Patricia Harris
Bio
Patricia Harris travels the world researching books and articles about travel, food, and the arts for a variety of U.S. and British publications. But she returns again and again to Spain, partly because she likes the person she becomes there—the one who stays out late at flamenco clubs, walks windswept beaches, dances the sardana in front of Barcelona's cathedral, and eats a thousand delicacies she probably wouldn't have tried at home. A former arts administrator who directed funding for theater, dance, and the visual arts, she loves the anguished angular faces of Catalan Gothic saints, the enigma of pure color on a Miró canvas, the pulsing rhythms of flamenco song and dance, the buffoonery of zarzuela, and the poignant passion of Carmen. Her kitchen cabinets are full of smoked Spanish paprika, Spanish saffron, and bags of a special sea salt from the Costa Brava that she buys in Spanish supermarkets for less than one euro per kilo. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.