An Interview with the Founder of LPA, Pia Baroncini

EVERYONE EATS | SEPT 16, 2020

Pia Baroncini

FOUNDER OF LPA

Lara Pia Baroncini (Arrobio) was born in and raised in Pasadena, California. She studied Design and Management at Parsons, before taking on freelance roles as producer (Oyster Magazine), casting director (Diane Martel), blogger (Fighting the War Against Blowing It) and photographer in NYC. She then had a two-year stint at famed fashion PR firm, People’s Revolution.

In 2010, Pia expanded into brand-building, management, social media and design during a five-year tenure at Reformation. Baroncini is now the Creative Director of LPA, a high-end contemporary womenswear brand sold all over the globe and worn by celebrities such as Madonna, Kim Kardashian and Gigi Hadid. Baroncini has been featured on the cover of The New York Times Style section and was the face of Glossier's "Body Hero" campaign. She is the host of Everything is the Best (previously Pia’s Pod), the CMO of Ghiaia Cashmere and is currently setting up her namesake lifestyle website.

INTERVIEW BY ROSIE ELLIS
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MOLLY CRANNA

PIA'S HOME IN PASADENA

We roamed Pia's lush backyard and played with her three adorable dogs. We spoke about tradition, her 80/20 life philosophy and the history of her Pasadena home.

BREAKFAST

I do one of two different breakfasts. I either do an apple with walnut butter, chia and flax seeds, or my usual is a smoothie. It’s not for yummy taste purposes, it’s just to get as many nutrients into my body as possible. It’s blueberries or raspberries, water, a little bit of macadamia nut or hemp seed milk, the Standard Process Detox Balance (cause I’m trying to get my hormones regulated), and three things from The Beauty Chef: the Gut Primer, the Glow Powder and the Omega Elixir. And then I add chia seed, flaxseed and spirulina. The Beauty Chef powders have this tangy-berry vibe. Sometimes I’ll also put lime juice in there. I just chug that down. I want the first thing in my body to be all these nutrients that are good for my gut.

LUNCH

Lunch is always some sort of complex carb. I’ll have a sweet potato or beans. Maybe I’ll do a little bit of rice. I keep the portions pretty small so I’m not eating a sh*t ton of carbs.

I always eat my raw vegetables at launch. Today I had a supergreen mix, some chicory and sprouts. My salad dressing is always the same: raw garlic, lemon, olive oil, Edmond Fallot dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Or I love anything from Primal Kitchen. Olive oil-wise, we switch it up. We like a brand from Sicily that’s raw so it’s bright green. I love Brightland. I love the Gjusta olive oil. I love Bona Furtuna olive oil.

Lunch is always some sort of hodge podge. Yesterday I had sprouted buckwheat bread from Erewhon that I made into a toast. I always like to add a pickled jalapeno or kimchi or sauerkraut. And I like to put seeds on my salad, like pumpkin or sprouted seeds. Unless I’m being a bad girl and am having pizza, pasta or a burger, I don’t eat carbs and protein together, just for digestive purposes.

DINNER

Dinner is always a protein. Last night I made a ribeye in the cast iron skillet and then when I took it out I put butter, thyme and mushrooms in the pan and made a sauce. At night I have my cooked vegetables – I did lightly steamed green beans. I like to steam them lightly so they’re not obliterated, and then I put olive on top. I don’t cook them in the olive oil, it tastes so good. You can really taste the olive oil and really taste the green bean.

Once a week I’ll eat a big fat bowl of pasta. I’m on some 80 / 20 sh*t. I definitely enjoy my life and I feel like eating – what I call my bad girl foods – are just as good for you mentally and emotionally. But if I eat like that all the time I get brain fog, it's hard for me to digest my food, I'm tired. So we’ll make a yummy pasta once a week and we’ll make it a special thing. Or we’ll go to Felix or something.

DESSERT

I don’t have a super sweet tooth, but I love a date with walnut butter. And I love dark chocolate. I love Hu chocolate bars. And Honey Mama’s lavender cacao nectar bar is insane.

Little House Confections is this amazing olive oil cake company that my girlfriend started. They’re fucking fabulous. Now she’s coming out with all these different kinds of cake. Yesterday she came out with dulce de leche, which is my favorite, but it’s always so rich and I never feel like I can have more than one bite, but she made it so light. I f*cking took that thing down. Their chocolate olive oil is really good too.

SPEED ROUND

Recent food discovery?
I found these probiotic, fermented jalapenos I’m obsessed with.

Dream dinner guest?
Anthony Bourdain.

Weirdest eating habit?

I like to mix arugula into my pasta. I love the juxtaposition of lettuce and pasta.

Any vitamins or supplements?
Glutathione, Alpha-lipoic Acid, CoQ10, Vitex Berry (for fertility), Percumin, DHA, Ashwagandha, Vit D, Magnesium, Vit C, B-complex and a prenatal. My new bio hack is optimized saffron. It can make you extremely focused. (I take that first thing in the morning because I don’t drink coffee.)

Best snack between meals?
Bread toasted, with dijon and melted cheese. Or romaine lettuce with my own tahini dressing, like a taco, with sauerkraut.

Go-to comfort food?
Pomodoro pasta.

Favorite neighborhood restaurant?
I love Cafe Stella. When it’s open, we eat there four days a week. I love breakfast, lunch and dinner there. It’s our go-to spot.

Caffeine of choice?
Matcha, everyday.

Cocktail of choice?
It’s one of four things: a spritz, a negroni with Monkey 47, a Tito’s martini or Casamigos and lime.

Five items always in your kitchen:
Multiple kinds of hot sauce. Onions, shallots and garlic (I’m going to put that into one category.) Obviously there’s always pasta. There’s always olive oil. And fresh vegetables.

Cooking playlist?
My quarantine cookin Spotify playlist.

Any foods you avoid?
There really isn’t anything that I don’t like. My parents were big foodies and always went to restaurants, and they would bring me everywhere when I was a baby. So there wasn’t any sort of food I wasn’t exposed to at a young age.

Whose routine would you love to see on Everyone Eats?
Sophia Loren.

Last thing you ordered for delivery?
When I was hungover I posted a Lucky Boy breakfast burrito .

Go-to cookbook?
The Beauty Shop or Ottolenghi. And The Food Lab book is f*cking awesome. Whoever wrote that deserves a Pulitzer.

Favorite place to shop for kitchenwares?
Gjusta Goods, or anywhere that sells Astier De Villatte - it’s my favorite brand but it’s painfully expensive.

Caffeine of choice?

I love coffee, matcha and tea equally. I rotate.

Favorite way to work off a big meal?
Going on a long walk. And peppermint tea.

Best restaurant in Italy?
There’s a place in Sicily, up Mount Etna, called 4 Archi. You have to drive up this windy hill. It’s the best pasta, the best pizza of my life. He makes the best snails, the most insane bresaola, homemade sausages. It’s really cozy – it looks like a cabin with stone walls. When it’s cold, they take coals and put them by your feet under the table. The wine has no label on the bottle. It’s to die for.

Where do you most feel like The Regular?
When my husband is driving our little vintage car and I’m in the passenger seat.

THIRD SCOOP

What is your favorite family food tradition?

Sunday dinner. We do it most Sundays, but I don’t feel bad if we’re tired and we skip one – that’s my theory about everything. But especially when my dad was alive, I was there every Sunday. My dad died at Sunday dinner, and even the first Sunday after his passing, we had our first little wedding in the backyard. We needed to make Sunday dinner a positive thing again.

The ethos of The Regular is largely inspired by a European appreciation of food and leisure. What have you learned about food from marrying into an Italian family and what do you admire most about their culture?

They slow down and eat and gather together. If you read any Malcom Gladwell book, it’s scientifically proven that that’s what makes people live longer. My husband gets really mad at my mother (we all live together) because she doesn’t sit down and eat. She will just eat standing up at the counter and he always yells at her, “there’s no difference between you and an animal.” You have to sit down and take a break and enjoy your lunch. Everyday he sets the table and sits down and eats lunch (and obviously dinner) but I don’t feel like a lot of people do that for lunch. Now I do it and try not to look at anything. I’ll take that moment to enjoy myself.

In the Kitchen with the Baroncinis is a great cooking show you and your husband host on Instagram. What is the best food hack you’ve learned?

I think it’s the way my husband cooks pasta. Sometimes he won’t even boil the water, but the trick is really to not cook the pasta all the way in the water. You want to cook it in the water for just a couple minutes and then put the pasta in the sauce with some of the water. When I make pomodoro it almost looks like a paste, but when you add two scoops of pasta water in there, and you let it all cook together, the pasta really tastes like the sauce. The pasta water makes it creamy. You don’t need to add butter or cream. If you’re really stirring it and cooking it right, it’ll cream up really quickly.