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5 Takeaways From ‘With Love, Meghan’

The new streaming series from the Duchess of Sussex has arrived. It shows her cooking, creating and harvesting, and feels like a billboard for things to come.

In “With Love, Meghan,” Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, visits with friends like the actress Mindy Kaling, discussing food, her life and how to entertain.Credit...Netflix

In “With Love, Meghan,” Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, visits with friends like the actress Mindy Kaling, discussing food, her life and how to entertain.Credit...Netflix

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has returned to the small screen with a new cooking and lifestyle show that was released on Netflix on Tuesday.

Filmed at a property near her home in sunny Montecito, Calif., the eight-episode series positions Meghan, 43, as a modern domestic goddess embracing the do-it-yourself delights of cooking, crafting and entertaining.

“Love is in the details, gang,” she says on an episode of the show, while preparing her own lavender towels.

The series, which Netflix has pitched as “inspiring,” saying it “reimagines the genre of lifestyle programming,” is directed by Michael Steed, who worked on “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.” It is executive produced by Meghan and is loosely organized around a series of creative projects — teaching a friend to make bread, throwing a game night for friends and planning a brunch — and offering tips along the way.

“We’re not in the pursuit of perfection,” Meghan explains in the show as she makes crepes. “We’re in the pursuit of joy.”

It has been about five years since Meghan, and her husband, Prince Harry, officially stepped back from their royal duties in Britain. The family is now firmly planted in Southern California. Prince Archie is 5 and Princess Lilibet is 3.

And now, in the empire-building tradition of lifestyle gurus like Martha Stewart and Ina Garten, Meghan is about to drop a lot of Meghan, with some help from guests like the actress Mindy Kaling and the chef Roy Choi, along with some of Meghan’s close friends.

This spring, she is expected to release products, such as fruit preserves, from her new lifestyle brand As Ever, as well as a new podcast with Lemonada Media.

Here are details on the harvests, recipes, crafts and theories on the good life that she shares in the new series, which feels a lot like a billboard for her next chapter.

Mostly, light, simple, recipes with local ingredients — a one-pot tomato pasta, quiche with eggs from the family’s chickens, and a salt-baked fish stuffed with herbs.

The series moves away from the stand-and-stir format of cooking shows and opts for a more conversational approach — think “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” … if they were making pickles.

“I love feeding people,” Meghan says. “It is probably my love language.”

She chats with Ms. Kaling about eating fast food as a child while she demonstrates how to cut sandwiches into shapes for a kid-friendly tea party in the garden. Mr. Choi talks about going to Meghan’s school for dances, as they get ready to make Korean-style fried chicken and drink champagne.

While preparing focaccia with Delfina Blaquier, the wife of the polo player Nacho Figueras — whom Harry knows through polo — Meghan reflects on her time living in Argentina.

Seemingly as much as she can, while also happily embracing a shortcut.

“I love to be able to take something that’s pretty ordinary and elevate it,” she says.

She uses the leftover wax from a beehive to make candles, scented with essential oils. She turns leftover bacon into dog biscuits for a friend’s pet. She even does something thoughtful for the family’s chickens, many which were rescued from a factory farm, giving them a block of ice filled with fruits and vegetables.

For a brunch, prepped with the guidance of the chef Alice Waters, Meghan, a calligraphy expert, writes her own menus, in careful penmanship.

“You set your guests up so they have an amazing experience,” she says, “and everyone can relax and enjoy.”

So many things!

The series opens with a shot of bees, and cuts to Meghan at the beehive, where she helps to collect the honey. A fan of personalized gifts, she also demonstrates to viewers how to build a harvest basket with lemons, cucumbers and cabbage, and create a welcome tray for house guests.

“The joy of hostessing for me is surprising people with moments that let them know I was really thinking of their whole experience,” she says.

Meghan picks fresh berries for her jams and citrus fruits that she uses to make dehydrated garnishes for cocktails, which she serves to friends during a game of mahjong.

Ms. Kaling asks the same question.

“I like high and low,” Meghan says, explaining that she is wearing white Zara pants, a cream short-sleeved Loro Piana top and a cream-and-white striped Jenni Kayne sweater.

Throughout the series, she wears lots of casually elegant neutrals, in creams, tans and blues as well as the occasional floral dress (and one white Northwestern University sweatshirt).

Not really.

Unlike “Harry & Meghan,” the 2022 Netflix documentary series that focused on the couple’s relationship and their decision to step back from the British royal family, this is Meghan’s show.

Her family, though, is infused throughout. Meghan drops a few anecdotes about her children and Prince Harry into conversation. There are also many shots of her dogs.

Harry makes an appearance onscreen in a final scene at a brunch held to celebrate her business, dressed crisply in a light blue button-down and sunglasses, as Meghan toasts people who have helped her along the way.

“This feels like a new chapter that I’m so excited that I get to share,” she says. “And here we go, there’s a business. All of that is part of that creativity that I’ve missed so much.”

Katie Van Syckle is a Times editor focusing on cultural events and nightlife in New York City. More about Katie Van Syckle

 

Author: Katie Van Syckle

Source: N.Y Times

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