Crowds of participants spent their Saturday touring four of Malibu’s loveliest homes during the 28th Annual Malibu Cook’s Tour.
Proceeds from the event benefit the Malibu Methodist Nursery School. The chosen homes depict a “Malibu-style” journey, though the elite homes and kitchens viewed have become so much more than a simple tour.
Supervised by Kay Gabbard, along with the many parents listed in the Cook’s Directory, a multitude of volunteers were standing at the ready in each of the four houses to guide tourists and locals through each venue. To top off the day’s journey, the weather in Malibu was familiarly picturesque and warm.
The architectural design of the homes featured work from Ed Niles and Brad Pitt (yes, the movie star who also has a passion for architecture). Food bites were served up by local chefs such as Antonio and Sarah Alessi and Tarcisio Mosconi (of Tra di Noi and soon to open Mangia Italian Eatery in Trancas), Chef Paul Shoemaker, former owner of Savory Restaurant, Chef Noah Threlkeld, executive chef at the old Charlie’s Restaurant, and Michelle Jackson, whose father owned Alice’s on the Malibu Pier.
Malibu hospitality
Each of the homes was a complete blending of dynamic, unusual spaces its residents call home.
The open space design of the Rory Kennedy/Mark Bailey estate is like stepping into a capsule of the Kennedy family’s past and present. The home boasts a Chickering Baby Grand piano, 16th-century peg and groove tables and a multitude of paintings in a presidential league of their own by Ted Kennedy. In a jarring dichotomy, posters of teeny-bopper heartthrobs Taylor Swift and One Direction are also prominently displayed.
The home of former Malibu Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich is a perfect display of the Ed Niles tradition of large open spaces, as is the open-spaced post and beam accompanied by the “lived in” look, open from one end to the other and making for the best use of the Point Dume breezes.
The Saffron/Tim Case home lends its surroundings to a much better canvas of space for Saffron, an interior designer/developer, to ply the best use of her surroundings.
And, saving the amazingly constructed for last, the TIRTHA house, home to John Cadarette and Deirdra Roney, is engulfed in tranquility. Its exterior is both animal- and plant-friendly, with a variety of eclectic pieces like a Buddhist prayer wheel and a Tibetan spiritual gong.
The Malibu Cook’s Tour began 28 years ago when a Malibu Methodist Nursery School parent went on a home tour in Venice and decided Malibu should have a similar tour featuring Malibu homes with fabulous kitchens, as well as local chefs and restaurants.
Guests purchase a ticket, or “passport,” and pick it up from the Malibu Methodist Nursery School in the morning. They then travel from home to home in their own cars and learn about the unique history of the home, while sampling local foods.
