Vanity Fair won’t report on it, so I will
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)
