When I explain who Mandy Aftel is to people outside the perfume world I often call her the Alice Waters of natural perfume. Both women are pioneers — influential innovators in their respective fields. Just as Waters combined her passion for local, organically grown food with fine cuisine, Aftel combined her love of botanical essences with a sophisticated understanding of perfumery. And they’re neighbors: Aftel lives and works a block from Waters’ famous restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California.

But it wasn’t until my recent conversation with Aftel about her food work that I realized just how deeply involved she was in the culinary world. She has lectured vintners at Coppola Winery and sommeliers at Thomas Keller’s renowned restaurant, The French Laundry. She has taught alongside White House pastry chef Billy Yosses, and worked with a long list of celebrity chefs including Dan Barber, Wylie Dufresne and David Chang. Food scientist Harold McGee has become a friend. McGee’s newest book is on flavor, and he stopped by Aftel’s studio not long ago to sniff a few things and talk about the importance of aroma in food.

“It’s a deep question,” she said, when I asked her about the connections between her perfumery and her food work. “I do go back and forth from food to perfume and perfume to food, but I see them as very, very similar in my mind and I always did.”

“I was eating and cooking before I was a perfumer,” she continued…

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