By Ray Rogers
Ray Rogers: What does wellness mean to you?
Katie Lee Biegel: Wellness is all-encompassing. So that means taking care of myself, from physical health to mental health to emotional health. And that overall feeling of contentment and feeling good in my body.
RR: What are some of your wellness practices?
KLB: I think wellness really starts with what we eat. For me, the top of the pyramid is what I am eating, and I really make a commitment to have a colorful diet. I start my day with a big fruit bowl. I always have a big salad at lunchtime; I try to get lots of fruits and veggies in there. And sleep cannot be overrated. I love to go to bed early. I’m in bed at 9 or 9:30.
RR: What do you like to do for exercise?
KLB: I am a big power walker. As I’ve gotten older, I have had a harder time doing some of the higher intensity exercises I used to love. So now I’m power walking, I’m weightlifting, and I like to do some at-home workouts, online or a fitness class at home. I like to do a lot of stretching, so I usually will do that before I start a workout, or if I just need some time to relax.
RR: Where do you like to power walk when you’re out East?
KLB: We live in Southampton, and I just do a big power walk in my neighborhood. I have a little dog, Gus, a rescue chihuahua mix, and he goes with me. He’s 7 years old now and we have such a good time with him—he’s our little family mascot. We live on the bay, so I end up swimming there quite a bit. And I love the bay. There’s nothing like it. It is just so peaceful and relaxing, and it is so great with kids to swim in the bay.
RR: Your daughter is turning 4 this September—what have you learned about wellness as a new-ish mom?
KLB: I have had to learn how to adjust my schedule and I have realized I can’t put myself first, obviously. I used to get up and go for a big beach walk, and then I’d go do an hour-and-a-half workout, then I’d surf all day. Now, I am lucky to get a 30-minute workout. I had to adjust my mindset about what my body should look like. I think that’s something a lot of women go through after having a child, and I learned to love myself in the way that I am now.
RR: Simplicity and comfort have been two hallmarks of your brand, and I’m curious how you apply that to summertime wellness in terms of cooking?
KLB: Summer to me is the very best time to cook because it can be so simple. I always try to get really high-quality ingredients and then not do very much to them. To be able to go out the door and go to Green Thumb, or North Sea Farms or Amber Waves and get this top-quality produce is just the best.
I like to get a beautiful tomato and spice it up with some really good extra-virgin olive oil and flaky sea salt, and I don’t need anything else. It’s the easiest time of year to eat healthy as well. I just love loading up on fresh produce and our fresh seafood. Everything on the East End is just so beautiful this time of year. It’s good for the soul. People think of comfort food as being big heavy food. But for me, comfort food is summer produce.
RR: You grew up cooking with the family from about age 4, inspired by your grandmother’s cooking. What do you hope to impart to your daughter in the kitchen?
KLB: I want my daughter to understand the joy of food and the joy of eating. She already loves cooking with me. We make pancakes really often, and we talk about food all the time. She definitely wants to eat all the food I’m making, and she’s definitely my harshest critic.
RR: Tell me a bit about your new Kind of Wild wine.
KLB: It’s all organic, zero sugar, vegan, it’s free of any harmful additives or preservatives, and it’s on the lower calorie side. I’m really proud of this line, and it’s a line I want to drink. After having my daughter, I felt like I couldn’t even have one glass of wine without getting a headache the next day, but I really love having a glass of wine and being social and enjoying the ritual of wine. So, I started learning more about organic wine, and it dawned on me: I’m buying organic grapes, why am I not drinking organic grapes? I made the switch, and really could feel a difference. Your body is not working so hard to process all these chemicals and additives. You can have up to seven [categories of] additives that can be legally added to a bottle of wine, including food coloring, flavor enhancers and enhancers to make it feel good on your tongue. The more I learned about it, the less I wanted to be consuming that. It’s one of the only consumables where the label isn’t required to list the ingredients. We put our ingredients and nutrition facts on the label because it is important to me to be transparent. And I’m just in love with this wine. It’s great with food, it’s great on its own. I like to start my day with the ritual of coffee, and I like to end my day with the ritual of wine.
RR: Where are the grapes grown?
KLB: Each of our varieties is from a different region. Our sauvignon blanc is from South Africa, our rosé is from the south of France, and we have a cabernet from Washington state. And then we are bottled in California. It is really important for us to be environmentally conscious, so we use lighter weight bottles, we don’t put foil around the top, the cork is domestically produced, our label is made from sugar cane, linen and hemp, and the coloring on it is a vegetable dye. And we’re One Percent for the Planet members.
RR: You said it is certified vegan—aren’t all wines vegan?
KLB: That’s what I thought too, but it turns out wine can be filtered through animal products—it can be filtered through egg whites, dairy products, even fish bladders.
RR: You’re a board member of Food Bank For New York City. What do you love about the organization?
KLB: I have been on the board for about 10 years, and I have been a fan of theirs for a lot longer than that. In the business I’m in, we have such an excess of food. When you’re doing cooking shows and writing cookbooks, there’s just an abundance of food. And to think about all the New Yorkers who are out there who are struggling, and are food insecure… I’m passionate about it, because we have to help our neighbors. It’s important to me to help anybody who can’t find enough to eat. And also, with Food Bank For New York City, we did a campaign together called the Woman to Woman campaign that I started eight years ago. I never realized that women go to food banks for their period needs, for toiletries—all these things that you really need to get ahead, but you can’t if you don’t have access to them. So, we support women with all their personal needs as well, and baby needs, like diapers and formula. kindofwildwines.com