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How did your career as a writer begin?
I left a career on Wall Street to become a writer in 2018. The first full time job I had was at Food52, where I was hired to split my time between writing and recipe development. I left in late 2019 so I could split my time between journalism (I cover culture, restaurants, and food, mostly, and often for The New York Times and New York Magazine), screenwriting, and books.
Tell us about your new cookbook-slash-book of reported culture essays, OBSESSED WITH THE BEST!
OBSESSED WITH THE BEST is an ode to obsession. The cookbook and book of culture essays pairs deeply reported deep dives into 24 different techniques or dishes to arrive at battle-tested recipes with stories of people who are so compelled with “the best” that they can focus on little else. The recipes are punctuated with reported essays on people, places, or things obsessed with “the best”—be it a bacon evangelist from Iowa who flies annually all the way to Kofu, Japan, to throw a “Porktober Fest” in the middle of a seasonal celebration of a feudal lord, or an international spin through dueling ramen festivals. I believe in food not just as garnish for a story, but as the story itself: a lens for talking about family, travel, longing and the absurd human need to crown something “the best.” I walk you through exactly how to arrive at perfect bodega-evoking Crispy-Chewy Bacon, No Special Equipment Fluffy Pancakes, Actually Manageable French-ish Buttercream, Juicy Roast Chicken to impress even the fiercest poultry critic in your life, and beyond — and meanwhile, I interrogates her own urge to do exactly that. I share more than 100 recipes grounded in minimalist techniques that maximalize flavor, and based on reporting trips around the world to learn, say, the secrets of fresh pasta from nonnas and sfogline across Italy, or the most foolproof way to get your biscuits to rise from Scott Peacock in Alabama’s black belt.
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What’s your favorite part about the New York creative culinary community?
Having friends who are not only willing to engage with me for a three-hour discussion of deep minutiae, but who claim to enjoy it.
How does your varied background in wall street, comedy & test kitchens inform your writing?
All of the writing I do, whether journalism, screenwriting, fiction, or recipe-writing, informs the rest! The deeper I get into any modality, the more I see that — a feature is not as far from a scene (or series of scenes) in a screenplay as you might think.
We love your experimentation in hosting themed dinner parties in your nyc-sized dining room. Which theme has been your favorite to host?
I can't pick just one! Can I say, a tie? Between FrenchGiving (mash-ups between French classics and Thanksgiving-fare), "tall and wide," and maybe the 1970s theme.
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