Are you my mother?
// May 4th, 2009 // No Comments » // Food Geek, Random Ramble
Dear Diary (just kidding), I’m back. I am sorry I have been M.I.A. but school, work, and life have made me nutty beyond belief. I am back now and back for good at that!
A couple weeks ago I was facebooking and someone sent me one of those blasted “20 questions” things about everything and anything. You know the ones, “what’s your favorite color?”, “What New Kids On The Block singer would you sleep with first?” Well, I got to thinking about my very own foodie-based 20 questions. One question came to mind, and I have been thinking about it since then: “If you could have any famous culinarian for a mother, who would it be and why?” So in honor of that idea, and the fact that Mothers Day is this weekend, I bring you the following.
I know this sounds silly and stupid, but I think about things like this. I love my mom and all, and would not trade her in for anything, but if I were to have a famous culinarian as a mother, who would it be? It has been hard to narrow down the list, but I am happy to say that I have four mothers.
I know that seems like a lot of mothers to answer to, but I can’t just have one; it would be impossible. I chose my “foodie moms” based on many different traits but they all have one thing in common – complete and utter culinary greatness!
From the list of hundreds (OK, maybe 10) I have narrowed it down to the following four in no particular order:
- Dorie Greenspan (baker and all around culinary genius)
- Lynne Rossetto Kasper (host of PRI’s The Splendid Table and foodie icon)
- Ruth Reichl (editor-in-chief at Gourmet , food writer, and author of Culinary Memoirs)
- Julia Child (the late great American food icon)
I chose these four amazing women because they have been a part of my everyday life for quite some time, and I also look up to these women because of the great things they do for the food world and America in general.
Dorie Greenspan is one of those authors and culinarians that I LOVE to read. Her writing is easy to enjoy, well thought out, and she has a style of cooking and baking that is second to none. It’s hard to believe that this successful author and baker started her career by burning down her parents’ kitchen at the age of 13. Her newest book Baking: From My Home to Yours is, in my opinion, the only book a baker needs. Her recipes are amazingly written and easy to follow, and I have not made a bad thing out of that book. Cooking from a Dorie book is like cooking from a family recipe box – comforting, enjoyable, and satisfying. In 2004, Dorie was inducted into the Who’s Who of Food and Beverage by the Beard Foundation and has won FIVE (count ‘em…five) Beard awards for her books. However, the reason I chose her to be my “mother” is her pure unadulterated passion and love for her craft. She’s also cute as a button to boot!
Lynne Rosetto Kasper, ahhh where do I begin? I love the woman; that is the easiest way of saying it. She and I geek out to food in the exact same way. You know she is in love with her career and subject choice just by hearing it in her voice. Her passion for cooking and food goes beyond recipes and new culinary techniques. She has a love for slow food and traditional culinary principles that I admire. Lynne’s weekly public radio program, The Splendid Table, is something I look forward to and wait to download on iTunes every Saturday. When I listen to Lynne’s show, I am in most cases entering my “culinary happy space” and just enjoying each interview, thought, or recipe she has to offer. Her voice is a comforting and warm tone that I relax to from week to week. In my dreams I would love to be locked in a kitchen with Lynne for weeks on end with amazing products and just cook, eat, and talk and solve a few world’s problems in the process. Just a little side note… I do a really kick-ass impression of Lynne. You know what they say about impersonation.
Ruth Reichl is an American icon. Ruth is who I want to be when I grow up. I do realize that at 27 I am pretty grown up, but this woman holds a place near and dear to my heart. The best way I think I could describe my take on Ms. Reichl is to call her an ingenious culinary free spirit. She seems to march to the beat of her own copper pot and makes a lasting impression while doing so. You name it, Ruthie’s done it – chef, critic, writer, editor, restaurant owner. She can do it all, and boy has she ever. Her love of food comes through in everything she does. When I first read Tender at the Bone, it was then that I truly realized food can be written about as a memory and it honestly can have a life changing affect on us. I love Gourmet and have loved it ever since I was a kid. I grew up with it. It was one of the first magazines I can remember thinking “oh, this is the life for me.” Although I think it was Ruth’s love for food and lack of fear that made me fall in love with her, her free-spirited culinary views on life have made me continue to read her.
Julia Child. I really don’t know what to say about Julia. She is the first TV chef I can remember seeing on TV. I would sit in front of the TV at home and be drawn in to her almost magical cooking style and be transported to a place like no other. I still hear her saying “with your impeccably clean fingers” in the back of my mind. I only wish I had been born earlier in life so I could have gotten more of a taste of her. I am fascinated by Julia Child and very jealous that Dorie Greenspan got to co-write a cookbook with her. I am sure Dorie could talk about Julia in great detail, but Julia was not scared of butter, or cream, or life… and THAT deserves a spot on my list for sure. Mastering the Art of French Cooking was the first cookbook I purchased when I started to collect culinary books. I still pull it out from time to time and put my twist on a Julia classic.
I have to say my own mother is my number one and has helped me embrace the foodie that I am today. Without her I would not have cooked as much as I do. I however also want to thank my pretend mothers for doing what they do and following the career paths that they have. Without them I would be bored shitless. So thanks Linda (my mom), Dorie, Ruth, Lynne, and Julia for making me not only obsess about food but also think about it in totally different ways. please see the following video. this is how i will always remember Julia.
The French Chef Julia Child’s Chicken
Happy Early Mothers Day!!!
I am blessed (and cursed) to be born on April Fools day, a VERY fitting birthday for me. Being a baker and what some would call a “cake snob”, I opted to make my own birthday cake cake… again… Nothing against my friends and co-workers, I just enjoy being in my kitchen and coming up with a cake that represents me and my current tastes and obsessions at the moment. As I was driving home from work yesterday, I was a ball of childlike wonderment coming up with what I wanted to make for birthday 2009 (God, I am getting too close to 30 for comfort, ha ha ha ). I knew it was going to be a banana cake base, but beyond that I was open for suggestion. I needed eggs for the banana cupcake, so I went to the grocery store looking for inspiration and decided I would make a traditional banana cupcake (ala’ joel with homemade vanilla bourbon extract and baby ice cream bananas) and pair it with a Nutella Cream Cheese buttermilk frosting. As you can see they turned out to be pretty damn cute, and I guess we will see what they end up tasting like… Here is the recipe if you want to celebrate my birthday with me today 
Hi. I’m Joel. life long foodie and most recently Food Columnist. I have started 
