Home, sweet homes. In this, our annual Home & Garden issue, we show off stunning spaces that took top honors in several different categories, from contemporary to Tuscan. Our editorial team made the difficult decisions, poring over dozens of submissions. We would be happy to call any of them home.
Gardens are bursting into bloom, so it’s only fitting that we have a gardener on our cover — a model gardener. She’s Kelly Emberg, the former supermodel whose green thumb has led to a Web site, national radio show, and let’s just say, growing plans for the future. Emberg’s famous face has graced the covers of Vogue, Bazaar, and Glamour over the years, so we are thrilled that she’s our cover girl this month, photographed in the Rancho Santa Fe garden and home she shares with her attorney husband and family.
To help you celebrate your mom this May (note to son ,Tyler), we offer a guide to the best brunches for Mother’s Day, and in StyleNotes, some suggestions on what to give that special woman in your life. Here’s another idea: send her on “The Trip of a Lifetime” to a cooking school in Tuscany. Travel editor Elizabeth Hansen reports on Il Campo Cucina, the school founded by former San Diegan Marlane Miriello, where food, wine, and local culture are always on the menu. Here at home, food critic Brandon Hernández gives us plenty of reasons to savor Eddie V’s in La Jolla, from the restaurant’s crab cakes to its signature Bananas Foster. (And, yes, we LOVE the view.)
We also profile the people who fascinate and inspire, including Bill Caswell and Melanie Palm, the race car driver and MD, whose life together is like something out of a movie, and, as a matter of fact, soon will be, starring big name actor Jeremy Renner. You’ll also meet a brave young woman who rebounded from abuse and is now a college student intent on becoming a teacher. Finally, we report on TV veteran Loren Nancarrow, who shares his very personal battle with brain cancer. Nancarrow began writing a blog as therapy. Little did he know it would become therapy for so many others. Nancarrow and his family are dealing with illness in such a forthright, open way, that, somehow, people are less anxious and afraid. If he can handle cancer with humor, grace, and compassion, then, perhaps, so can we. In short, Nancarrow is teaching us all how to live.
Andrea Naversen, editor-at-large
