almost lost herself in pursuit of their dream and found herself and her power by literally digging in the dirt. "The further I stuck my hands in the earth," she says, "The more I felt like myself."
Speaking of power, this is the second episode of our special Power miniseries that we're doing to coincide with the new Power issue of Cherry Bombe's print magazine, which is out this week. We spotlighted more than 100 women in the worlds of food, drink, and hospitality who are using their power in interesting, inspiring, and innovative ways.
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Now, let's check in with today's guest, Katina Connaughton. Welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Katina Connaughton:
Thank you for having me.
Kerry Diamond:
So exciting to have you here. It's so funny that we saw each other in Park City, Utah, and here we are in Hell's Kitchen, New York.
Katina Connaughton:
I know, a bit of a contrast.
Kerry Diamond:
Just a little bit.
Katina Connaughton:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Just a little bit, but welcome to New York.
Katina Connaughton:
Thank you. I feel welcomed.
Kerry Diamond:
Good. How has the city been treating you?
Katina Connaughton:
It's been wonderful. Everyone has been so great. We have been staging the space where we are currently residing, and I went to Chelsea Garden Center and picked up a bunch of trees and planters, found some very gracious Uber drivers who carried it all back with me. And so I mean, everyone has been lovely and I love the stark contrast of the city life versus where we live out in the countryside, which is very different, very sleepy. There's a frequency about this city that is undeniably just energizing.
Kerry Diamond:
So many people in the food world live in New York City for at least a little bit just to get that experience of the restaurants here and all those things, or maybe their career brings them here for whatever reason, but you've never lived here at all, right?
Katina Connaughton:
I have not, no.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you think you could? You're such a California girl.
Katina Connaughton:
That's a great question. Some days when I am visiting, I feel like I can, I feel like it would be really wonderful for me. I spend my life talking to plants and animals and really connected to the natural world, and so I think that I would learn a lot about myself here in the city and it would be fabulous, but also I'm almost 50. I'm pretty deeply rooted out in the countryside, so I don't know the exact answer to that question. I wouldn't say no to it, and I know that the country is so accessible here as well, and so you kind of have the best of both worlds.
Kerry Diamond:
I love that you said deeply rooted. I feel like that could be the title of your memoir.
Katina Connaughton:
Perhaps. Yes, quite apt.
Kerry Diamond:
You're working here, you're not here on vacation, but I'm sure you want to sneak out and see a few things with your husband. What's on your list of things to see?
Katina Connaughton:
We are just wandering about. I mean, we had dumplings at midnight and went on a pizza crawl that actually ended at the first place because we ate so much, visiting friends, eating delicious food, and then we're going up to the countryside, actually, and experiencing that mode of life. So we are just here to take it all in. Open hearts, open minds.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay, so tell folks why you're here. Big project.
Katina Connaughton:
Yeah, big project. So we are here to share an experience with guests that we have really felt is extremely meaningful. It's really our opportunity to turn the focus away from us and onto this greater ecosystem that exists around us. It's been a great project. We are integrating eight documentary-style films, short films, into a dining experience. And each night when we're highlighting a dish, we get to highlight just about 30, 40 seconds of the importance of this dish, why it exists in the first place, whether it's the literal dish that it is served on, the ingredients, whatever inspired it, and so it's kind of just the tip of the iceberg that we get to share, but really what is so important and so meaningful for us is what's beneath the water, and that is this larger community that is doing really important social, cultural, environmental work. We're here to tell their stories.
Kerry Diamond:
It's really one of the most unique dining experiences I've ever had. The whole experience is called ThroughLine.
Katina Connaughton:
It is, yes.
Kerry Diamond:
And it's a documentary broken into eight parts, like you said, and there's a corresponding course that goes with each. How did this all come about in the first place? Because when you explain it to people, "Oh, you're going to sit there and watch a movie and then eat and then watch and then eat," it's hard for some people to wrap their heads around it. It's an incredibly beautiful experience, but it's not one we've really seen in the food world before.
Katina Connaughton:
Thank you. I think it really just goes to the ability to have a platform and to tell that greater story. These stories are worthy of being told, they're people who are walking through life with so much integrity and doing really important work out there, and all these craftspeople and environmentalists and beyond, we get to be the front-facing stewards of this larger community. It feels like a tremendous sense of responsibility to be able to share their stories.
Kerry Diamond:
How did the whole idea come about?
Katina Connaughton:
Well, there is a movie theater in town, beloved movie theater community spot that closed down during the pandemic, so we kept walking by it and saw it was for lease. There is a new smaller art house film center opening in town, and so we kind of had that box ticked and just started to imagine what could be done in this space and always wanting to push the boundaries and really be able to illuminate this larger community around us. We realized, "Well, what if we take on this theater and create an experience where we're able to tell stories throughout a dining experience?" So it was very organic in the sense that this theater just presented itself as an opportunity and we just wanted to be able to take what we do to the next level and to be storytellers.
Kerry Diamond:
So is this sort of the equivalent of a Broadway show kind of heading out to Boston to test the show a little bit?
Katina Connaughton:
I think so.
Kerry Diamond:
Are you kind of testing it on the road before you-
Katina Connaughton:
Yeah, we really are. Yes, we-
Kerry Diamond:
... bring it to Broadway?
Katina Connaughton:
We are, and all of the guests thus far have been so gracious and really accepting of something that feels a little bit new. It's a little bit disruptive, I think, to what a conventional dining experience is, and I feel like it's being embraced. People are leaving fulfilled, enriched, thinking, processing what they just saw, what they learned. That for us is everything.
Kerry Diamond:
We'll be right back with today's guest. The new issue of Cherry Bombe's print magazine is out right now, and it's our first ever Power issue. We spotlight more than 100 women doing amazing things in the world of food, drink, and hospitality, including today's guest, Katina Connaughton. You can order a single issue or subscribe at cherrybombe.com. If you are a subscriber already, thank you. You can also pick up a copy at your favorite bookstore or magazine shop.
It was just so nice to see all these artisans and fisher folk and other farmers and growers and producers celebrated in a way that they're not usually. When you go into a restaurant, what do you have? The menu maybe to tell their story on or sometimes you train the servers to be able to come out and talk a little bit about the producers. And it's always sort of like, "Does the guest want to hear this? Do they not want to hear this?"
Katina Connaughton:
Sure.
Kerry Diamond:
I mean, I'm a nerd. Put it all on the menu, I'll read it. Recite it to me, that's great.
Katina Connaughton:
Same.
Kerry Diamond:
As long as I'm not starving, put some nuts or bread on my table and I'll listen to anything. But this is just so different and so special. It was so nice to see some people we know and love like Stephanie Mutz, who's the famous sea urchin diver for Mountain California, just lots of artisans people will recognize. How did you even go about choosing who would be in the documentary?
Katina Connaughton:
Well, we could honestly film several more documentaries because this community around us that enables us to be able to do what we do is so vast. Their stories are so, as I said, worthy of being told. So I think what we did is we just honed in on what we felt were some very pivotal people in our lives and just kind of ran with it. There was of course the accessibility. We needed to make sure that we were going to have entry points into these storytellers and to be able to follow a bit of their life with us. And we went to Japan and filmed there, and Stephanie is a dear friend of ours and we love to tell her stories. In fact, I mean she's the quintessential example of creating a business where she is supplying a luxury product, but the luxury product is really the byproduct of the environmental work that she's doing.
Kerry Diamond:
As you just said, part of this was filmed in Japan. This was not a small undertaking. What was it from start to finish and how many places did you have to travel? What was it like having cameras follow you, all those things?
Katina Connaughton:
Well, we have been filming with a dear friend of ours, Justin Taylor Smith. In fact, he was just nominated for an Emmy for another documentary that he did. And he makes it very seamless, I feel. Because he is so warm and so welcoming, the cameras didn't feel invasive at all. He was just bringing cameras and microphones into our space, which of course does feel a little unnatural to a degree, but I think the way he went about it just felt very graceful.
Kerry Diamond:
What was the process? How long was it?
Katina Connaughton:
We had been working on this for about a year.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, wow.
Katina Connaughton:
So off and on.
Kerry Diamond:
And the whole filming took about a year?
Katina Connaughton:
It did. Filming, editing, and then just of course trying to realize what this could be and to be able to roll it out. This is all still very much in the preliminary phases, but we feel confident that it could go somewhere and we're just really proud of it. We're really proud to be able to tell these stories.
Kerry Diamond:
You could tell how proud you two are and how proud your team is. And that was another nice part of ThroughLine, each team member really got to come out and talk about what they do and their connection to the people in the film. I thought that was so special.
Katina Connaughton:
Yeah, thank you. We're proud of this team. Just to be able to work alongside them inspires us every day.
Kerry Diamond:
It's so hard to have a restaurant these days.
Katina Connaughton:
You don't say.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh my God, everybody out there is just holding it together. God bless you, and we're all rooting for you. I'm so happy for your success. You and Kyle have done so well and just to hear that you were able to buy a theater makes my heart sing because now you get to do all these other interesting things and you get to hire more people and really push the idea of like, "What does it mean to be a chef today? What does it mean to have a restaurant?"
Katina Connaughton:
Yeah, definitely. I didn't realize was going to be so massive in our lives is to continue to find ways to create opportunities for this team to grow with us. We have an incredible team. They have so much potential and are so motivated, so ambitious. We want to be able to create different facets of the business for them to continue to launch their professional careers.
Kerry Diamond:
And also just inspiring everyone to think differently. Pop-ups are super popular right now, but just really reinforcing that a restaurant doesn't have to be what it's been for centuries.
Katina Connaughton:
Yeah, definitely. And it's not all about us. I mean, even when guests come to SingleThread, we tell them like, "This is your journey, your miracle. This is about you and time-share it with your guests. We're just here to facilitate this and to help create a memory for you." And so this experience is not unlike that. It's like while, yes, once again we get to present the dish, we are the ones who are talking about it. The films are the opportunity to tell those stories and it's just so important. We couldn't do what we do without this greater community around us and it's so important to continue to support them.
I mean, I was just walking through the city yesterday. There are modern conveniences all around us and franchises, and in amongst these franchises there was this little Italian deli and it had a line out the door, which was fabulous to see that this multi-generational deli was the busiest place of course on the block, but I think oftentimes people just kind of fall a little bit victim to the modern conveniences. And so if we don't continue to support these people who are doing just really great things, then they'll cease to exist. We don't want that to happen.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Let's talk about you. I know that's your least favorite topic to talk about.
Katina Connaughton:
It truly is.
Kerry Diamond:
You are a farmer. You never knew you were going to be a farmer one day. How does one become a farmer by accident?
Katina Connaughton:
That's a great question. I think one becomes whatever they're meant to be when they are seeking their true identity. And that is how I fell into this role. I did not know that was going to be my path, but I cannot imagine doing anything else.
Kerry Diamond:
So let's talk about where you are today and then we're going to time-travel because there's a lot to your story. So, SingleThread today is a restaurant and a farm.
Katina Connaughton:
It is.
Kerry Diamond:
You are in charge of the farm.
Katina Connaughton:
Yes. So the farm is 24 acres. I am farming just right in the heart of wine country, and it is a beautiful space to be.
Kerry Diamond:
Healdsburg, right?
Katina Connaughton:
It is in Healdsburg, it's about 10 minutes if even from the restaurant itself. We purchased this property in 2020. We were on leased land prior to. We could talk about of course, how humbling the natural world is during that time. We were on leased land, we flooded, they coined it the 100-year Flood. We experienced that about three times in five years. So the last flood, we were about 11 feet underwater and realized like, "It's requiring so many resources and so much heart and soul to continue to rebuild this space." And so we needed to move on and find our forever farm and we were lucky enough to be able to do that.
And we are growing right in the middle of wine country, so we're surrounded by vineyards, which is a beautiful space to be, but also it's very much monocropped with grapes and so we're able to bring a lot of biodiversity to the land. Everything is hand-scaled and we're really just taking a lot of time and care and rehabilitating this space and it been extremely fulfilling to see it just become so vigorous and prolific. Everything is moving along the way it needs to be. Of course, not without its challenges, but we accept those.
Kerry Diamond:
Sure. Fire, floods, so many things you need to deal with in California.
Katina Connaughton:
Fires, floods. Absolutely, yes.
Kerry Diamond:
What's going on at the farm right now?
Katina Connaughton:
So we just planted our tomatoes and peppers, peas, snap peas are absolutely singing. Our first sweet peas are blooming, anemones, ranunculus. Our carrots are gorgeous. It is just such an exciting time out there.
Kerry Diamond:
The planning must be so much fun.
Katina Connaughton:
It is. It's a puzzle. All of the crop rotation each season is this wonderful puzzle. In fact, we've been there for four years and so we have now come full circle with a lot of our crops this year, so it's really exciting to see.
Kerry Diamond:
How have you educated yourself?
Katina Connaughton:
A lot of trial and error. I work with incredible people. I have a team that really has become my mentor and mentors in a lot of ways. I feel like when you open your heart and your mind to nature, it really speaks to you. You just have to pay attention to it. In fact, there's so much that we can learn from the natural world. A lot of it also is very intuitive and while of course there is a lot of science that factors into what we do, so much of it is really just being guided by the sun and the moon and ensuring that we're paying attention to what is happening around us.
Kerry Diamond:
And you have a farm stand?
Katina Connaughton:
We do. We have a farm stand, we have a CSA program, lots of different workshops and opportunities for education and just to come out and just exist out there and take a little bit of time to de-stress and be one with the land.
Kerry Diamond:
When is the farm stand open? Is it a seven-day-a-week operation?
Katina Connaughton:
It is five days a week. We kind of change seasonally. Winter goes a little bit quiet for us. While we're growing all year, it does get kind of cold and wet and a bit muddy out there. And so-
Kerry Diamond:
But you're still open now?
Katina Connaughton:
We are still open, yes. So we're like 10:00 to 4:00 each day, and that's variable.
Kerry Diamond:
And what can I buy at the farm stand?
Katina Connaughton:
All manner of vegetables, fruits, cut flowers, and then a lot of products that we make, a lot of preservation products because of course there is such a bounty throughout different seasons and our culinary team loves to preserve that bounty. So that is on offer as well as a lot of donabe, different things that we cook with in the restaurant, and different things that of course we're inspired by and products that a lot of the artisans that we have formed relationships carry.
Kerry Diamond:
All right, I have a lot of follow-up questions. You all love a donabe like nobody else?
Katina Connaughton:
Yes, we do.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell us what that is.
Katina Connaughton:
So donabe is an earthenware pot, and the clay comes from a lake called Lake Biwa, so it's very fossilized clay, very even heat retention throughout this pot. While it kind of hearkens back to old times, it's a means of modern cooking as well. It's incredible, so we use them pretty much for everything. My husband Kyle wrote a book on them. I am not the expert. However, I'd love to dabble and haven't done me wrong.
Kerry Diamond:
It's so beautiful watching your team work with those because they are like pieces of art.
Katina Connaughton:
They really are. They're lovely.
Kerry Diamond:
And go back to the preserves and other things that you sell that the team makes. What can folks expect to find?
Katina Connaughton:
Yes, so we make this great, we call it a chunky la-yu or a farm la-yu, so a chili sauce that is just so delicious and it's chilies from the farm, peppers from the farm, negi, which is a long Japanese onion, garlic, sesame seeds that we grow on the farm. And so that's probably one of our favorites. And then all other preserves, whether they're strawberries, we grow so many strawberries. We lived in Japan for a few years and the town where we lived was famous for strawberries. And so my goal has been to grow strawberries as delicious as those in this little town, tiny town in Hokkaido. Luckily, we're able to, they're gorgeous, and so lots of preservation projects there.
Kerry Diamond:
How do you work with Kyle and the culinary team? Do you suggest things that you love to grow? Do they suggest things that they would love to work with?
Katina Connaughton:
It's a little bit of both. It has taken us a little bit of time to develop a relationship and a means of communication that is super effective between the farm and the kitchen. I mean, I'm married to the chef, he's married to the farmer, so we get to have a lot of pillow talk about turnips, etc. However, the team of course is much larger than Kyle and I, and so we have created these really beautiful channels of communication. And it's a lot of, they inspire us and we want to inspire them and there's nothing more inspiring for chefs, I feel, than bringing in this beautifully colorful textural produce from the field as it's coming in and it's starting to just hit that absolute peak of flavor and texture, it's just gorgeous, into the kitchen and creating those means of inspiration that just stokes the fires of creativity unlike anything as a line item on an availability list.
And so we're constantly bringing product in, they're coming out to the field, doing field walks every week, but it's really just keeping those lines of communication open. We want to inspire them and they definitely inspire us.
Kerry Diamond:
Are there any fruit or veg that you sort of have to advocate for-
Katina Connaughton:
Oh, that's a great question.
Kerry Diamond:
... that chefs don't love as much as you?
Katina Connaughton:
There are some things that we grow specifically for us and our team that we do not grow for the kitchen, so we kind of have our little farm team plot that we keep for ourselves. But no, they're pretty accepting of everything and challenge us and we love to challenge them as well.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. What are some of the things on your plot that don't make it to the kitchen?
Katina Connaughton:
Jalapenos, cilantro. There's just some things that don't necessarily fall into the narrative of the menu as gracefully as they fall into the menu within our home kitchen, so we grow them for us.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you have a farm kitchen?
Katina Connaughton:
We do have a farm kitchen. Actually, we just built our family home on the farm and just moved in. So we have a studio kitchen where we're really excited to be able to do some fun things in there and just to have our home talk about deeply rooted. We lived such a transient lifestyle for so long, so this is a really big deal for us to have been able to build a home and be able to truly have that stability.
Kerry Diamond:
That's wonderful.
Katina Connaughton:
Thanks.
Kerry Diamond:
So you have so many components. You've got, like we just talked about, the restaurant, the farm, the theater that will be coming. You also have a hotel?
Katina Connaughton:
We do. We have five guest rooms, yes.
Kerry Diamond:
How did that come about?
Katina Connaughton:
Well, we always wanted the experience for guests to feel as though they were coming to our home. We love breakfast, we love just very genuine, warm hospitality. So having the five guest rooms allows for guests to feel that intimacy coming to the home of a husband and wife who are a farmer and chef, and just be able to go upstairs after their dining experience. And then of course we love breakfast. Breakfast is just another expression of the farm and creativity of the chefs, and so we really wanted to be able to provide that.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you think you'll ever do like a cafe or something just different from what you have right now?
Katina Connaughton:
In the theater space, we are working on a patisserie. The future's unwritten, and so we're so open to it. We're currently working on these specific projects that we've been talking about. But yeah, we're so open.
Kerry Diamond:
You mentioned to everybody that you spent time in Japan. I want to go back to the beginning a little bit so folks will understand how you wound up in Japan. When did you and Kyle meet each other?
Katina Connaughton:
So Kyle and I met when we were 15 and 16. We were just babies. We met at a punk rock show. It was love at first sight. It was quite the cosmic connection in our teenage years. We just had such a connection and I met him that night and then he ended up at my high school just two months later and I said, "Oh my gosh, there he is." And he said, "There she is." We've been together for 33 years this year. It's been a really wonderful journey.
Kerry Diamond:
That is unbelievable. So when you met each other, did you have hopes and dreams for the future? Did you have any sense of what you wanted to maybe be when you grew up? I mean, you were 15 and 16.
Katina Connaughton:
Yeah, I can't say that I did necessarily. He wanted to be a chef from a very young age. He knew at nine years old exactly what he wanted to do. My journey was definitely not that straightforward. I was very open to possibilities. I just knew also that I wanted to see the world. I wasn't raised in a very global environment and I knew there was so much more out there than what I had been exposed to. As soon as I graduated high school, I worked, saved all my money, and bought my first international trip to England to go with a friend who had family out there and got my passport. And so it was kind of the beginning for me to see the world. Little did I know that when I returned, I would be getting pregnant, so things changed a little bit. However, we still had big dreams, Kyle and I, and we've got this little one that we're going to have to raise and shape.
Kerry Diamond:
You had a few “Romeo and Juliet” years there?
Katina Connaughton:
We certainly did, yes. And so-
Kerry Diamond:
Not everyone was on board with-
Katina Connaughton:
Not everyone was on board, no. And we had a lot of people tell us that we were crazy, but we still wanted to pursue Kyle's culinary dreams. And my dreams of course kind of took shape as a mother and a young wife, and then we had our second daughter and were able to work towards what would begin, I think one of the greatest adventures of our life, which was moving to a very small fishing village in Hokkaido, Japan.
Kerry Diamond:
Why was Kyle so drawn to Japan? That was such a huge influence on him as a young man.
Katina Connaughton:
Yeah, it really was. I don't know if past lives exist, perhaps they do. Perhaps he spent time there, perhaps he was Japanese. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that, but it's very much ingrained in him. His dad took him for sushi when he was very young, and that made such an impact. His parents had Japanese foreign exchange students come and spend time in their home. The more he learned about the culture and just I think the food itself and beautiful simplicity of it, the more he felt connected to himself. So it's just something that he's very drawn to.
Kerry Diamond:
How old were you both when you moved to Japan?
Katina Connaughton:
27, I believe. It's a lifetime ago.
Kerry Diamond:
And you didn't move to a big city?
Katina Connaughton:
No.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell us about the city you moved to, or town.
Katina Connaughton:
Yeah, tiny fishing village in the north island. It was famous for strawberries, pork, and scallops. Every year they would have a festival that would culminate these things together. It was just wonderfully odd and Japanese, and it was very humbling. We had just each other and our daughters went to public school there, so they learned the language very quickly. They were fluent. I was extremely humbled because they were communicating for me at train stations, doctors' offices. I learned a lot of compassion for those who have English as a second language here in this country. We had to learn a lot about each other and how to lean on one another and really just seek that comfort and strength in each other when times felt a little challenging.
Kerry Diamond:
And Kyle's told the story he was working around the clock.
Katina Connaughton:
He was.
Kerry Diamond:
How did you deal with that, I'm guessing, sense of isolation you must've felt?
Katina Connaughton:
Yeah, definitely. I think I was so in tune with ensuring that our daughters felt secure at that time, that they felt that they were strengthened by this experience, that I threw so much energy into being a mom and ensuring their safety. Of course, Japan is very safe, but we were living in a very snowy environment. We had to drive 25 minutes to do our laundry. There was just a lot of things that were challenging, very different for me. I was so focused on ensuring that the comforts of their lives were felt around them. That became my role.
Kerry Diamond:
Did the interest in farming start to take root there?
Katina Connaughton:
It did in hindsight, so I kind of attribute my journey akin to nature where oftentimes there are seeds that get dispersed via wind and other events, and they're not able to germinate and flourish until there's a disruption, whether it's a wildfire or a frost, something really has to happen for them to become what they're meant to be. And so I feel like that time in Japan was one of those seeds that was planted within and was lying dormant until there was a disruption. Of course, it was the first time that I was really exposed to seasonality and locality, and coming from a suburb in Los Angeles area didn't really have a connection to my food systems. I didn't grow up with fresh food around me. And so this was really eye-opening to me and we had farms all around us and really leaned into that seasonality. It was life-changing.
Kerry Diamond:
The next chapter brings you to England.
Katina Connaughton:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Why did you move to England?
Katina Connaughton:
So we moved to England, where Kyle had received a position as the head of research and development at The Fat Duck, which was really an extraordinary time.
Kerry Diamond:
Heston Blumenthal's restaurant?
Katina Connaughton:
With Heston Blumenthal, yes. And so it was an exceptional time for The Fat Duck itself, for Kyle, it's really shaped a lot of who he is as a chef and as a person. And so we were there when we found ourselves in Henley-on-Thames. We were about 45 minutes outside of London and also living in the countryside, just a new mode of life to have to learn how to navigate through. English, of course, was a very easy language to communicate in. It was different culturally, and I think we were a little bit shell-shocked coming from tiny village in Japan where we were very much embraced by the community, very taken care of and guided through life there, to feeling in some ways a little bit more isolated in a country where we had all of the conveniences that we were accustomed to.
Kerry Diamond:
Interesting. I was going to ask about what I imagine was cultural whiplash.
Katina Connaughton:
Definitely, yes.
Kerry Diamond:
That also sounds like a job that Kyle just couldn't say no to.
Katina Connaughton:
Oh, yeah. It was once a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Kerry Diamond:
But how did you feel about having to uproot your life once again?
Katina Connaughton:
I just felt like I needed to trust the process and it was best for our family and it was best for his career, and at this point we had thrown so much into his career. It was an exciting opportunity for our daughters. I really wanted them to grow up globally-minded. We knew that of course being in England, we would have the rest of Europe kind of within the backyard and accessible to us, and so we would have the opportunity to travel more.
Kerry Diamond:
You do get a little bit more into farming-
Katina Connaughton:
I do.
Kerry Diamond:
...in England?
Katina Connaughton:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell us about that.
Katina Connaughton:
So we were living on this Victorian estate with all of these gardens. They were absolutely gorgeous, but a lot of the culinary crops that were grown there were grown for ornamental purposes. I was also working as a-
Kerry Diamond:
Wait, explain to us, like ornamental squashes and kale, things like that?
Katina Connaughton:
Each beet held a very specific purpose in the aesthetics of these gardens. And so I was going to the local grocery store to buy beets to prepare for the family that I was cooking for, I was working as a personal chef at the time, and mind you, had no professional cooking experience at all, so I was really stepping outside of my comfort zone again.
Kerry Diamond:
Were you faking it until you made it?
Katina Connaughton:
Oh, definitely. Calling Kyle a lot, reading every book I could. I mean, actually I learned so much about myself. This was important for me. I unlocked a lot within myself unknowingly, but I was so stressed out every day just trying to figure out how to be what I needed to be in that moment, but I did learn a lot. So, anyways, I was going to the grocery store, purchasing produce, and seeing these beautiful vegetables growing right there on site and starting to just kind of challenge what was happening. Actually, we just went back two years ago to visit that home and family and they have a full culinary garden now.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, that must make you so happy.
Katina Connaughton:
It just warmed my heart to no end, yes. So, anyways, it just kind of became undeniable as well, that just the importance of having all of that accessible and being able to utilize it and how nutrient-dense it is when you're pulling it straight from the earth and that earth is alive and serving it to people who really want to feel invigorated. And so I made that connection at that point, but it wasn't without challenge.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you start doing some small-scale farming over there?
Katina Connaughton:
Not really. I mean, I dabbled a bit in the gardens, but they had a full team and I befriended the gardeners and so I learned a lot through them. But my focus was really on cooking, so I spent a lot of time in the kitchen where I was able to make the connection between nutrients and how we prepare it and serve it. Also, just kind of learn that means of hospitality as well.
Kerry Diamond:
So the next chapter.
Katina Connaughton:
The next chapter.
Kerry Diamond:
Back to California.
Katina Connaughton:
Yes, next chapter, back to California.
Kerry Diamond:
Were you ready to come home?
Katina Connaughton:
I was ready. I was really ready. First year in England was glorious. The weather was beautiful. It was just... I mean, I remember when we arrived-
Kerry Diamond:
Says no one though, about England.
Katina Connaughton:
Well, wait, it was so beautiful. I remember arriving there and the sky was a shade of blue I had never seen before. The clouds were fluffy, it was just romantic and so amazing. And then it rained every year thereafter. So I think that started to get to me a little bit, but also I had been away from home for a long time. Our daughters were getting older, I was getting older. I had thrown so much of my life into being a mom, being a wife, being a supporter of this family, which I love beyond anything in this world, but I started to feel very empty when I looked within. I was also just a little bit scared. I've given so much to everyone else, I don't really know who I am. And so the return to California, it was profound to say the least.
Kerry Diamond:
So you decide you're going to come back. Was that for a specific opportunity?
Katina Connaughton:
So we came back to California, our daughters were getting older. Our oldest daughter was to start high school, and so we thought it'd be great for her to have that full four consistent years in high school. And so that was a big motivation that we came back. And as I mentioned, I just didn't know who I was. I saw Kyle and his career was just really just gaining momentum and he was becoming more self-assured. Our daughters were growing into these just exceptional just young women. I needed to figure out who I was. And so I think through a lot of discomfort in my life, I took some steps to seek out some education and different avenues of inspiration to be totally transparent. I mean, I really found my path when I was completely broken and needed to find myself and started gardening just kind of as something that I felt very drawn to and much like I was saying, those seeds had been planted within me from earlier experiences and it just started to take shape.
I realized that nurturing these crops from seed to harvest was very comfortable for me, very fulfilling. It just felt graceful in a way that I hadn't for a very long time. So the further I stuck my hands in the earth, the more I felt like myself, and so I just really dove into that and continued to further educate myself. I found where I was meant to be, and then it started to make sense where I could collaborate with Kyle, but I didn't originally see myself within this dream of having a restaurant. This is also where SingleThread started to take shape because originally, we didn't have the farm component. When I discovered who I was meant to be and really what brought me joy and what brought me a purpose in life, that's kind of where the whole concept began to take life.
Kerry Diamond:
That's incredible. How long ago did you open SingleThread?
Katina Connaughton:
Eight years ago.
Kerry Diamond:
Wow.
Katina Connaughton:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
We don't talk about people's ages very much on the show, but do you mind me asking, how old were you when all this was going on, when you realized that farming was your calling?
Katina Connaughton:
I was mid-30s.
Kerry Diamond:
Because a lot of folks feel like if you don't know these things early-
Katina Connaughton:
Oh no...
Kerry Diamond:
...you can't discover them later in life.
Katina Connaughton:
Yeah. Well, may I be an example to many? And it's not the polished story that I think some people want to hear. It's not as straightforward as Kyle's and I would measure myself to my partner who was very self-assured and very focused, just had so much certainty as to who he was and was meant to be and felt so empty next to him. I found myself much later in life, it feels good to have that self-assurance, actually the older I get, the more certain I am that I'm doing what I'm meant to be doing.
Kerry Diamond:
Maybe it's the name SingleThread, people want it to be nice and neat.
Katina Connaughton:
Yeah, maybe. That's true, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Sometimes it's not.
Katina Connaughton:
Yeah, but it is a little gritty. It's a little dirty and-
Kerry Diamond:
A few knots in that thread.
Katina Connaughton:
Yeah, definitely. And I think a lot of beauty for me flourished from a very dark and broken place.
Kerry Diamond:
What would you tell folks out there who maybe right now they think they're too old, they think they studied the wrong thing in school, they have the wrong job? The world is a really challenging place right now.
Katina Connaughton:
Yeah, it really is. I would just say that, I don't know, open your mind and your heart to possibilities and seek opportunity where you can and follow joy. I think a lot about ambition and our purpose in life and how we feel so much pressure to change the world. I don't expect to change the world by any means. If I can have an impact on this little tiny space of earth that I get to tend to, if I can maybe teach somebody about farming practices and/or show them how to fall in love with seasonal flowers or just even acknowledge flowers or nature around them, then that for me is just a life well lived. So I think defining what joy and a life well lived means to you and chasing that, but never give up.
Kerry Diamond:
Never give up. Absolutely. Who are some of your heroes?
Katina Connaughton:
The people that I surround myself with every day. They work through adversity, they inspire me each day, they are exceptional. I get to walk alongside my heroes. My heroes are my daughters who are the necessary change that needs to happen in this world. They have grown up and developed into these very strong and courageous women, and I learned so much from them at all times. Our oldest daughter is getting her master's degree right now in feminist medieval literature, and she is just so cool. She's a drummer and she's just incredible. So to think that these teenagers brought just the most amazing human into the world is just like it's everything to me. And our youngest daughter is so fabulous and she is a bass player. So both daughters are musicians and she has such a big heart and she is spending her life in pursuit of dog rescue. And like anything else that is just really community driven that just... So wonderful for us.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, they both sound awesome.
Katina Connaughton:
They're awesome.
Kerry Diamond:
And you completely lit up talking about them.
Katina Connaughton:
They're way cooler than we could ever be.
Kerry Diamond:
Are you and Kyle still into punk rock?
Katina Connaughton:
We are. We are into punk rock, we're into many things. After being together for so long and being through so much together also, we have hit a stride that feels really nice. We choose each other. I think in the beginning of our relationship, of course, we were so young and had so much to figure it out. We were just this frightened family and really needed to make something of our lives for these humans that we brought into the world and of course for ourselves. But we've gone past that and now we're older and we see each other for who we are. We accept one another and we choose each other, so it feels really nice to not have any conflict in our bones as to who we're meant to be with.
Kerry Diamond:
I like that was your answer about punk rock, that managing to still be together and in love is a very punk rock thing.
Katina Connaughton:
Definitely. I think a lot of the punk rock spirit actually has allowed us to get to where we are in this lifetime. A lot of having to be against the grain, a lot of grit, a lot of perseverance, a lot of people telling us, "No, you're crazy to do that." And turning that around into, "Well, we'll show you. This is important to us. We're going to do it."
Kerry Diamond:
Well, you two look very punk rock also. I absolutely loved seeing that prom photo of the two of you when you were, what, 16 and 17? And Kyle's got the spiky-
Katina Connaughton:
Oh, yeah, just great.
Kerry Diamond:
... platinum blonde hair. But today, I think if someone were to bump into you, they would think you had been in an indie rock band and were maybe getting the band back together, go play Coachella or something.
Katina Connaughton:
That's really nice, thank you. I think it's funny. I have these tattoos of course all over me. Well, so when Kyle and I met, he had some tattoos and I just thought he was the coolest. So two months later, we got each other's names tattooed on us. And needless to say, my parents were very displeased. They still are, but I also am a very gentle soul. And so I think for me, it feels like I've enjoyed having a little bit of what maybe could seem intimidating. However, all my tattoos are flowers and just really lovely things, but I've enjoyed having a little bit more of a tougher persona, but really it's just flowers.
Kerry Diamond:
I don't know if this is the right way to put this, but the least punk rock thing about you two is probably this world you find yourselves in now of Michelin stars and 50 Best, and that's a whole rarefied world that you didn't grow up in necessarily, but now find yourself in because of your commitment to yourselves, your team, your community, commitment to excellence. How do you square those two things?
Katina Connaughton:
I think we pursue our love of being able to cook and farm and support this greater community. And of course, hospitality runs through all of that for us. It is truly coming from a place of authentic self, so it is with that punk rock spirit. So we do it in a way to where we don't feel like we need to conform to these Michelin or fine-dining standards. We do it in a way that feels very true to who we are.
Kerry Diamond:
That comes through.
Katina Connaughton:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
Absolutely. Okay. I'm not going to put you through the speed round, but I will ask you the final question. And you can't answer Kyle, so it's going to be painful for you. But if you had to be trapped on a desert island with one food celebrity, who would it be and why?
Katina Connaughton:
One food celebrity, and it can't be Kyle? He's my favorite chef. I'm going to say Farmer Lee Jones, because we're going to grow our own food and I find him to be so charming. I'm going to take the farmer route. Food celebrity, indeed. I'm going to go with Farmer Lee.
Kerry Diamond:
I'd want to be stuck with you.
Katina Connaughton:
Oh.
Kerry Diamond:
We would never starve.
Katina Connaughton:
We would never starve.
Kerry Diamond:
No.
Katina Connaughton:
Oh my gosh. We would just be island-fed the entire time.
Kerry Diamond:
All right. Well, Katina, thank you. I know you guys are so busy right now with the ThroughLine pop-up. I really appreciate you coming up here and talking to us.
Katina Connaughton:
Thank you, Kerry. It's always a joy seeing you.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Thank you to Veuve Clicquot for supporting Radio Cherry Bombe, and to Katina Connaughton. We'll be back next Wednesday for another Power episode. If you missed our first Power episode with Kristen Kish, bestselling author and top chef host, be sure to check it out. Our theme song is by the band Tralala, Joseph Hazan is the studio engineer at Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Special thanks to the team at CityVox Studios. Our producers are Tarkor Zehn, Catherine Baker, and Jenna Sadhu. And our editorial coordinator is Sophie Kies. Thanks for listening, everybody. You are the Bombe. And don't forget, use your power for good.