Ojai, California: On Assignment with Jeffrey Moss | Pottery Barn

On Assignment with Jeffrey Moss The Art of Living Ojai California
I'm Jeffrey Moss on assignment for Pottery Barn.
Pottery Barn selected locations in Ojai, Californa for shooting it's Fall season.
Spending time there meant meeting people who, in various ways, have made the Art of Living a personal and lifelong endeavour.
I enjoyed meeting Ron and Alice Asquith at their olive farm,
and tasting the fruits of their labor.
The one I'm pouring now is a certified organic olive oil.
It is made from one French and is blended with two Italian olives.
Last year it won us a prize as one of the
fifty best organic virgin oils in the world.
Really? Yeah.
I feel like I can really taste the fruit in this.
There's a um... I don't find that to always be the case with olive oil.
The next one has a stronger or more robust flavor to it,
I can see what you're saying. It's delicious!
I built this kitchen to live my life!
Meet Anna Thomas.
I was lucky to taste Anna's artful home cooking,
and congratulate her on her recent nomination for a James Beard award
for her newest vegetarian cookbook, Love Soup.
I'm delighted to be in the running!
My friend Larry, who has this farm, 0:01:32.750,0:01:34.800 had brought me all these pumpkins
and I decided today to make the great pumpkin soup using kabocha squash,
cannellini beans that were simmered with sage leaves, as you can see. Mmmmm yes!
Here I've got a little bit of vegetable broth
In which I've got my little bit of potato that's started here.
And then my secret weapon. Leeks maybe?
A well caramelized onion!
This is an onion and a leek together. Mmmmm!
We're adding some nice dark green swiss chard.
A little bit of lemon juice.
Because the sweet and the sour, you know, everything together. Yeah!
Just a tiny bit of cilatnro.
We're gonna let this simmer and then we'll season it with a little pepper,
maybe a pinch of red pepper.
Home cooking, in the most fundamental kind of way,
you're cooking for people you love!
Pottery Barn shot at an historic Ojai home
recently remodeled by Kelley McDowell.
I was wowed by her collections
and was caught up by her passion for folk art and other things she loves.
Really everything in this house, if you look, is a collection.
The advertising collection is always an ongoing thing that we like.
Friction toys. The hillclimbers are from about the 1880s to the 1920s.
These silhouettes are so beautiful. Yeah.
That's a Bellamy eagle.
He's one of the premier eagle and flag carvers in America
and we just kind of like that motif.
You know it's funny, my husband being English
he was very obsessed, in the beginning, with all things American
with the sort of handmade, whimsical quality.
and that's basically the theme of the whole collection I would say.
What's the current collection, what's currently keeping you up at night?
What's currently keeping me up at night? Three small boys. Ha ha ha ha!
The collection of boys, I never do anything in singles.
These are the boys here as they've grown? Yep, as they've grown.
And now the little fifteen month old
goes and stands there. He doesn't know what he's doing
but he stands there - He kind of wait's-
Yeah. It's the cutest thing, he's so cute.
I always enjoy shoots with photographer Victoria Pearson.
You might recognize from Pottery Barn catalogs the comfy spot in Vicky's home
where we sat down to chat about the Art of Living.
Well first I had one of those box cameras. Like a brownie?
I'll date myself, yeah! A little box you had to hold it down and look through like this.
Then when I was finally old enough to go to school
I studied photography and became really a fashion, movie and celebrity photographer.
It was always about people that I shot, and had quite a career doing that.
And then I started working doing travel photography.
All of a sudden I was shooting things that I was personally interested in
I love looking at homes. I love looking at how people live.
and as I was building my house, working in the valley
the architect said you're not allowed to look at anyone's house anymore
because I would go to Japan and I would come home and say
ok we're gonna do all bamboo now
you know I'd go to France and I wanna do this.
I love seeing the influences of how people live.
I love how you can manifest beauty in your surroundings.
It's not a frivolous thing.
To me it's about comfort and living well and having things be beautiful.
They don't have to be fancy, they can be very humble.
It's a stage for your life.
Pottery Barn. Please visit www.potterybarn.com/onassignment for more behind-the-scenes tips from Jeffrey Moss.