Forget 9-to-5. Mothering knows no schedule—often it feels more like 5-to-9 and everything in between. In this series, we look at the hectic, messy, sometimes beautiful, often frustrating enterprise of being a mother—and maintaining a life of your own. Consider it a “day in the life” for the forgotten hours.
Today, we’re following Tarajia Morrell, the James Beard Award–winning food writer, author, and communications consultant. Her new memoir, Desire Feeds the Feast, is out now. The book is a rich and lyrical telling of her childhood as the daughter of a dynasty of Manhattan wine sellers; her days on the New York City club scene of the late ’90s; her culinary studies, acting auditions, and restaurant jobs; and more.
A single mother, Morrell lives in her childhood home—a rent-stabilized Manhattan apartment that she fought for and won—with her five-year-old daughter, Viva. On a recent Thursday, she brought Vogue along for a busy day, which included everything from the school bus stop and a book breakfast to a podcast taping, a party, and the realities of mealtime. (“Indeed, I am a food writer whose child is a picky eater,” she writes.)
6 a.m.
My alarm goes off. Immediately, I recall that today is not a normal day at my desk at home, writing copy for the hotels for which I’m the communications director. Today is a day in which I must also focus on my book, and it’s going to be a doozy.
I go make myself some jet fuel. While the coffee pot is on the stove, I turn on my morning music: Alice Coltrane Radio on Spotify, which both soothes and invigorates me at once with its harp and organ. It’s still almost completely dark out, but, from the living room, I can see the first blush of light above a little slice of the 59th Street Bridge. This sight (and the coffee) has its usual effect: I have a jolt of how lucky I am to be exactly where I am—in this home with this child.
Photographed by OK McCausland
