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122: Aysha Tanya: A Taste of The Malabar Coast

May 11, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Aysha Tanya of The Malabar Tea Room on The Dinner Special podcast talking about the food of the Malabar Coast.
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Aysha Tanya of The Malabar Tea Room on The Dinner Special podcast talking about a taste of the Malabar Coast.

The Malabar Tea Room

The Malabar Tea Room is a mother/daughter project where Aysha is the writer and photographer, and her mother is the chief recipe tester.

On their blog, they cook up culinary favorites from around the world, using local ingredients, improvisation, and a keen imagination. Aysha is a food writer with a penchant for cookbooks with obscure ingredients, and her writing has appeared in publications such as Vogue, Lucky Peach, and National Geographic Traveler.

I am so excited to have Aysha Tanya of The Malabar Tea Room with me here on the show today.

(*All photos below are Aysha’s.)

On Learning to Cook:

Aysha Tanya of The Malabar Tea Room on The Dinner Special podcast talking about learning how to cook.

Looking back, we always sat in the pantry when my mother was cooking. We’ve always been around her as she cooked. So, there were a lot of things that you just pick up naturally. When I stepped into the kitchen, I didn’t think, “Oh, maybe this is difficult. I won’t be able to do this without help.” It just came out a lot more naturally than I suppose it would have if I hadn’t been watching her all those years.

On Food Along the Malabar Coast:

Aysha Tanya of The Malabar Tea Room on The Dinner Special podcast talking about the food on The Malabar Coast.

Our food is really picked from all these different cultures. We’ve incorporated little pieces of it into our own food. There are a lot of dishes that you would find similarities with in other parts of the world, which is amazing. Most of these dishes, though, they’re in homes only because Malabar food is only beginning to become popular outside. To get most of these delicacies, you would definitely have to go to someone’s home.

On Cooking Involving Improvisation and Imagination:

Aysha Tanya of The Malabar Tea Room on The Dinner Special podcast talking about improvisation and imagination in cooking.

We don’t have access to a lot of ingredients from other cuisines in Kerala. In Kannur, the supermarkets don’t really stock those. So, my mom makes her own noodles. We don’t have access to really great noodles. So, what we started doing is that she just reads these books and she reads a couple of recipes and she just puts something together and makes her own noodles, which I think is really awesome.

On A Dish That’s Special to Her:

One of the dishes that I’m very attached to is a stew. It’s something we call a stew, but it’s nothing like what you know a stew to be. I think what you would refer to as a stew would be much thicker and slow cooked?

Well, this is a really light and thin gravy. The one I’m talking about is a chicken stew. You can have mutton stew, egg stew, different versions of it. It has onions, green chili, black pepper, potatoes, and chicken and ginger, a little bit of ginger.

It’s the most flavorsome, most wholesome, and really nourishing dishes that we have on the Malabar Coast. Actually, you find variations of it in other parts of Kelara as well, so in the south. Malabar is in the northern part of Kelara. In the south, they make it with coconut milk, which is thicker. We leave out the coconut milk most of the time.

I feel sentimental about this dish because it was one of the first things that I learned to make from our food. And I learned it in my aunt’s house with my mother and her standing beside me, and giving directions and me scribbling it down in my notebook and illustrating it. I still have that. I had just started cooking, so I had to draw the pan and I had to say, “You have to listen to the sizzling sound.”

It’s delicious. And I think if anyone wanted to try food from the Malabar Coast, this is a dish that they should start with.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

People ask me this all the time. But, I don’t like watching people cook, I like reading about it. But if I had to pick one, I love watching Nigella’s shows. She’s so fun to watch. She’s so articulate and charming. I love it.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

I guess everyone already knows about Orangette… A friend of mine writes a blog called Purple Foodie. Actually, she’s one of the most famous bloggers here in India, and we became friends after that.

Her blog is just amazing. She’s such a talented baker. She started out as a blogger, and she won the James Beard’s scholarship and she studied at Cordon Bleu. Now she’s at the Alain Ducasse School in Paris, and she’s a pastry chef. She’s doing amazing things. She still keeps her blog, and it’s a pretty great blog.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat that make you happy?

Instagram, I love following Ann Street Studio.

She’s a photographer. I think she’s primarily a fashion photographer, but she also does food, she does travel. Her photos are just so beautiful. It just makes my day every time she posts.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

I went to a vintage store recently a few towns away from where I live, and I found this bowl. So, Food 52 has…I’m sure you’re aware of how they have their online store, and they have the most beautiful things on it. But they don’t ship outside the U.S. and Canada.

And there are these bowls on there, these jade bowls. I don’t know if you’ve seen them. They’re green and sort of translucent. They’re mixing bowls. I’ve had my eyes on them forever. And recently, I went to this vintage store, this antique store, and I found this bowl that was so similar to that. And it was awesome. I think it’s my greatest find yet. So, yeah, I would say my green mixing bowl.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

I think I would say garam masala.

It’s a spice blend, basically. And each family has its own version and its own proportions and things like that. And it’s very strong, and you can add only very little to your dishes, otherwise it just overpowers the whole thing. And that was something I was never too fond of, because I feel like my taste buds are super sensitive to cumin. But as I’m growing older, I’ve learned to appreciate it in very, very small doses.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I buy a lot of cookbooks. I think this might be because, like I said, you know, we live in this small town and we don’t really have access to a lot of ingredients. So when I buy a book, I’m not really telling myself, “So, my next 20 meals are set. I’m going to cook it from this book.” That’s not how it works.

I buy it because I want to see how people cook, I want to read about the thought process that goes into their recipes and so on. So, yeah, I think I mostly pick it up for the writing. And I love the way Nigel Slater writes. I think he’s a fantastic writer. And I love Ripe. I’ve cooked one recipe from it, but it’s my favorite cookbook. I have it by my bedside.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I have a cooking playlist. I think it’s Frank Sinatra’s best hits, and I only listen to it when I’m cooking. I think because I read somewhere that you need to have this one playlist or album or something like that. And so, you only associate only good things with it. I tried that, and it actually works. So, every time I’m in the kitchen by myself. Not with my mother; she gets annoyed when we have music playing. But that’s what I like to listen to.

On Keeping Posted with Aysha:

Aysha Tanya of The Malabar Tea Room on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with Aysha.

Instagram. I’m malabartearoom on Instagram, and my Facebook page is also called malabartearoom. So, that’s where I post most of my updates, besides the blog. So, that would be a great way to stay in touch.

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Ann Street Studio, Aysha Tanya, Chicken Stew, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Food Writer, Frank Sinatra, garam masala, Kannur, Kerala, Manjula, Mutton Stew, Nigel Slater, Purple Foodie, Ripe, Stew, The Malabar Tea Room

068: The Food Gays: Sharing a Taste of Vancouver

August 17, 2015 by Gabriel 2 Comments

Adrian Harris and Jeremy Inglett of The Food Gays on The Dinner Special podcast
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Adrian Harris and Jeremy Inglett of The Food Gays on The Dinner Special podcast talking about the food and food culture in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

The Food Gays

Adrian and Jeremy love food, photography, and social media. And on their website, The Food Gays, they share healthy and tasty recipes as well as food news in and around Vancouver, BC, Canada.

I am so happy to have Adrian Harris and Jeremy Inglett of The Food Gays on the show today.

(*All images below are Adrian and Jeremy’s.)

On How They Met:

Adrian: We met I think maybe close to six years ago.

Jeremy: Yup, we met through a friend.

Adrian: Through a mutual friend at a random party that neither of us were planning to go to.

Jeremy: We went anyways.

Adrian: And we didn’t really know anyone there other than the host. So yeah, we kind of just gravitated towards each other, and we’ve been hanging out and . . .

Jeremy: Doing our thing ever since.

On Collaborating on Their Blog:

Adrian-Harris-and-Jeremy-Inglett-of-The-Food-Gays-on-The-Dinner-Special-podcast talking about their food blog.

Jeremy: So it was probably July of 2012 when we decided to pursue the food blog, not really knowing what we were getting ourselves into.

Adrian: We were just wanting to find a hobby to do together, something fun. I was blogging previous to this, doing a fashion arts kind of blog, and I think Jeremy was tired of me being on the computer all the time. So we thought we’d put our heads together and was like, “What do we both like?” And we were already cooking a lot at home and doing that, so we just started it not really knowing what was going to become of it, just something fun to do as a hobby.

Jeremy: Baking is kind of a specialty. So it just goes back to my roots. My grandma used to be a baker, and there are probably three or four other bakers in my family too. So it’s just in the family, and I feel comfortable with it.

Adrian: I guess I’d always been cooking too. Even as a little kid, I was in the kitchen making weird snacks and that kind of thing, left to my own devices probably a little too much. But I never ever thought that we’d have a blog, that it just started really organically. Neither of us had any sort of preconceived notions of . . .

Jeremy: What it’s gonna look like…

Adrian: . . . what it’s was gonna be…

Jeremy: what we’re gonna post in a month.

Adrian: Yeah, it’s really evolved a lot from three years ago, for sure.

On Their Separate Roles for the Website:

Adrian: We don’t really have anything set in stone, but we’ve, I guess, gravitated towards what . . .

Jeremy: we enjoy most.

Adrian: Or what each other’s strong suits are. So Jeremy’s definitely a lot more about the analytics and the planning and . . .

Jeremy: organizing and making sure things are up.

Adrian: And I’m probably more gravitated towards the styling and photography.

Jeremy: And then we work together on recipes and in the kitchen, so it’s intertwining. It’s a good nest.

Adrian: We pick up where the other leaves off. Because it’s hard, right? Being a blogger . . . We don’t need to tell you. It’s like there’s so much involved, and you don’t necessarily think of all of that when you’re first starting.

We definitely worked our way through it.

Jeremy: There’s no way I was thinking about analytics week 2 of our Food Gays. It was just like, “What am I gonna tweet about?” and “Who should I follow?” and stuff like that.

On Deciding What to Make for the Blog:

Jeremy: Depends on the season.

Adrian: Yeah, nowadays probably, it’s really seasonal for us. We cook a lot with fresh plant-based ingredients, I guess you could say, so what’s fresh at the market. I really love farmer’s markets and going at least once or twice a month and getting inspired…

Jeremy: Sometimes once a week.

Adrian: Well, depending on what we can afford. But I don’t know. I guess before we were very much just cooking . . .

Jeremy: to experience cooking and to get to do that.

Adrian: I guess now we are probably trying to be more creative and inventive with flavor combinations and what can we come up with and that kind of stuff.

On Their Blogging Process:

Jeremy: First, create, of course. I think I’ve tested out a few things over the couple of years, but I think right now we’re doing the Instagram test first.

Adrian: Yeah, a lot of times, we’ll post stuff to Instagram now because that’s where we really put our primary focus in the past few months. So we’ll put something up and if it gets a lot of interest, then we’re like, “Okay, that’s definitely worthy of a blog post,” and we’ll then go to the next steps.

But generally, if we do post our recipe to the blog, we’ll try to have tested it a few times at least and make sure it’s a solid recipe because that’s important too, that you’re putting something out there that’s going to work for people. But it’s different every time, I guess.

If we were doing it, say, for a client or something, if it was a sponsored post, then there would be a lot more involved time-wise.

Adrian: I really focused a lot in the last few months practicing, and Jeremy definitely is very important part of the process though. He’ll tell me if something’s not working or if I can’t figure something out.

Jeremy: “Do this there. Try this.”

Adrian: Or use his hands a lot in the shots.

On Misconceptions about Healthy Food and Healthy Eating:

Adrian Harris and Jeremy Inglett of The Food Gays on The Dinner Special podcast talking about healthy food and healthy eating.

Jeremy: That it’s all green and boring.

Adrian: We really try and show people that it can be fun and that you can really make fun interesting things and use new ingredients. I think it can feel really limiting for people.

We’re not vegetarian, and that’s why I think we can have so much fun with it. But for those who are and who have food allergies and limitations that way, it can feel really like the same thing. I think you can get into a bit of a food rut. So, yeah, I think that’s our biggest thing, just that it can be different and you can have fun with it and have great, amazing flavors.

Adrian: And get to know your farmers too because that starts to inspire you too.

Jeremy: Yeah, he’s glad to know this really, really wonderful woman for his edible flowers.

Adrian: I’m talking about her flowers all the time.

Jeremy: Well, eating-out option is kind of hard in itself.

Adrian: Yeah, I think eating out can be a challenge.

Jeremy: You’re not gonna go out and buy a nine-dollar salad when you can easily make a three-dollar salad at home and that can fill you up.

Adrian: I think pick your splurge moments, I guess. We definitely eat junk food, and not everything that we eat is on Instagram. And then we have just regular routine meals and stuff.

Jeremy: But just incorporating it into your routine is just a good way to do it.

Adrian: Just start slow. Just start somewhere.

And cut down on your meat. That’s something that we’ve done a lot. We love protein still, and we’ll eat it maybe a few times a month now, as opposed to it being like it felt like it needed to be every single night of the week. That, with the side of your vegetables.

If you shift your focus . . . And I think cookbooks. Cookbooks and blogs, that’s a really great way because a lot of the work is done for you. You don’t need to sit and worry about trying to come up with something super creative. Just go online and find it. Someone’s done it. Try it out.

On the Food Culture in Vancouver, BC Canada:

Adrian-Harris-and-Jeremy-Inglett-of-The-Food-Gays-on-The-Dinner-Special-podcast talking about the food culture in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Adrian: You can probably find a little bit of everything here. For someone who’s really well traveled, maybe Vancouver still has a lot of growing to do, but in a lot of ways, if you’ve been here or if you’re from here, you know it’s a bit of a small town. So in that respect, we do have a lot of options, and we’re spoiled.

Jeremy: There’s still a lot of restaurants that we have never been to.

Adrian: People ask us where we should go eat, and we’re like, we haven’t dined out probably, nearly . . .

Jeremy: as much as we used to.

Adrian: Yeah, nearly as much as we used. Can’t keep up. It’s like a full-time job.

On Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner in Vancouver:

Adrian: I think breakfast, we’d probably say Café Medina.

It’s a good solid spot. Go early so you’re not waiting in line for too long. But they do a really good breakfast.

Jeremy: Lunch, there’s this really cute spot, Japanese spot, Basho Café. They do these lunch sets, so you get three little pastries, or two pastries.

Adrian: Yup, and some soup.

Jeremy: A lunch bowl and a soup and a drink.

Adrian: It’s made by this little Japanese family. It’s super authentic, really, really good, just solid home-cooking lunch. And dinner, we’d probably say Kessel&March. That’s one of our favorite restaurants.

And we live in the distillery and brewing district of Vancouver, so there’s literally within a 15-minute walking span four or five different places that you can go drinking.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Jeremy: MasterChef Canada.

Adrian: Love Nigella Lawson, which I mentioned, Nigel Slater.

Adrian: Oh, and we just started watching Food Network Star, which is just ridiculous, but… Cutthroat Kitchen.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

Adrian: I’m sure you probably know about a lot of them, but stuff we love, Feed Feed, that’s a really great place for just dinner inspiration. Artful Desperado, yeah, we love him. And then we’ll give Baked a shout because we just started contributing for Baked, the blog, so that’s a really good baking website.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook that make you happy?

Jeremy: I really love Dennis The Prescott stuff.

Adrian: Yup, Dennis Prescott, for sure. Again, Feed Feed for sure, Artful Desperado, Molly Yeh, I am a Food Blog, Vanilla and Bean…

Jeremy: Just to name a few.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

Jeremy: Ironically, the appliance we didn’t use for maybe two years, which we’re now using almost every other day.

Adrian: The pressure cooker.

Jeremy: Yeah, steam pressure cooker.

Adrian: And we just got it and we never used it, and then it sat there for literally two years. We finally figured out how to use this scary-looking object, and yeah, it’s really great.

Adrian: We make dog food for our dog, so we have to steam vegetables.

Jeremy: It just keeps all the nutrients in the vegetables that we’re cooking for him and because we only feed him real food.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

Adrian: Mine would be cilantro.

Jeremy: Blue cheese for me. It was too pungent to eat before, but now I can just eat it, no problem.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Adrian: Definitely Ottolenghi’s cookbooks Plenty, Plenty More. Those are two really great ones. Sunday Suppers, love that book.

Jeremy: My school pastry book, that’s good resource.

Adrian: Yeah, Jeremy has a lot of books from school, and then we’ve got this Seven Spoons cookbook. We haven’t cooked from that yet, but it’s a really beautiful one. We actually laid off the cookbooks in the last few months because I kind of went a little crazy.

It’s like an addiction in itself.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Adrian: Right now we really love Galantis’ “Peanut Butter Jelly.”

It’s such a good song. They just released the album. It’s very good.

On Keeping Posted with The Food Gays:

Adrian Harris and Jeremy Inglett of The Food Gays on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted on them.

Adrian: Definitely, Instagram’s our number one platform.

But Twitter, Facebook, we’re pretty much on all three, and we’re trying to post more recipes to the blog. So definitely, check us out there more, where you can expect more recipes this summer.

 

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Adrian Harris, Artful Desperado, Baked, Basho Café, Café Medina, Cutthroat Kitchen, Dennis The Prescott, Feed Feed, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Food Network Star, Galantis, Healthy Eating, Healthy Food, i am a food blog, Jeremy Inglett, Kessel&March, MasterChef Canada, Molly Yeh, Nigel Slater, Nigella Lawson, Plenty, Plenty More, Seven Spoons, Sunday Suppers, The Food Gays, Vancouver, Vanilla and Bean, Yotam Ottolenghi

049: Julia Gartland: Being Self-Taught and Going Gluten-Free

June 15, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Julia Gartland of Sassy Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted on her
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Julia Gartland of Sassy Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about being a self-taught cook and baker and going gluten-free.

Sassy Kitchen

Julia is a self-taught cook and baker, photographer, food stylist and recipe developer. On her blog, Sassy Kitchen, she shares gluten-free seasonal recipes and is always on the lookout for the best gluten-free version of everything. Sassy Kitchen was a finalist in the 2014 Saveur Blog Awards for Best Special Diets Blog and is a finalist again in 2015 for Best Photography.

I am so happy to have Julia Gartland of Sassy Kitchen here on the show today.

(*All images below are Julia’s.)

On Her Interest in Cooking and Food:

Julia Gartland of Sassy Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her interest in cooking and food.

I liked to always cook and bake as a kid, I think it wasn’t anything too crazy but I loved having independence, being able to do that. I got more seriously into food later when I had health and digestive problems and I had to find a way to feed myself.

I found out I was gluten intolerant and decided to go vegan at the same time, so my options were very limited and I felt kind of inspired by those restrictions. It gave me the opportunity to try so many new foods and stuff.

I was always into food. I liked eating really healthy. I was raised in California. I loved hippy food and Mexican and I was always really into it, but it took a turn when it became more about health.

I don’t know if I had any real cooking mentors in my early days. I definitely think I was inspired by the issues that I had with western medicine. I remember the first time I went to a western doctor with all of my issues and I had all these PDF printouts of everything I’d been eating. He didn’t even want to look at it and just said, “Here’s some medication. You have IBS,” and sent me on my way.

I just felt like there’s something bigger going on than this. I totally believe that food is an opportunity to heal yourself and that was what got me into it in a really real way.

On Learning to Cook:

I was definitely forced to learn to cook it a new way because of my dietary issues. But through that, I really fell in love with food and I wanted to be completely absorbed in it. That’s a really good way to learn anything.

I find such inspiration from cookbooks and food blogs. Like finding someone who’s really committed to a certain way of cooking, whether it’s a cultural or otherwise, someone like Ottolenghi who has a very specific sense of food that’s so seductive and wonderful but it’s also really easy when you’re really into it.

Obviously, most of us are trying to feed ourselves. I feel like a lot of home cooks are super worried. How do you cook it? What do you do with it? They forget the aspect of play, it should be fun. It’s also not that hard.

I think generally not taking yourself so seriously. It’s okay if you make something that’s a disaster although it probably won’t be. Don’t be afraid, try new things, read cookbooks, follow recipes, pay attention and cook as much as you can.

I’m a fan of things like give yourself parameters on certain nights. Have a taco Tuesday, so you’re like, “I know I’m making tacos tonight” and you can just decide what kind of taco and then that can be the fun aspect.

On Kitchen Experiments Not Going as Planned:

Julia Gartland of Sassy Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about kitchen experiments not going as planned

I have a really good infamous one.

The first time I decided I was going to cook a whole fish was for a pescetarian Thanksgiving that I was hosting. Martha and Ina are scowling at me right now because it’s the cardinal rule of hosting to never test a new recipe. But I decided to do it and I took the fish out. It’s perfectly cooked but I had no idea how to de-bone it. I was like, “I can’t serve this to people,” and I literally just left it on the stove top and I was like, “Sorry, guys. We’re actually not having fish tonight.” And I just went on.

I was just like, “Well, I guess it’s just vegetarian, so sorry about that.”

I mean, with gluten-free baking, there’s so many. It’s just like too many to know but it always happens. It happens to everyone.

On Some Go-To Resources for Learning to Cook and Bake:

When I first started cooking and baking, I was vegan and gluten-free so my sources were super specific. But in general, I think I would recommend sources like Bon Appetite, Epicurious, The Kitchn, and Food52. They seem to have really good articles that demystify cooking and they go over actual techniques in a way that teaches you the fundamentals.

A few of them have a lot of articles about cooking without a recipe and stuff like that. It teaches you how to cook on the fly. I just think those are really helpful resources for sure.

On Starting Her Blog:

Julia Gartland of Sassy Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about starting her blog

When I first went gluten-free, the best and most helpful sources were definitely food blogs. That was where I was finding all of my recipes and information. They were such a godsend at the time and through the process of changing my diet and trying new things, I craved to have the same platform to share my experiences.

I went to school for photography. I went to Parsons in New York. I was not shooting food or even still life at the time. Food or food photography was not on my radar at all, in any professional way. But through doing the blog and loving it as much as I did, I found people were really responding to that work.

The first time I ever showed food work in a class at school, the guest teacher offered me a job shooting for a magazine. So I thought maybe I should pursue this a little further.

I started in photography but I will say food photography is completely different. I was not immediately good at it. I had to work. It’s a total learning curve and it’s a lot harder than it looks I will say.

On Gluten-Free Foods:

Julia Gartland of Sassy Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about Gluten-Free foods

Well, I’m sure everyone’s heard of it by now. It’s a big buzz word since it’s on every product now, even hummus, which has always been gluten-free says gluten-free on it. But it’s technically the elastic protein in wheat, it’s what makes pizza and croissant so lovely and it can also be in all of these other products like soy sauce and dressings, which it doesn’t necessarily need to be there.

That’s when I think it gets tricky for people and they don’t understand what it is. But there’s also a huge variety of gluten-free grains and products to choose from. I just saw the other day a quinoa kale puff popcorn product.

Now is the time to be gluten-free because there’s just everything. Rice is gluten-free, all rice products are gluten-free. A lot of people don’t know that. I get asked that all the time.

When in doubt, a piece of meat is always going to be gluten-free unless it’s battered. It’s like there’s a certain aspect of logic to it, but it is tricky for sure.

I do feel a lot better than I used to. Eating this way definitely suits me. I have some moments where I’m reminded of all the pain and discomfort I used to feel all the time. So I’m definitely happiest when my diet’s pretty strict and pure. That being said, it’s still not perfect. I don’t feel absolutely amazing and energized every single day, but it’s constantly evolving with what I feel best eating.

On Gluten-Free Ingredients:

There are so many, especially with the baking. I’m obsessed with gluten-free baking flours.

My favorites of all time are definitely sorghum flour, which I discovered super early on. Brown rice flour, almond flour, buckwheat flour, garbanzo bean flour, anything like that. There are so many.

Even cornmeal, things that you wouldn’t think of as being gluten-free are so amazing to cook and bake with. And then things maybe you wouldn’t have heard of are things that you use kind of to mimic gluten like xanthan gum and potato starch and tapioca flour.

But they’re so fun. Even if you’re not gluten-free, baking with buckwheat or something like that, it’s just a new thing you wouldn’t maybe go towards.

Buckwheat is this dark grayish tint and it’s very beautiful when you bake with it. And I love almond flour. I buy five pound bags of it off of Amazon. I use it very quickly. I love anything with almond flour. It’s super good and they all have a very lovely different flavor.

On Some Good Gluten-Free Cooking and Baking Resources:

I love La Tartine Gourmande and Cannelle et Vanille are both really amazing sources of inspiration. I highly recommend both of their books, especially Small Plates and Sweet Treats by Aran Goyoaga. She’s a trained pastry chef and she has this amazing Basque influence on all her recipes. They’re super great.

Also, Bojon Gourmet. She’s another ex-pastry chef and she has a ton of super great gluten-free recipes as well.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Well I don’t really watch any shows besides Ina obviously, but I need to stop name dropping.

But I’m the biggest podcast person, I love America’s Test Kitchen. I’ve such a soft spot for them and I feel like no one gets how great they are. I love Splendid Table and Heritage Radio Network and Good Food on KCRW, and obviously, The Dinner Special as well.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

I am in love with Amy Chaplin. I recently got her book and went through like a food renaissance ’cause her recipes are just so lovely. I so recommend her and her blog is amazing.

And you know, I keep coming back to Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks. She’s still so relevant and amazing and I’m always inspired by her essence. She’s living my dream life.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook that make you happy?

Well, I’m huge into Instagram. That’s my favorite thing. So on and Instagram, I recently followed the chicks from Broad City who are super fun.

I’ve mostly been loving non-food ones lately, like Sight Unseen and Academy of New York. And Niche is a great one where they just post quotes from creative artists and all that stuff. And Official Sean Penn, which is just funny and great.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

I love everything in my kitchen.

I’m constantly trying to get rid of stuff because I live in New York and that’s just the life, but I love everything in my kitchen. My favorite things are probably . . . my boyfriend has gotten me ceramics as gifts over the years. That was one of the first things he ever bought me and they’re definitely my treasured pieces.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

Capers and olives I hated until I was probably 20 years old, but now, I almost always have them in my fridge. I love them.

I think I was not into that brininess and then I went to Spain with my family and they served green olives on every table like it’s bread. I kept trying, thinking if I keep trying it, maybe something will click and it did. So keep trying!

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I love anything by Nigel Slater, Alice Waters, The Canal House Cookbooks. And as I mentioned before, Amy Chaplin and I love Mimi Thorisson’s new book.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

It’s gotta be something on the up-side.

There’s always music in my house. My boyfriend’s a musician. He’s constantly manning the record player. But for cooking, I think Elvis Costello always puts me in a good mood.

On Keeping Posted on Julia:

Julia Gartland of Sassy Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted on her

On my blog, Sassy-Kitchen.com and Sassy Kitchen on all handles I guess. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, I’m on it all.

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: 101 Cookbooks, 2014 Saveur Food Blog Awards, 2015 Saveur Food Blog Awards, Academy of New York, Alice Waters, America's Test Kitchen, Amy Chaplin, Aran Goyoaga, Bojon Gourmet, Bon Appetite, Broad City, Cannelle et Vanille, Elvis Costello, Epicurious, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Food52, Gluten-Free, Good Food, Heidi Swanson, Heritage Radio Network, Ina Garten, Julia Gartland, KCRW, La Tartine Gourmande, Martha Stewart, Mimi Thorisson, New York, Nigel Slater, Official Sean Penn, Parsons, Photographer, Sassy Kitchen, Sight Unseen, Small Plates and Sweet Treats, Splendid Table, The Canal House, The Kitchn, Vegan

039: Amelia Morris: Failure, Success and Fearlessness in the Kitchen

May 22, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Amelia Morris of Bon Appetempt on The Dinner Special podcast talking about failure, success and being fearless in the kitchen.
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Amelia Morris of Bon Appetempt on The Dinner Special podcast talking about failure, success and being fearless in the kitchen.

Bon Appétempt

Amelia’s blog has evolved as her cooking and life has changed over the years, and her readers have been along for every step of the journey. An essay Amelia wrote about her kitchen visit with her grandma won Best Culinary Essay in Saveur’s 2011 Food Blog Awards. In 2012, Bon Appétempt won in Saveur’s Best Humor Blog category. Amelia recently released her book, Bon Appetémpt: A Coming-of-Age Story (with Recipes!).

I am so excited to have Amelia Morris of Bon Appétempt here on the show today.

On How Her Blog Started:

It really started as an accident. I was house sitting for my friend, and they have a beautiful house, and I got the idea that I could have people over for Christmas day brunch, and I decided to make this cake from the cover of a Bon Appétit. I’d never made a cake from scratch before, and it was this towering chocolate peppermint cake. But I thought I could do it. I gave myself multiple days to do everything ahead of time, and I basically did do it except as I was putting the icing on the cake. The whole thing started to slide, and it fell over.

My husband and I had been taking pictures of the whole thing because we were so impressed that I was making this gigantic cake. So then we had pictures of the rise and fall.

Afterwards, I just kept looking at the pictures and I just kept thinking there needs to be a food blog where it’s like the home-cooked version versus the magazine version. I just thought I was the perfect candidate because I didn’t know how to cook and I thought, every time, each post would be a disaster. I know it will be really funny.

This was six years ago. At first, I really wanted to make fun of the perfection and food magazines and just how fake it was. My intention was to mix it up but it could be funny.

On Her Sense of Fearlessness in the Kitchen:

I’m afraid of a lot of things and there’s a lot of stuff I haven’t tried. I don’t know if I’m afraid, but I don’t want to maybe make such a giant mess.

When I first started the blog, I wasn’t afraid of making mistakes because, A: I thought it would be funnier if I made mistakes, and B: my self esteem wasn’t tied to the kitchen. If I messed up, it didn’t injure me in any way as opposed to my other endeavors where it hurt when I failed.

I did redo the original cake that started it all and made it successfully. It was beautiful, so that felt pretty good.

I tried to make a Martha Stewart bread wreath, and it’s basically bread in the shape of a wreath. And it was an epic failure. We have a video of it on the blog, and I broke a pan in the oven. Because when you bake it, you’re supposed to have a pan of water underneath.

That pan of water broke, and so the water started gushing out into the oven. And basically, the wreath still turned out; it was an edible piece of bread and everything.

I’m always surprised with Martha Stewart’s recipes like that where you just have pay such attention to detail to get it even close to what Martha Stewart has in her magazine.

On How Becoming a Parent Changed the Way She Cooks:

Oh my gosh. Well, I feel like this changes a lot; because at the beginning, you’re just getting used to everything. And I feel like even though they sleep a lot at the beginning, I just wasn’t in my normal routine.

I used to see recipes, be inspired, go to the store, come back, cook it that night. And I feel like at the beginning, that was not really an option. And now, he’s so mobile that he won’t even… If I’m in the kitchen, he’s running to the back of the house and I have to go see what he’s up to and all that stuff. So it’s changed a lot. I really do much more simple things and I do a lot of stuff I know by heart.

I try and do a lot of stuff while he’s eating dinner. He usually eats around five, so I’ll try and do chopping and any sort of prep work that I can do while he’s contained and he sits. And then he goes to bed around seven and then I finish cooking once he’s in bed.

There are so many good things you can make with not a lot of ingredients. I feel like that’s my go-to thing. I mean, we eat a lot of pasta around here and I do a lot of shortcuts, I guess, like I find myself recently buying mushrooms that are already sliced and cleaned, which I never used to do because I always think the person doing it isn’t doing a good job of cleaning it. And now, I’m just like, “Oh, well.”

My mum would always buy a rotisserie chicken and have it in the fridge, and I would never do that. I would just do it myself. And just this week, I bought a rotisserie chicken and I made a chicken pot pie, a version of chicken pot pie, and then I just pulled the meat off of it.

The answer to the question is I’m still figuring out how to have shortcuts; what shortcuts to come up with.

On Her Videos:

Basically, my husband went to film school and the book goes over our mutual struggles to find creative satisfaction.

He wanted to be a filmmaker, still wants to be a filmmaker, writer, and we both had day jobs not doing anything remotely creative. I think I just got really inspired to do a cooking show by watching cooking shows and just watching how staged they are.

I just don’t really understand why everything needs to be so perfect in cooking shows. They’re all in full makeup and no aprons. So I was really inspired to do a cooking show that was more real and where it would show me cleaning up and stuff like that, and Matt was excited to try shooting again which he hasn’t done since college.

On Her Book, Bon Appétempt: A Coming-of-Age Story (with Recipes!)

The book is basically my life’s story, but it’s pretty much about growing up and trying and failing. And the way it came about matters because I went to grad school for an MFA in Writing. And my thesis was a novel and I continued working on it after school.

So I sent a novel to a bunch of agents, and one of them got back to me and was like, “Yeah, I’ll read your novel,” but she’s on my bio about my food blog and she was like, “I’m really interested in Bon Appétempt.” A long story short, she really wanted me to work on a food memoir. I guess I never really thought of doing a food memoir up until that point.

So I was excited about it. I was totally excited about it even though she wasn’t interested in my novel. I was kind of excited at the prospect of my writing career finally getting off the ground a little bit. And so I just jumped on the opportunity and I was like, “Totally, I’ll do a food memoir,” and I started putting together a book proposal.

I love my blog for many reasons and it’s great. But I think that there is this pressure to post. And for a while, I had a schedule. I would post every Sunday night. And I just think that the quality of writing would often suffer because I was just like, “I’ve got to get the post up. I’ve got to get the post up.” And with the book, I could really take my time and I didn’t feel a sense of urgency. I felt like I could talk about things that I didn’t feel were appropriate for the blog. I could start at the very beginning of my life as opposed to what’s going on right now.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Top Chef. That’s it. Final answer.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

Well, you probably already know about Lottie and Doof. It’s one of my faves. I really like The Yellow House.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook that make you happy?

On Twitter, I like Andy Borowitz, and of course, USA Gymnastics.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

Well, I have this magenta-colored skull. It’s small. It’s a scary-looking skull. His eyes are red glitter.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

There was a point in my life where I said I didn’t like pasta, and now it’s something we eat three times a week.

I was a young woman constantly on a diet and I convinced myself that I didn’t like pasta.

I just wouldn’t let myself eat it.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Anything by Nigel Slater, but probably The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I love any sort of Van Morrison; that sort of realm of music.

On Keeping Posted on Amelia:

Probably Instagram, or I have a book, Bon Appétempt, and a Facebook page.

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: 2011 Saveur Food Blog Awards, 2012 Saveur Food Blog Awards, Alice Waters, Amelia Morris, Andy Borowitz, Bon Appétempt, Bon Appétempt: A Coming-of-Age Story (with Recipes!), Bon Appetit, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Lottie and Doof, Martha Stewart, Mom, Nigel Slater, Parent, The Art of Simple Food, The Yellow House, Top Chef, USA Gymnastics, Van Morrison, Videos, Writer

034: Cristina Sciarra: How Learning to Cook is a Lifelong Process

May 4, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Cristina Sciarra of The Roaming Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about writing about her food adventures.
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Cristina Sciarra of The Roaming Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how learning to cook is a lifelong process.

The Roaming Kitchen, Food Blog

Cristina has lived all over the world and feels most at home in her kitchen. She believes food should foster community and seasonal foods and ingredients are worth waiting for. Cristina was on the board of Slow Food NYC and The Roaming Kitchen was a finalist for Best New Blog in Saveur’s 2013 Best Food Blog Awards.

I am so happy to have Cristina Sciarra of The Roaming Kitchen here on the show.

On Writing About Her Food Adventures:

Cristina Sciarra of The Roaming Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about writing about her food adventures.

I had been living abroad. I lived in Spain for one year and then I moved to France for a year. In France I lived on a market street. Six days a week we had two butchers and a baker, a cheesemonger. I really fell into the habit of buying ingredients on a daily basis and cooking things on a daily basis.

I came back to New York to go to graduate school for writing. I studied for an MFA in fiction writing. It was a natural marrying of two really strong interests, writing and food, because I think in essence, a recipe is a story to be told. I started to create my own recipes and I wanted some place to write them down before I forgot them and couldn’t cook them anymore.

I love Spain. I studied abroad there and then I lived there for another year. Especially Madrid is where my heart is. I do love Spanish food, but I would say now, at this point, I’ve been with my fiancée for six years and I have spent a lot of time with his family. They live on the western coast of France where they do the oysters and the mussels and the sea salt. Watching my mother-in-law prepare these dishes with a duck she got from her friend’s farm down the road and really, really fresh ingredients. I think that’s influenced me hugely.

Of course it’s French food but more than that it’s local food. Here I frequent the farmers’ market. I’ll buy things that look good. I come home and I think, “What can I do with these things?”

In my mind that’s an extension of what she does in her own home too. As far as cuisines, I love French, I love Spanish, I love Italian, that’s what I grew up eating. I guess I love North American because that’s where I happen to be and that’s where the ingredients are that I’m buying.

Really, the most important thing to me is local, high quality foods then using your imagination and mixing cuisines in order to make something delicious.

On Attending Culinary School in Paris:

Cristina Sciarra of The Roaming Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about going to culinary school in Paris.

I think the culinary school system in France is probably a lot different than culinary school in the States. Just as far as I know, from the people who have gone here, it seems to be more about cuisine styles. Again, this might be too much of a sweeping statement, but at the Cordon Bleu it’s very old school French style teaching. It’s a militaristic style of teaching. Most of the chefs are old men and they are not afraid to yell at you if something goes wrong.

I went for the basic course which is the first third where they teach you basically everything you need to know. They teach you how to cut things properly, and make a stock, and poach a chicken, things like that.

The upper classes are more difficult things and perfecting dishes. I really learned all the building blocks of cooking there. I think for me it was such a valuable education. What does it mean to braise something and chemically why do you do that? Why is it different than a different style of cooking? Although some days were terrifying, the base education was really, really valuable to me.

The basic program was supposed to last three months, but I only had a little time left in France. I thought I would do the accelerated program which takes three months' worth of work and puts it in about six or seven weeks, I guess.

I was there all the time from the early morning to late at night, five or six days a week. It was intense.

Basically the day oscillated between sitting in on a lecture where the chef would speak in French with a translator or in English. He would demonstrate three or four dishes. There would be a big mirror on the ceiling so you can see what’s happening.

In your practical class after that you would be cooking one or two things that he demonstrated.

This was late summer too I will say. It’s a lot of apparel. You’re wearing a lot of clothes that need to be a certain way, so it was very, very hot and a lot of time on my feet. It was one of those experiences I will never forget. While it was really intense it was so valuable to me. I am so lucky and grateful that I got to do that.

On a Kitchen Disaster Before Culinary School:

Cristina Sciarra of The Roaming Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about a kitchen disaster story.

I made my friend run down to the supermarket and get the pre-made pizza bread that are completely done. They are like bread. You just have to stick them in the oven. I don’t know why I thought this, but I rolled the dough very, very thinly. Way too thinly and then put it in the oven for 20 minutes. It was black, completely charred, a mess. My friends were pretty patient through all of this. Most people like eating free food so it went over pretty well.

There was a farmers’ market one day a week on our campus. I did start going there. That was probably the first farmers’ market that I attended on a somewhat regular basis. That year was really, really trial and error. I remember I made my friend a carrot cake. I was very proud of that because it actually turned out okay.

There’s still so much that I don’t know. I think cooking is such a large subject that I could study and practice my whole life and there would still be more to learn. I think that’s part of what I find so interesting is that it’s endless. What I can do and how I can improve, new tricks I can learn, new flavor combinations. I think that path sort of starts there. It’s just been sort of chugging along ever since then.

On the Slow Food Movement:

Cristina Sciarra of The Roaming Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about the slow food movement.

Slow Food is actually an international organization that started in the 80s in Italy when McDonald’s first came into Italy. It was a reaction to that. It’s now all over the world. The New York City chapter, we’re under the USA umbrella, but we’re actually the biggest local chapter in the country. We really are in support of food that’s good, clean and fair.

We have several school gardens teaching kids how to grow their own food and how to cook their own food. We have a monthly Slur, which is a happy hour where people can come and talk to members of the board. We have a book and film club which I used to work on where we try to get films and have a panel, or we have book events with the author. Sometimes that includes a cooking demonstration.

We had a woman who wrote a book about making fresh cheese. We all got to try some of this fresh cheese. We work in this general goal of really trying to raise money and awareness for environmental and fair practices in cooking and food production.

We’re actually very lucky in New York because we have many, many farmers’ markets. You could go every day to one or more. We have great access to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Hudson Valley. There’s also a company called Good Eggs, which is now in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Brooklyn, and they’re moving to Manhattan and New Orleans.

I love ordering from them too because fish, for example, it’s very hard to know if you’re getting good fish or not unless you have a source that you trust. On Saturdays there’s a local fishmonger, a day boat fishmonger at the farmers’ market but if I wanted fish on a Wednesday, it’s difficult to know. Good Eggs provides really high quality well sourced fish and meat. Frankly, it’s like a grocery store, all kinds of things. We’re quite lucky here. It’s not so difficult to eat really well.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I don’t really watch any cooking shows.

I will wait until Top Chef is over and binge watch the whole thing. I think every year the cooks get better and better and better. I enjoy it.

What are some food blogs or websites that we have to know about?

I have a list of them on my website. I like different ones for very different reasons.

I like good writing a lot so someone like Oh, Ladycakes who writes vegan dessert recipes, but that’s not my preference. I always read because she’s a gorgeous writer and the photographs are beautiful, the same thing with Bon Appetempt.

I definitely would try her recipes but the thing that keeps me coming back is her voice. How original it is, what great read it is. I’d say the same for Dash and Bella. The writing is so evocative and it’s very family-based, about her family. It’s gorgeous, it breaks your heart every time she writes something.

I’d say those are the three that I go to. Those are my top three I would say.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter that make you happy?

I’m the best at Instagram of all of those. It makes me happy, I guess those bloggers that I just mentioned and some more. So many people post such beautiful things and once you get to know someone a little bit when they post about their family or their life it’s a pleasure to see those pictures.

I have friends who live in Europe and South America, to see their posts, what they’re doing is really a gift. It’s a way of keeping in touch with someone you love but lives far away.

What is something all home cooks should have in their pantry?

I’m the wrong person to ask this because I’ll give you a very long list.

To be the most basic, I would say black pepper, fresh ground black pepper, have a kosher salt and a flaky sea salt, have an olive oil for cooking and an olive oil for finishing, a more flavorful fancy pants olive oil.

I think if you have those things there’s a lot you can do with those things. You can open a can of beans from your cupboard and mix all of that together. If you have some herbs put it in there. If you have some radishes or cucumbers put it in there. That’s half of dinner already and leftovers for tomorrow.

Name one ingredient you cannot live without.

Olive oil. I have several olive oils and it’s fun for me. We went to Spain over Christmas to visit my fiancée’s family. They make great olive oil in Spain. I bought a few to bring home. That’s something I love to do also, is buying special food stuffs when I’m away and being able to come home and use them in my own kitchen. Olive oil, salt and pepper, but olive oil I think is fun.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

That makes my life better, well, I would say certainly those big cookbooks that serve as a guide. So in something like the New York Times cookbook, you’re going to find everything in there. Those are my outside cookbooks. The ones I like to look at all the time. What else? I have several Cook’s Illustrated books. I like having a great, great background. Then I have some restaurant cookbooks, some blogger cookbooks. But, really Nigel Slater, his books are the ones I come back to. I read all the time. There are quite a few. I think that’s my favorite.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I usually leave the music choices up to my fiancée. He plays stuff I like and I don’t have to think about it too much, but I will say I do watch a lot of Hulu shows when I’m cooking. It’s a good excuse to watch things that don’t perhaps need your full attention.

I also listen to a lot of books on tape. I fly through books on tape when I’m cooking. That’s the most enjoyable way to spend an afternoon I can think of, cooking and listening to a book on tape.

I’m listening to 1984 right now. I’m halfway through.

Keep Posted on Cristina:

Cristina Sciarra of The Roaming Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted with her.

I would say Instagram is probably my favorite method of social media. You’ll always see me posting there the most. I have a Facebook page for The Roaming Kitchen. I also do updates and articles there and just check in back into to the website.

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    Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Bon Appétempt, Cook's Illustrated, Cordon Bleu, Cristina Sciarra, Culinary School, Dash and Bella, Food Blog, Food Blogger, French Cuisine, Good Eggs, Ladycakes, New York, New York Times cookbook, Nigel Slater, Oh, Paris, Saveur Food Blog Awards, Slow Food Movement, Slow Food NYC, Spain, The Roaming Kitchen, Top Chef

    032: Luisa Weiss: How Travel Has Shaped Her Food Journey

    April 29, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

    Luisa Weiss of The Wednesday Chef on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how her travels have shaped her food journey.
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    Luisa Weiss of The Wednesday Chef on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how her travels have shaped her food journey.

    The Wednesday Chef, Food Blog

    Luisa is an author, a food columnist for Harper’s Bazaar Germany, teacher of both writing and cooking and leads food tours in Berlin where she lives with her husband and son Hugo.

    I am so thrilled to have Luisa Weiss of The Wednesday Chef here on the show today.

    On How Her Travels Have Shaped Her Food Journey:

    Luisa Weiss of The Wednesday Chef on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how her travels have shaped her food journey.

    I grew up in an international home. My dad’s American, my mom is Italian and I was born and partially raised in Berlin.

    My parents split up so I moved to Boston with my dad but kept coming back to Germany and Italy to see my mother. I’ve had lots of different food cultures in my life from the very beginning and moving to Boston for college was interesting in a way because I came from high school in Berlin and then college food, the dorm room, the freshman 15, all that was totally new to me. And then Paris…

    Paris, the food education. Paris was  obviously really wonderful. I don’t think I’ve had as much of an epiphany as a normal American would have just because Italy’s culture is similar in that they really revere ingredients.

    Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve definitely picked up something and taken it with me.

    Italian food is what I’m really comfortable with and familiar with. I know exactly what it’s supposed to taste like and I have a lot of confidence in that.

    But over the past 10 years of blogging, I’ve become so much better at cooking all kinds of different things. Now I feel like I say Italian but then I also want to say that I am really good at cooking Indian food at home now, and American food, and baking, and all kinds of other things.

    So it’s still Italian but definitely there’s lots more going on now.

    On How Her Blog Started:

    Luisa Weiss of The Wednesday Chef on The Dinner Special podcast talking about starting her food blog.

    I was working in book publishing and I had discovered food blogs a couple years before. I loved them. And it just dawned on me one day like, “I love reading food blogs. I love to cook and I love to write. Why aren’t I writing a food blog?”

    At the time there were many food blogs already and I assumed if I threw my hat in the ring, that nobody would care or pay attention because I’d be the last one to the party. So I just did it on a whim and I thought it was going to be writing practice more than anything else.

    I majored in English in college and I wanted to go to graduate school for writing. A professor of mine was like, “Don’t do it. If you’re going to write, you’ll do it out of your own accord.” But I didn’t and so finally the blog was meant to be a practice and then it turned into so much more.

    I’ve been a passionate cook and baker my whole life really, but I got into this rut when I was living in New York, my early years in New York but also in Paris.  I made the same things over and over again.

    It’s not that I didn’t want to make anything else, it’s just that nothing occurred to me. What else would I cook other than these three things? But I was really obsessive about clipping recipes and so I have binders and binders full of recipes from the newspaper food sections. So when the time came to come up with a concept for the blog, like some kind of a focus, right away I was like, “Okay, well I guess I’ll just cook my way through the newspaper recipes.” Then I could never cook a recipe twice because I always had the blog to think about. So in the past 10 years the blog has been my culinary education.

    On Cooking for Hugo:

    Luisa Weiss of The Wednesday Chef on The Dinner Special podcast talking about cooking for her son Hugo.

    When Hugo was born or when he started eating solid foods, I was coming up with silly little ideas that I thought other people might be interested in. It was also meant to be a journal of what I was feeding him, too. Like, “This was a good idea. Let me write it down so that I remember it next time,” there’s nothing in it that’s earth shattering. There’s nothing totally new in it, but I thought I would have appreciated or I do appreciate when other mothers say, “Oh, this really worked for my kid,” because even though I’m such an omnivore and my husband too, we did not give birth to an omnivore. Everybody says, “Oh just feed the kid whatever you’re eating.” When we tried that, he just wouldn’t eat. He’s a little picky.

    It’s getting better and he’s weirdly adventurous in certain moments. So we have a Sichuan restaurant that we’re obsessed with. Every once in a blue moon we go. He’ll end up eating half the things that we do. His mouth’s on fire. He’s got tears streaming down his face and he’s asking for more. But then other days, he refuses to eat a meat sauce with his pasta. The pasta has to be unadorned and plain, nothing.

    So whenever somebody says, “This really worked for my nine month old, or a 10 month old, or two and a half year old,” I think, “I want to pass that information on,” and the same for me. I had a couple inspiration moments and I just found recipes that he ended up liking. I thought, “Might as well share them.”

    I hated hearing this when I was pregnant, the mother of a newborn and all this but now that I’m a little older I understand why people say, “Enjoy it,” because actually the stages are all so short that while you’re in them, especially for the first time, you have no idea. You’re like, “Oh my God. My kid’s going to be eating pureed carrots for the next 10 years,” but subconsciously you think that they’re not even going to be eating pureed carrots for a month. So just live in the moment and then move on. Be flexible.

    On Her Book, “My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story With Recipes”:

    Luisa Weiss of The Wednesday Chef on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her book My Berlin Kitchen.

    The book is a collection of stories in chronological order that tell the rough outline, and in some cases not that rough, of sort of the strange path from Germany to the States, back to Germany, back to the States, to France and then ultimately back to Germany again.

    Each chapter has a recipe at the end so it’s a lot about food but also about family, about what it’s like to grow up in several different cultures. All the alienation and difficulty that that can present even though it’s in a sense a nice problem to have, but it does have a lot of its own emotional baggage.

    Then the love story with the city of Berlin that I’ve had my whole life.

    The Pressure Cooker:

    Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

    I used to watch, like literally 13 years ago, Nigella and Jamie and Two Fat Ladies, but now I don’t watch any.

    What are some food blogs or websites that we have to know about?

    Dinner: A Love Story which is about cooking for your family, specifically older children once they’re three years and up, how you get family dinner on the table.

    Orangette which is a beautiful food blog with lovely recipes and writing and photos and just wonderful.

    Bon Appetempt, which is a humorous take on cooking recipes from magazines but it’s also about life and things.

    Lottie and Doof. Tim’s writing is so amazing and his food is too but now that I think about it, I haven’t actually cooked that many things from it but I just love his take on the world and I just feel his site is a little blast of joy.

    There are so many others. Those are the ones off the top of my head.

    Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter that make you happy?

    Okay, Abbey Nova from Design Scouting which is the other blog I was going to say that I love, but it’s not a food blog. Follow her on Pinterest. Love her.

    And on Facebook, Humans of New York. Best account ever. Literally every post is a gut punch in good and bad ways. It’s just wonderful.

    Instagram. My friend, Rachel Roddy, in Rome. She always posts pictures of her sink with all of the beautiful things that she’s bought at the market that day and it’s just her sink. My mother’s from Rome and my mother lived in Rome when I was in college, and there’s just something about the light. When I look at those pictures, there’s something very deep going on inside of me. They make me happy.

    Her blog is Rachel Eats and that’s the other blog I was thinking of. Beautiful, provocative, gorgeous writing about living in Italy but being English. It’s incredible and her Instagram.

    What is something all home cooks should have in their pantry?

    Canned tomatoes, salt, olive oil.

    I feel like I can’t live without canned tomatoes. That’s breakfast, lunch and dinner right there.

    Name one ingredient you cannot live without.

    Yeah, canned tomatoes without a doubt.

    What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

    Fuchsia Dunlop’s Every Grain of Rice, which is Chinese home cooking demystified.

    The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater. I love it. It’s more of a journal of food but it’s very inspiring for when you’re feeling like, “I don’t feel like cooking anymore. What should I do?” I go to him and he always gets me going again.

    Diana Henry’s A Change of Appetite, so Diana Henry is an Irish food writer in London and she’s incredibly prolific. She publishes a book a year or something and they’re all incredible. I don’t understand how she does it.  I mean really they’re all incredible and they’re all so different. Her most recent book that’s available now is called A Change of Appetite and it’s ostensively of being like a lighter eating book but it’s just great. It’s full of incredibly delicious, lush, interesting recipes.

    What song or album just makes you want to cook?

    I actually am not really into music when I’m cooking although I guess something cheerful like Ella Fitzgerald.

    Keep Posted on Luisa:

    Luisa Weiss of The Wednesday Chef on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted on her.

    Well I’m pretty good whenever I have a blog post up, I ping the three big ones: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter so any of those is fine. I love Instagram most. It’s definitely the most fun I have while doing social media. It doesn’t feel like work.

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    Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: A Change of Appetite, Berlin, Bon Appétempt, Cooking for Parents, Design Scouting, Diana Henry, Dinner: A Love Story, Ella Fitzgerald, Every Grain of Rice, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Fuchsia Dunlop, Germany, Harper's Bazaar Germany, Humans of New York, International Food, Jamie Oliver, Lottie and Doof, Luisa Weiss, Mom, My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story With Recipes, Nigel Slater, Nigella Lawson, Orangette, Parent, Rachel Eats, The Kitchen Diaries, The Wednesday Chef, Two Fat Ladies, Writer

    024: Meike Peters: How Mediterranean Cooking Can Be Simple

    April 10, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

    Meike Peters of Eat in My Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about food culture in Berlin, Germany.
    http://traffic.libsyn.com/thedinnerspecial/TDS024.mp3

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    Meike Peters of Eat in My Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast on How Mediterranean Cooking Can Be Simple

    Eat in My Kitchen

    On Eat in My Kitchen, Meike shares her culinary journey which is inspired by her mother’s passion for cooking and food, and her connection with Malta in the Mediterranean. Her photography is amazing and transports us to her dining table in her apartment in one of Berlin’s wide boulevards.

    I am so thrilled to have Meike Peters of Eat in My Kitchen on the show today.

    On Her Blog:

    Meike Peters of Eat in My Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her food blog.

    I’ve always loved food and cooking. I’ve been cooking for almost 20 years now and we always have lots of friends over. Sometimes I cook for ten, 15, 20 people. After our dinner parties, people always ask me for recipes, they just give me a call during the week like, “Can you give me some inspiration and tell me what I can cook?” So at one point I thought I can also share all of this on a blog.

    I also love photography, I love writing. The blog brings everything together. Now you can just go to the blog and see what I cook and get some inspiration from there.

    Cooking is definitely easiest. I don’t even have to think much about it; it just comes naturally. Photography and writing, it depends a lot on my moods, especially with writing. Sometimes when I’m in the right mood or sometimes even when I’m lying in bed in the morning, I have a whole text in my head. But when I’m not in the right mood, it can take an hour, two hours and it just doesn’t come out.

    With photography, it depends a lot on the light. So since I take all my pictures with daylight, I depend a lot on how the lights change. Sometimes the food and the light and everything works perfectly, and sometimes it doesn’t, and then it’s a bit more work.

    For me it’s important that the food looks quite natural and even of late, I don’t decorate much. With my food, I’m not the kind of person who gets five plates and five fancy spoons. What you see on the photos is what I use for cooking and the plates we eat from. It’s very practical.

    On Her Mother As an Inspiration:

    Meike Peters of Eat in My Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her mother as her inspiration.

    We talk on the phone two, three times a week and very often we just talk about recipes, what we cook.

    She travels a lot and sometimes she calls me from a restaurant and tells me, “I had this amazing pasta here in Sicily with truffle. You have to try that.”

    We both have this huge passion for food; for cooking and good ingredients. And very often it comes very natural that we talk about it other than mother and daughter. Others may talk about clothes and shoes and handbags. We talk about cabbage, carrots, soups, and pasta.

    When I visit my mama, we sit at the table and we drink wine, we eat. Sometimes we meet in the kitchen at five in the afternoon and we just cook and chat. Although my family is German, it’s quite Italian.

    On Mediterranean Food and Cooking:

    Meike Peters of Eat in My Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about Mediterranean food and cooking.

    It doesn’t need many ingredients, but the ingredients are very good. It starts with good olive oil, good vegetables, ripe vegetables, something that’s hard to find sometimes here in the north of Europe, in Berlin.

    But in the Mediterranean, they pick the vegetables and fruits from the trees and they are perfect, ripe, sweet. So whenever we go to Malta and I come back home to Berlin, I’m a bit disappointed with what I find here. The cooking is varied because they have these amazing ingredients; they don’t actually need much. You throw together what you have.

    Whenever we are in Malta my cooking is very quick.  The seafood is amazing; we just throw some fish on the barbecue and some great bread and olive oil. A quick salad and that’s it; doesn’t need much. But what you have is very, very good and it’s very pure.

    I use a lot of fennel seeds in my cooking. That started, was it ten years ago, when I moved in with my boyfriend because they have amazing fennel seeds in Malta. So there are more fennel seeds in my cooking. And citrus fruits like lemon zest, orange zest, I use that a lot. These are ingredients that everybody really knows but once it really fits your taste buds, you might use it a bit more. So for me, it’s citrus flavors and fennel seeds.

    The best thing is to travel to Italy, to Malta. Find a nice mama who opens her kitchen for you and cook with her. I think it’s like with any other style of cooking as well; that it’s always best to meet someone who is from this country and to cook with this person.

    Because a cookbook, a blog, they can inspire you to try out things that you might not have tried before, but the best thing is always to cook with people who come from this country or from this area, and to learn from them. That’s what I believe.

    They know more of the secrets because it’s the cooking that comes from their mother or grandmother; all these recipes that are given from one generation to the next. And I love to learn like this.

    On Food Culture in Berlin, Germany:

    Meike Peters of Eat in My Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about food culture in Berlin, Germany.

    It’s very multicultural and there are these trends like in any other big cities. At the moment, there’s big hype for Korean food, burgers as well; a big burger hype.

    There are always new people coming to the city and bringing their culinary background with them. But it’s really very inspiring because it’s permanently changing and developing.

    The locals here, they love a dish that is called Königsberger Klopse. It’s like a meatball and it’s cooked in a broth. The sauce is a bit thick and creamy with capers. It’s sweet as well. For some people it’s quite a challenge. If someone prepares it well, then it’s really, really good.

    What is very famous here is currywurst. Everybody knows currywurst, it’s a sausage. It’s light with a curry ketchup. I’m not a big fan of that.

    On Her Blog Series, “Meet in Your Kitchen”:

    Meike Peters of Eat in My Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about a series on her blog called Meet in Your Kitchen.

    The idea is that I meet other people in their kitchen because on my blog people just see what happens in my kitchen.

    For Meet in Your Kitchen, I meet other people in their kitchen, people who inspire me. Some have culinary backgrounds, some are artists, designers, friends. The idea is to show a process through the eyes of their kitchen.

    We cook one dish together; the recipe will be, as always, on the blog and as well, they choose if they want to bake or to cook. I spend a few hours with them in their kitchen and we talk about their lives, the projects, food. Also culinary memories, how they learned about cooking and the food culture in their family.

    The Pressure Cooker:

    Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

    None, I don’t watch any. I’m sorry.

    What are some food blogs or websites that we have to know about?

    I love Manger by Mimi Thorisson. I mean, it’s very popular. I love France. I love the food. I love the pictures. It’s a very popular blog.

    I love What Should I Eat for Breakfast Today by Marta. She lives in Berlin as well. I did a feature with her and I love her photography. I love her writing, her start into the day, and I love her blog.

    Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter that make you happy?

    Okay, I follow Marta What should I Eat for Breakfast Today, she makes me happy.

    I follow Manger as well, Mimi Thorisson because she shows France.

    I like to follow travel bloggers. I don’t know their names, but I love to see when they go to the Caribbean and it’s like going on holiday for a split second.

    What is something all home cooks should have in their pantry?

    Everybody should have good olive oil, good flour. I use spelt flour, like white spelt flour, for all my baking and that’s really good. Yeast for baking, also.

    Name one ingredient you cannot live without?

    Something I cannot live without is bread. I love bread. If that’s the only thing I can eat for the rest of my life, I’m happy. I love bread.

    What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

    I love the Nigel Slater cookbooks because I love his approach to cooking and his diary form of the books.

    I like Ottolenghi although I don’t cook much of his recipes, but I find him inspiring.

    There is a new cookbook that I got for Christmas, Persiana; this book is great too.

    I like Nigella Lawson’s baking book.

    What song or album just makes you want to cook?

    Jazz music, in general, Wes Montgomery. Yes, jazz music, definitely.

    Sometimes I need something loud and wild, sometimes classic music. It depends a lot on my mood really.

    Keep Posted on Meike:

    Meike Peters of Eat in My Kitchen on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted on her.

    The blog, that’s where I share pictures on Instagram, on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Twitter as well. You get the recipes, the pictures, all on the blog.

    Have Meike's Special Dish Recipe Sent to You Now: 

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      Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Berlin, currywurst, Eat in My Kitchen, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Germany, Königsberger Klopse, Malta, Manger, Mediterranean, Meet in Your Kitchen, Meike Peters, Mimi Thorisson, Nigel Slater, Nigella Lawson, Wes Montgomery, What Should I Eat for Breakfast Today, Yotam Ottolenghi

      014: Karen Chan: Tasty Global Cuisines for Eaters Wanting To Try New Flavours

      March 18, 2015 by Gabriel 2 Comments

      Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with her.
      http://traffic.libsyn.com/thedinnerspecial/TDS014.mp3

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      Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast on Tasty Global Cuisines for Eaters Wanting To Try New Flavours

      HonestlyYUM

      Karen has been globetrotting the world and documenting her food adventures since 2009, and today she’s the food editor and co-founder of HonestlyYum, where she helps to create an experience that inspires readers to try seasonal recipes, delightful drinks, culinary adventures, and festive DIYs.

      I am so pumped to have Karen Chan of Honestly Yum here on the show today.

      On What First Drew Her To Start a Blog:

      Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about what first drew her to starting a food blog.

      My first blog was Globetrotter Diaries and to be honest, it was really just one day sitting around and kind of thinking I need a creative outlet. I love food. I love travel. I love food culture and I love exploring other peoples’ foods so it really just came out of, “Well, this is a creative outlet and so let me just start a blog for fun,” basically exploring different cultures and different foods.

      On Her Global Curiosity Around Food:

      Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her global curiosity about food.

      I’m Chinese and so I grew up eating all kinds of food. I think at a young age my parents really prepped my palate for different flavors and different types of cuisines. I grew up in LA so it’s just a melting pot of all kinds of ethnic foods.

      Anything you want you can get it, so obviously really great Chinese food, Japanese food, Korean food, even Pakistani food. One of my favorite restaurants is a Pakistani restaurant. So I’ve always, always had this love of just exploring different types of cuisines.

      Not only that but I’ve also been lucky enough to travel a lot, so even just the traveling, like nearly half my plan of traveling is always, “What am I going to eat there?” So that definitely shaped my curiosity for that.

      Mexico and Singapore – two very different places, but if I had to pick one I might say Mexico and Oaxaca in particular. Oaxacan cuisine because that was just… I think if you were a foodie it is the ultimate. Getting to explore all the markets and there are so many interesting ingredients, but that is the ultimate for me. My culinary heart lives in Mexico.

      I live in California and so naturally there’s a big Mexican cuisine influence in California. I’ve gone myself to Mexico many times and I’m just such a fan of the culture.

      On Starting HonestlyYUM:

      Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about starting HonestlyYUM.

      The reason I ended up stopping Globetrotter Diaries is because I went back to school. I went to Graduate School. I went to Law School actually, and so when I had started Globetrotter Diaries, I was already on that process to going back to school. It was really for fun for me and I just knew I wouldn’t be able to have the time to keep up with it.

      So once I was in school, kind of doing that, my sister, she runs HonestlyWTF, which is a fashion and lifestyle blog and she said, “You know, we really want to add a new dimension to the HonestlyWTF family. We really want to do food and entertaining and cocktails and you’ve done Globetrotter Diaries, and I really want you to come on board.” I thought it’s a lot more feasible given my busy schedule at school because I have two other people I get to work with.

      It’s not all resting on my shoulders. So I thought, yeah, this is something I can do with other people who are super talented and super driven. So that’s kind of what made me do the switch. It was not planned, I guess, but it was just an opportunity that I couldn’t say no to.

      On Creating an Experience Rather Than Only Featuring Recipes:

      Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about creating an experience rather than only recipes.

      I would say it’s sort of all of our ideas, but probably primarily Erica because she’s just so creative when it comes to entertaining ideas. I mean all of us are entertainers. I love having friends over and so naturally you just kind of want to have an experience for your guests. I don’t really know where that comes from other than just we really love to create.

      Part of it, too, is that it’s just so fun to do these tablescapes and parties. They’re faux parties because they’re only attended by us and our cameras, but it’s just so fun to kind of go over the top because there are very few times in the year where you do. It’s maybe Thanksgiving, maybe Christmas, and maybe a special occasion, but other than that you just, when you have a dinner party, you’re not going to be calling a florist.

      This is a chance to just kind of go all out, over the top and have fun with it. I think Erica and I, especially, both really love that aspect of entertaining. It’s really creating an atmosphere and a theme, and what is the whole experience going to feel like, too.

      On Her Passion for Food and Cooking:

      Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her passion for cooking.

      It’s so funny because my mom always looks at my sister and I and laughs and thinks, “I don’t know where they get it from,” because my mom is not a cook.

      I did not grow up in a household where I started cooking cinnamon rolls with my mom from a very young age. She cooked but she didn’t enjoy it. It was just sort of like I come home, I cook for my kids, done. And so she’s just like, “I don’t know where you guys get it from,” and we both are obsessed with food, we’re both obsessed with cooking.

      I would say my interest peaked or just started to kind of form in college and probably in high school, cooking for myself a snack or whatever. But my aunt, my father’s sister, she is a huge foodie and she’s actually my aunt who is in Singapore.

      That’s probably why I love Singaporean food so much. She would take me to all the hawker stalls and try everything and it’s just so good. But she is a huge foodie and so I think she helped inspire me. She’s a great cook so she would always be the one, when I was younger, to kind of be like, “Oh, here’s your recipe. Try it.” I think it’s strange. Maybe it skipped a generation. I don’t know.

      She’s always been on the other side of the globe but she follows the blog and obviously sees. We see what we cook in our respective countries over Facebook and social media and emails and stuff.

      On Expanding a Non-Adventurous Eater’s Food Horizons Via a New Cuisine:

      Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about expanding a non-adventurous eater's horizons.

      I would say Vietnamese food. I think it still starts to incorporate some interesting flavors that you might not expect like, for example, lemongrass or fish sauce, which of course, if you just smell it you’re just like, “Whoah.” It’s kind of repulsive smelling but it adds a subtle flavor that when people are eating it in food, they wouldn’t be like, “Oh, there’s fish sauce in here,” and so that might help them think, “Well, if I want to make this at home, I could actually use this ingredient that I normally would never touch.”

      I just think generally the flavors in Vietnamese food are very clean, light. There’s nothing incredibly aggressive about it but it’s so satisfying and it just hits a spot. I’m like a huge fan of Vietnamese, huge, huge, huge.

      And even the basil’s different. I’m sure a lot of people are used to the sweet Italian basil versus the Thai basil, which has a very different flavor.

      The Pressure Cooker:

      Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

      I actually watch Top Chef a lot. That’s one of my favorites.

      What are some food blogs or websites that we have to know about?

      One of my favorites is, I would say lately because of the New Year and because we’re trying to be healthy, it would be Green Kitchen Stories. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of it but their photography is just gorgeous and such wholesome healthy cooking.

      Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter that make you happy?

      I actually have recently discovered that all of the U.S. National Parks have their own Instagram accounts, for example, Yellowstone National Park.

      It makes me so happy because it is, like the photography is just gorgeous, and they really post quite often and they’ll post these beautiful photos of the landscape and the Grand Teton Mountains and animals. I didn’t know that the U.S. Government was doing this and I just discovered a slew of Instagram accounts and I just follow them all.

      When I’m sitting at my desk in the office and I’m just looking at how gorgeous some of these places are, it helps me escape and it just makes me very happy.

      What is something all home cooks should have in their pantry?

      Okay, a good, good flake sea salt like Maldon.

      I would say Maldon sea salt because I use that for everything. It makes such a huge, huge difference in your cooking. I know it sounds kind of strange like salt is salt. I have kosher salt and I use that, for example, if you’re salting a pot of pasta water. I’m not going to use a big handful of Maldon salt in it, but it really does change subtly the flavor of your cooking. I would recommend that for everyone to get.

      Name one ingredient you cannot live without?

      This is hard. One ingredient, I would say eggs, couldn’t live without eggs. I love eggs.

      I eat, sometimes, eggs for dinner. That’s how much I love them. They’re amazing in every form.

      What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

      I would say anything by Nigel Slater because I just love his recipes. I mean, Jamie Oliver in the same kind of thread is like, they’re not precise, and with cooking especially, I mean with baking it’s a different story. But with cooking I think not having to literally measure out tablespoons of certain things, I think for beginners, yes, it’s probably necessary at that point, but being able to not be confined by those restrictions or those directions is good.

      I know Jamie Oliver does like a glug of this and a dash of that and same with Nigel Slater. It’s sort of very loosely-based recipes. I think that’s a great way to start developing your own cooking skills because it helps you think outside the box. Like, “Okay, I’m going to rely on my own tasting.”

      And cooking is so much about tasting as you go and really seeing what works and what doesn’t and experimenting. That helps you develop your own talent to be able to rely on your own judgment when it comes to measuring things, and how much to put of this, and how much to put of that, and why did we add this, and what does this contribute. I just really love Nigel Slater cookbooks.

      What song or album just makes you want to cook?

      I would say the band, Alabama Shakes, makes me want to cook because they are just so upbeat and live. I saw them live and I love them. It’s really fun music and that makes me want to cook because I just want to have fun.

      Keep Posted on Karen:

      Karen Chan of HonestlyYUM on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with her.

      Instagram and Pinterest (and HonestlyYUM.com).

      Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Alabama Shakes, Chinese food, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Food culture, Globetrotter Diaries, Grand Teton Mountains, Green Kitchen Stories, Hawker, HonestlyWTF, HonestlyYUM, Jamie Oliver, Karen Chan, Mexico, Nigel Slater, Pakistani food, Singapore, Top Chef, Travel, Vietnamese food, Yellowstone National Park

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      Hello! I'm Gabriel Soh, home cook, food enthusiast and your host of The Dinner Special podcast.
      Everything here on The Dinner Special is an experiment, just like with cooking. Thank you for listening and being part of the adventure.

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