I was a recent guest of The Bat Segundo Show (our studio was a diner in Hell’s Kitchen), and I’m here to tell you that it has been one of my favorite conversations so far about the content of Watching What We Eat. I am hooked on this podcast (available via itunes). Mr. Segundo has interviewed a wide range of authors and artists and delivers on his promise not to ask the usual questions. Here’s an excerpt with a link to the entire interview.
If you happen to be attending, I’ll be at Book Expo America – the book industry’s premier trade show – on Friday, May 29, along with the Continuum Publishing superheroes. It’s at the Javits Center at the very western end of 34th St. Come and visit us! I’ll be at the autographing area (table #14) from 2:30-3:30 and at the Continuum booth (#4115) from 3:30-5. Coincidentally, Emeril will also be at the BEA autographing Emeril at the Grill from 1:30-2:30 (table #21). Kismet!
Great food and fun was had at the Culinary Historians of New York event at the Astor Center on Wed. evening. Several creative and ambitious volunteers made appetizers inspired by TV chefs like Nigella Lawson, Mario Batali and Julia Child. I have a particular weakness for gougères (recipe on p. 403 of Julia Child’s The Way to Cook), but all the offerings were exquisite and delicious. While people were eating and drinking, we played an episode of “The Dione Lucas Show” from the 1950s which seemed to be a revelation to almost everybody there. Lucas is covered at length in chapter 2 of the book. She does not hold a prominent place in the collective memory, but she was a pioneer of French cooking in America (Julia herself said so). I got to meet and talk with so many interesting people, including Betty Fussell whose great writing is quoted several times in WWWE, most prominently at the head of chapter 8. The Eyewitness Gourmet, Bob Lape, was in attendance, too (he’s featured in chapter 4). I also met four women who were writers/producers at the Food Network back when it was just a baby. They had some good stories to tell! But that’s another book…
French cheese puffs (David Lebovitz ©2009)
My favorite thing about radio? Sound! Listen to my interview with “Morning Edition”’s Renée Montagne and you’ll get to hear some of the cooking shows described in Watching What We Eat (note that “The French Chef” clip coincidentally corresponds with the book’s cover!). You can also listen to the full clip of Mary Lee Taylor making vanilla wafer sandwiches on the radio in the 1930s.
Mary Lee Taylor
That was their verdict in this here review, hot off the screen. “Her thorough research,” wrote Alyssa Fetini, “is spiced with anecdotes and personal testimonials from chefs, historians and foodies about the world of TV cooking and the eccentric personalities that populate it.”
…is your local bookstore? If you purchased Watching What We Eat, first of all – thank you! If you got it in a good ol’ brick and mortar bookstore, where was it? Please tell us on the Watching What We Eat Facebook fan page.
Stick a tack in it!
Sara Moulton has chosen Watching What We Eat as this week’s pick on her web site. Sara is an important voice in the book (see esp. chapter 6) and is still one of TV cooking’s best teachers. You can see her in Sara’s Weeknight Meals on PBS.
If you’re in the LA area, tune your radios to KCRW 89.9FM this Saturday (May 9) for “Good Food” from 11am-noon. Host Evan Kleiman and her producers always have an eclectic and entertaining show. And this week, that includes me (segment to air ~11:45 or so)! If you live anywhere else, you can get “Good Food” via podcast.
And if you live in the Nashville area, I’ll be a guest of the Saucy Sisters on their radio show “Sauced!” around noon on Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 10 – but you should know that!) They’re at WLAC 1510AM and also podcastable.
"Good Food's" regular Market Report segment features the Santa Monica's Farmers' Market bounty
Remember when Kelsey from “The Next Food Network Star” said it was her dream to be a cooking show host? That dream was dashed on air when she lost to Aaron McCargo, Jr. But her ideal platform has emerged and risen to meet her where she flits in mid-air. The Food Network’s parent company, Scripps, has launched Food2, a new web “experience” targeting the 21-34 year olds (Rachael and Giada are apparently too old for them). The multi-media web experience integrates social media like Facebook and Twitter in ways that are making me cross-eyed just thinking about, but this should all come as no surprise. Food and cooking are as malleable as Play-Doh. Just find a demographic niche that needs and wants them and they’ll fill the gap in no time.
Scripps' new hipster food experience, Food2.
Please join me at the first public event for Watching What We Eat and support your favorite indie bookstore! The reading/signing begins at 7pm at BookCourt at 163 Court St. (between Pacific and Dean) in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
