The Clever Root

Fall / Winter 2015

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f a l l 2 0 1 5 | 5 1 Diminutive bottles hold the perfumer's bespoke natural perfumes. Aftel has been known to retire a fragrance when it no longer intrigues her. only one weekend a year, her atelier is, in effect, an exotic, olfactory counterpoint to that temple of California cuisine. Her company, Aftelier Perfumes, founded in 1997, caters to the ephemeral world of natural fragrance but her explora- tion and development of its use extends well beyond the traditional sense. Through her long-time collaboration with chef Daniel Patterson, they have further diminished the boundary between smell and taste by amplifying the role that aroma plays in Patterson's cuisine. (See page 54 for our story on Daniel.) The prolific author of seven books, three dating from her earlier career as a psychologist, Aftel and Patterson first col- laborated on Aroma: The Magic of Essential Oils in Foods and Fragrance in 2004 and the two are hard at work on a second volume that further explores the aromatic building blocks of creating flavor in the everyday kitchen. Her seminal work Essence and Alchemy: A Book of Perfume was published in 2001. The award-winning volume has been translated into eight languages and is credited with inspiring a generation of perfumers. Just last year she pub- lished Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent, which explores ways to eat, drink, and create with five natural essences. In the world of fragrance, Aftel is a rare bird. Her insis- tence on using only natural essences has resulted in two decades of sourcing and securing only the finest absolutes, extracts, and essential oils. She transforms these raw mate- rials into perfumes, elixirs, teas, and the botanical essences and sprays being used by chefs like Patterson, chocolatiers, and makers of ice cream and spirits to elevate the smell and taste of their creations. Unlike many in her rarified profession, Aftel doesn't traipse to the far corners of the globe to source her materi- als. She works from the comfort of her immaculate studio with the assistance of her husband, Foster Curry. This al- lows her more time to "be present in my life" and to pursue her craft and her writing. She creates in the embrace of her "organ," a crescent-shaped casement that houses a vast col- lection of natural essences. f a l l / w i n t e r 2 0 1 5 | 5 1

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