This week, hear from Lillian Li, author of the critically-acclaimed debut novel, Number One Chinese Restaurant. Centered around a multi-generational cast of characters in a Chinese restaurant in America, the novel weaves plots about family, love, and loss. Lillian tells Cathy about why it's exciting to be publishing a book about a topic that's such a fertile ground for narrative but hasn't been explored much yet - and why it's always important to see a Chinese waiter as human.

Episode 346: Number One Chinese Restaurant

Since 2009, Eat Your Words has covered what's new and happening in the world of food through its literature. A radio dispatch from Cathy Erway, founder of the blog Not Eating Out In New York, Cathy was joined by authors of books that you would want to eat up! From colorful cookbooks, to food memoirs, to exposés on the food industry, every conversation is full of meaty topics for discussion. 

Now, in 2023, Eat Your Words is proud to present its first limited-run series. We've partnered with John deBary, author of "Drink What You Want," to create a companion podcast that dives deep into the production of his newest cocktail book. "Saved by the Bellini" is all about 90's nostalgia. "Saved by the Bellini" includes over 65 recipes that celebrate the decade’s greatest pop culture moments, from cassette tape tunes and video game consoles to after-school snacks and OMG-it’s-back-again fashion. In this 7-episode series, John interviews the editors, illustrators, and cocktail innovators  who helped to make this book a reality.

Arts

Literature

Performing Arts

Design

Food

Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

When John got started in the cocktail world, Jim Meehan was his first boss at the acclaimed neo-speakeasy, PDT (Please Don’t Tell). Jim also wrote the foreword to John’s first book, Drink What You Want. The finale of this miniseries, this is a touching interview between two longtime friends and colleague, and ultimately ends up being as much of an interview of John as it is of Jim.

Bar Icon Jim Meehan

Editors are the unseen heroes of the publishing world, offering critical behind-the-scenes feedback that can take an author’s work from good to spectacular. Amanda has not only been John’s editor for both Saved by the Bellini and Drink What You Want, she’s also a dear friend. Here they chat about Amanda’s start in publishing, her editing process, and why she chose to focus on cookbooks.

Editor Amanda Englander

Julie Reiner is one of John’s bar heroes. Although he never formally worked for her, she had a tremendous impact on his career. In the course of his research for Saved by the Bellini, he came across a New York Times article from 2000 in which Julie was quoted for her Appletini recipe. Listen to them chat about Julie’s favorite Appletini spec and dive deeper into the actual bartending conditions in the 90s. (Spoiler alert: they weren’t as bad as everyone thinks!)

Bar Icon Julie Reiner

One of the most interesting references in Saved by the Bellini is to Melrose Place, the Beverly Hills 90210 spinoff that was one of the first primetime network shows to feature a gay character. Unbeknownst to many viewers at the time, Mel Chin led a group of conceptual artists to quietly install props into the show that referenced various societal issues like racism, alcohol use, and reproductive health. Here John interviews Mel about the origin story of the project and how it was a preview of our current easter egg-obsessed media habits.

Artist Mel Chin

A significant portion of Saved by the Bellini is devoted to the iconic movies that defined the decade. A few years before writing Saved by the Bellini, John read Best. Movie. Year. Ever: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen by journalist Brian Raftery. Listen to hear just how much of an impact Brian’s book had on John’s writing process, Brian’s reflections on journalism in the 90s, and why 1999 is the most “90s” year of the 90s.

Episode 346: Number One Chinese Restaurant

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