Issue No. 2: Quelcy Kogel, Creative Director, Food Stylist and Cookbook Author
"I feel like what's happening in my 40s is I'm finding roots."
As you can see from the title of this issue, Quelcy Kogel is a true multi-hyphenate—she does all of the above and is also a talented writer and photographer. I remember flagging her byline back in 2016 when I pinned a bunch of photos from a piece she’d written about a stunning Pittsburgh home. Three years later, as my husband Rob and I prepared to move to the ‘Burgh in March 2019, I began checking her blog, With the Grains, for her local recommendations. Now, five years after that, it feels like serendipity to be publishing this interview.
I turned 40 in August 2023, and Quelcy turned 40 in January of this year. As we spoke, we both agreed that we feel an undercurrent of change in of our lives—one that’s spurring change and action.
“I feel like what's happening in my 40s is I’m finding roots,” Quelcy told me. “What’s that quote about how midlife is when the universe is like, ‘Quit fucking around?’ I feel that intensely. I did a tarot reading for New Year’s by myself, and it was like, ‘Trust yourself and go.’”
Quelcy and I sat down together on a sunny February day in the park across from Commonplace Coffee on Pittsburgh’s North Side. We talked about her career trajectory, what it was like to write her cookbook, The Gluten-Free Grains Cookbook (order a copy here), the best and most challenging parts of being a creative in Pittsburgh, and more. Read on for all of it. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
Name: Quelcy Kogel (Quelcy is pronounced like “quell the sea”)
Age: 40
Zodiac sign: Aquarius
What brought you to Pittsburgh?
“I was born in Nebraska, but we moved when I was really little, so for all intents and purposes, I'm a Pennsylvanian. I grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia, then came to Pittsburgh to go to school at Carnegie Mellon.”
What did you study?
“I studied architecture. I was about three-and-a-half years in when I admitted to myself I didn’t want to be an architect. But I gained so much from the environment at Carnegie Mellon. I took advantage of every lecture, every extracurricular. I tried everything. I met so many interesting people. And I do think the conceptual side of architecture really formed the foundation of just how I approach projects, and how I think creatively and conceptually.”
What did you do after you graduated?
“I went to France and worked as a nanny. I had a lot of time to read and write, which was a huge privilege. I came back to Pittsburgh thinking I was going to do an MFA and an AmeriCorps program in urban farming, but the funding was cut.”
“At that point, I was like, I don't know if I want to put money into an MFA if I don't know what I'm going to do with it. I ended up working in a bakery. But I had also worked for Carnegie Mellon’s International Film Festival as an undergrad, and I went back to helping with that in a creative director role. I was writing and screening films, and we brought in a lot of directors to Pittsburgh, including Spike Lee.”
“The whole experience exposed me to different avenues of creativity, including event design. I worked for a startup company and a design-build company and was laid off, which is when I started doing more food styling. I had been wanting a shift in my career, but I often think I need a push from the universe. So I thought, ‘Here I am, I’ll make it work.’”
Tell us about how that styling work ramped up.
“I had a food blog, and I ran into a photographer I’d overlapped with a few years prior. Coming from [an architecture program], I asked him if he would critique my work, and he said, ‘Well, let’s do a shoot.’ We shot something for fun and I liked the styling aspect, so he pulled me in.”
“It's always been kind of a small market here, so I also continued to do a mix of things. I wrote for [the pioneering design blog] Design*Sponge, I've done wedding design, event design and writing, and I worked with Table magazine locally for a long time. In the last two years, I’ve been doing more commercial work.”
What inspired you to start your blog?
“I’ve always had a sweet tooth, but I’m also health conscious and care a lot about where ingredients come from. I started baking cakes for fun but wanted a portfolio. This was the early days of the web, so it was like, do you want to spend months learning how to code? No!
“I resisted blogging for a while, then finally thought, ‘I think this is the thing to do.’ It was around the time when blogs like Design*Sponge were gaining a lot of popularity. It was a small, beautiful time on the Internet when there were personal connections to bloggers and a lot of inspiration. That's when I ran into the photographer and asked him for a critique.
“I still have the blog. I’m just navigating how to prioritize it right now.”
You wrote a cookbook, The Gluten-Free Grains Cookbook, too.
“The thing that almost killed me!”
What was writing it like?
“It was this dream scenario. I got an email from an editor and she asked if I had ever thought about writing a cookbook. I was like, ‘Only every day for 10 years!,’ although I also wondered, ‘Is this a scam?! It doesn’t just happen like this, right?’ But I had worked on a friend’s cookbook [Lindsay Smith’s Eat Your Feelings], so I consulted with her to make sure it was real.
“It wasn’t a traditional publishing track, where you have a fully fleshed out proposal and the book is almost done when you're pitching it. This was so open-ended, aside from the fact that the publisher wanted to do something gluten-free. It took a while to figure out what the book was going to be. The publisher wanted this health-focused book, which is important to me, but I always say my work is more centered around wholesomeness.”
How so?
“I care about where something is coming from; the integrity of the food. Am I using as little processed stuff as possible? Am I making something with care and then, and then enjoying it? I've struggled with not enjoying food, and I didn’t want to just talk about how amaranth is high in [this nutrient], but my editor did.
“I was like, ‘No one wants to read that.’ So I pushed back and, ultimately, did the book I wanted to do as much as I could within the structure [I was given]. I pushed the visuals hard. We finalized the concept in March of that year. I had to have 75 recipes submitted by the end of June, and I could only use one from my blog.”
You must have been working around the clock.
“I lose my appetite when I'm stressed, and it was kind of a blessing and a curse. I had to try the food [I was making], so I still had to nourish myself. It was very intense. I also had to say no to other work, which is hard as a freelancer and just in general. I hoped that jobs would come back, and they did, which was reassuring. But I'm tremendously proud of the book. At the end of the day, it exists, and I can hold it. And there have been meaningful things that have come about because of it that I try to hold on to.”
Like what?
“One woman told me that she felt like a chef because she was making some of my recipes to take to a friend who was going through chemo. To be part of that felt really fulfilling.”
Did you do anything to celebrate submitting the manuscript?
“Because making the book was so stressful, I tried to remind myself that this was the only time I was ever going to submit my first manuscript. So I bought myself a pair of Birkenstocks that day to be a frequent reminder of this thing I did. I think it’s really important that as women, creatives, makers, etc., we pause and try to appreciate [a milestone], even when it’s so freaking hard.”
Do you want to write another cookbook?
“I do. I’m working on a proposal right now.”
What’s the best thing about working in Pittsburgh, especially in a creative field?
“For me—and I fear this is changing—it was the affordability of living here. I've liked the small feel; the friendliness. I understand like there can be privilege and nepotism, but there can also be this really beautiful thing here with people wanting to connect. I think sometimes I take it for granted—but then, for example, a friend came to our house and asked if he could bring someone, and I was like, ‘Of course!’ That person had just moved here from Santa Fe, and he said, ‘It took me two years to be invited to someone’s home there.’ I was like, ‘Oh, honey, we’re best friends now.’
“There’s also this sense of possibility—I think it's still here, and I hope it stays. If I were a food stylist in San Francisco, I would only be tweezing food. It would be the same thing every day. Here in Pittsburgh, I've been able to dabble a lot more [in other projects], and that suits my personality. The connectivity, the word-of-mouth opportunities, the ability to be a multi-hyphenate has been really advantageous here.”
What’s the hardest thing?
“I don’t think Pittsburgh is the most experience-oriented city. I think it’s sometimes a result of the blue-collar mentality that Pittsburgh is rooted in. I value accessibility and can't afford every high-cost event I want to go to, but I’ll pick and choose, and if something's going to be special, I'll invest in that experience. I have close friends who've worked in the art spaces—like museums—and [they’ve told me] it’s hard to get people to support the arts by buying into experiences. What’s always bugged me is that those same people [who don’t want to purchase a ticket to an event] will go out and spend $100 on beer or food, but because that’s not paid in advance, they’re not as conscious of it.”
You live in a beautiful house with your partner, three dogs and cat, and you’re currently designing and renovating it. Can you talk a little about how’s it going?
“I’d love to. We’re about two years into living there, and I’m pretty woo-woo about it. My boyfriend sent me the listing, and it checked every single box. I was losing my mind because I wanted it so badly, and the market was so competitive. We went to tour it, and it was even more magical than I’d believed. We put in an offer and [the sellers] accepted our escalation clause, which is pretty rare. And we ended up getting it. I want to haunt this house. I’ll be here forever. My spirit will live on.
“We had to move out of my childhood home when I was young, and it was a pretty traumatic experience. There’s a lot in this house that is reminiscent of that one, and it feels very healing, in a way—like coming back home.”
That’s such a lovely sentiment.
“I made a pact with the universe to make this house a place of abundance, creativity, and sharing. One of the [ways] we’ve done this is to host a house concert. We have my partner's childhood piano—which incidentally is an 1897 Steinway grand piano—and our friend is the pianist for the Pittsburgh Ballet. He composes music and has other musical friends. Our foyer is made for pianos and Christmas trees, and it brings us a lot of joy to share the space with such talented people.”
Quelcy shares three tried-and-true tips for hosting meaningful gatherings.
Just do it. “We need to come together a lot more in general. Especially post-pandemic—let’s be with our people.”
Hosting doesn’t have to mean killing yourself over the food. “You don’t have to make everything from scratch, but you can still personalize it. Sometimes it’s just getting a bunch of croissants from La Gourmandine and putting fruit around them.”
Store bought really is fine. “I used to use hosting as a deep culinary adventure and would make everything from scratch. But that shouldn’t stand in the way of coming together. You can make a restaurant-quality dish with butternut squash ravioli from Costco. Want to personalize it? Add brown butter, sage and Parmesan, and crisp up some prosciutto. My friends will tell me, ‘Oh my god, you're spoiling me,’ and I'll think, ‘Am I? Because I feel like I'm failing you.’ Those moments have offered me perspective—if my friend comes over and I’m at peace because I’ve rested and taken this ‘cheat,’ then I’m present with them. They’ll remember that more than the multilayered cinnamon-swirl bread I made from scratch.”
Another great profile, I'm loving this series and these interestingly cool women!