Salt & Spine

This week, we're excited to welcome Emily Kaiser Thelin to SALT + SPINE, the podcast on stories behind cookbooks.

Thelin is the author of Unforgettable: The Bold Flavors of Paula Wolfert's Renegade Life, a culinary biography of renowned cookbook author Paula Wolfert, featuring more than 50 recipes.

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Wolfert, who spent five decades writing about food and producing nine groundbreaking and hugely influential cookbooks, is credited for introducing couscous, preserved lemons, chicken tagine and countless other Mediterranean ingredients and recipes to American home cooks. In recent years, Paula’s relationship with food has taken on new meaning, as she adapts to living with Alzheimer’s.

“There’s a real craving now for cookbooks and life stories of real weight and [Paula’s] story is so renegade, and she’s such a self-made woman. I think it resonates on a lot of levels.”

Emily’s deep friendship with Paula was the framework for this truly unforgettable work, a deep dive into the story of Paula Wolfert’s life, the global cuisines she so lovingly and expertly adopted, and the lessons we can learn from her renegade life. From more than 50 interviews with Paula—as well as with those who she influenced, from Alice Waters and Thomas Keller to Diana Kennedy and Jacques Pépin—the cookbook and biography came together via crowdfunding on Kickstarter, and was photographed by Eric Wolfinger and edited by Andrea Nguyen.

We sat down with Emily at San Francisco's The Civic Kitchen cooking school to talk about the stories behind Unforgettable.

* Emily is the author of Unforgettable: The Bold Flavors of Paula Wolfert's Renegade Life.

* Who Is Paula Wolfert? A New Biography Gives an Answer, by Mayukh Sen // Food52

* Her Memory Fading, Paula Wolfert Fights Back With Food, by Kim Severson // New York Times

* Paula Wolfert on Her Inspiring New Biography-Cookbook, by Elyssa Goldberg // Bon Appetit

From the Vault with Celia Sack:

This week, we're excited to welcome chef James Syhabout to SALT + SPINE, the podcast on stories behind cookbooks.

Syhabout is the author of Hawker Fare: Stories & Recipes from a Refugee Chef's Isan Thai & Lao Roots, and the chef behind Oakland restaurants Commis, his two-Michelin star restaurant, and Hawking Bird, as well as the San Francisco restaurant Hawker Fare. (The original location of Hawker Fare in Oakland closed last year.)

PURCHASE THE COOKBOOK: Bookshop

Syhabout came to the U.S. as a 2-year-old, his family refugees from Laos fleeing after the Vietnam War, and settled in Oakland. After culinary school, Shyabout moved to Europe and trained in classical French techniques before returning to his roots: both his culinary roots and his Oakland roots.

“It was very important for me to write this book to pass on to my two kids, and have them have Lao food, and have them say, ‘Hey, yeah, our food is a little bit different… we eat from our hands… sticky rice is fantastic.’ You know, don’t shy away from it, like I did.”

Syhabout's first cookbook, Hawker Fare, features nearly 100 Lao and Thai recipes, including some from Hawker Fare the restaurant—from steamed bamboo-shoot casserole with pork belly and coconut milk cooked in banana leaf (Mok naw mai) to Lao green papaya salad (Tum som mak hoong).

We sat down with James at San Francisco's The Civic Kitchen cooking school to talk about the stories behind his first cookbook, Hawker Fare.

This week, we're excited to welcome chef Preeti Mistry to SALT + SPINE, the podcast on stories behind cookbooks.

Preeti is the author of The Juhu Beach Club Cookbook: Indian Spice, Oakland Soul, and the force behind the for-now-shuttered Juhu Beach Club restaurant.

A graduate of Le Cordon Bleu, Preeti worked in fine dining, and then as executive chef at the de Young Museum and Google before opening Juhu Beach Club. A short stint on the sixth season of Top Chef marked Preeti's national debut.‍

‍Preeti's first cookbook, The Juhu Beach Club Cookbook, highlights some of the best and most well-known dishes from the restaurant—from the famous Manchurian Cauliflower to the Pulled Pork Vindaloo Pav to the JBC Doswaffle, a hybrid between a South Indian dosa and a Belgian-style waffle.

We sat down with Preeti at San Francisco's The Civic Kitchen cooking school to talk about this cookbook-memoir, their influences, and Preeti’s philosophy behind running a restaurant.

SALT + SPINE is hosted by Brian Hogan Stewart and produced by Alison Sullivan, with support from Nina Earnest and Clara Hogan.

• Preeti is the author of The Juhu Beach Club Cookbook.
• Dear White Chefs: Stop Talking, Start Listening, by Korsha Wilson // Eater
• Preeti Mistry Is Shutting Down Her Restaurant, but She’s Not Going Anywhere, by Mayukh Sen // Munchies

Bonus SALT + SPINE Features:

• Recipe: Curry Leaf Coriander Shrimp Curry
• Excerpt: Preeti reads from Juhu Beach Club

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Our website is SaltAndSpine.com.

Find us on Patreon, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

We record Salt + Spine at San Francisco's The Civic Kitchen. Thanks to Jen Nurse, Chris Bonomo, and the Civic Kitchen team. Thanks to Celia Sack at Omnivore Books.

Our theme song was produced by Brunch For Lunch. For more music, visit soundcloud.com/BrunchforLunch.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

SALT + SPINE is hosted by Brian Hogan Stewart and produced by Alison Sullivan, with support from Nina Earnest and Clara Hogan.

• Nigella Lawson is the author of At My Table, How to Eat, Simply Nigella, How to Be a Domestic Goddess, and other cookbooks.
• Home Cooking Can Be a Feminist Act, by Nigella Lawson // Lenny Letter
• Nancy Silverton Cooks From Nigella Lawson's 'At My Table', by Charlotte Druckman // Food & Wine

Bonus SALT + SPINE Features:

• Recipe: Chocolate Olive Oil Mousse
• Excerpt: Nigella reads from At My Table

Apple Podcasts | GooglePlay

Our website is SaltAndSpine.com.

Find us on Patreon, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

We record Salt + Spine at San Francisco's The Civic Kitchen. Thanks to Jen Nurse, Chris Bonomo, and the Civic Kitchen team. Thanks to Celia Sack at Omnivore Books.

Our theme song was produced by Brunch For Lunch. For more music, visit soundcloud.com/BrunchforLunch.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"You cannot be powerful if you're not fed—and you should be able to feed yourself." –Nigella Lawson

We're thrilled to have home cook evangelist Nigella Lawson as our first guest on SALT + SPINE, the podcast on stories behind cookbooks.

You might know Nigella from her 10 hugely popular cookbooks—or from her TV shows like "Nigella Bites" or "Nigella Eats." For 20 years, Nigella has been producing cookbooks geared for home cooks, starting with her first book How To Eat, which is a staple worldwide and was called “the most valuable culinary guide published this decade” by the Sunday Telegraph.

She is the author of At My Table, How to Eat, Simply Nigella, How to Be a Domestic Goddess, among other cookbooks.

Nigella's latest work, At My Table, is a celebration of home cooking and includes over 100 accessible and delicious recipes—from the chicken and pea tray bake (which we loved) to Turkish eggs to a recipe for "subverting" that spiralizer in your pantry.

“It’s a celebration of home cooking," Nigella says. "But more, it’s a celebration of the freedom and the creativity of the home cook.”

We sat down with Nigella at San Francisco's The Civic Kitchen cooking school to talk about her continued approach to creating recipes that are delicious and accessible to home cooks, her reluctance to center books on a theme, and what lessons she has for home cooks across the globe.

Additional reading from this episode:

* Home Cooking Can Be a Feminist Act, by Nigella Lawson // Lenny Letter

* Nancy Silverton Cooks From Nigella Lawson's 'At My Table', by Charlotte Druckman // Food & Wine

EXCERPT:

"The food in this book—which comes from my kitchen, is eaten at my table, and will be eaten at yours—is the food I have always loved cooking. It doesn't require technique, dexterity, or expertise, none of which I lay claim to. Life is complicated; cooking doesn't have to be. It doesn't matter how many cookbooks I write or how many times I am erroneously called a chef, I will never be a professional. But then, no one needs qualifications to cook, or human beings would have fallen out of the evolutionary loop a long time ago. I cook, as you do, to feed myself, my family, my friends. A home cook is not a lesser being than a chef, though a markedly different one.

I hate hearing people describe themselves as 'just' a home cook. We may not have the technical proficiency of a chef, but why should this matter? We cook to bring pleasure, comfort, and flavor to life, to the table. This is not to say we operate in bumbling chaos, although I have learned over the years that I need a certain amount of this.

In a sense, a recipe is a way of finding order in the mess of life. It's a guide, something to hold on to. And because of this, it must always be reliable, and as exact as possible, even if cooking itself can never be a precise art."

Salt + Spine is hosted by Brian Hogan Stewart and produced by Alison Sullivan, with support from Nina Earnest and Clara Hogan.

Subscribe:

Apple Podcasts | GooglePlay

Our website is SaltAndSpine.com.

Find us on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

We record Salt + Spine at San Francisco's The Civic Kitchen. Thanks to Jen Nurse, Chris Bonomo, and the Civic Kitchen team. Thanks to Celia Sack at Omnivore Books.

Our theme song was produced by Brunch For Lunch. For more music, visit soundcloud.com/BrunchforLunch.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.